AT NEW NORFOLK WILLOW RAISING for basket manufacture has been practised in the New Norfolk district for more than 30 years. Harvesting is now in progress. Willow Farm, a small plantation of trees in a rough area beside the River Derwent about two miles on the Hobart side of New Norfolk, has become a landmark ,for travellers on the Lyell highway.
Plantings of both imported stock and other willow shoots obtained from various centres in Tasmania were made originally by the late Mr. L. Bridges, founder of the firm of Bridges Bros., Hobart. Rigid cutting over the past 30 years has kept the parent trees well in control.
Instead of growing into big unshapely trees they, as a result of the yearly pruning, have been kept down to a height of about six feet. Many of the trees in the area are now showing signs of decay because of the continual pruning, but others still continue to throw up vigorous shoots from their stumpy bases.
Even Growth A feature of the "crop" is the even, slender growth that is obtained in the shoots each year from the parent trees. Imported willows grown on the area are particularly good specimens. They can be tied almost in. tight knots and are the ideal for all types of basket manufacture.
Apart from the willow farm area willows are being harvested from Lachlan Park Hospital property at New Norfolk. The willows are growing along a small creek bed on the farm, and they require trimming each year to keep them in reasonable bounds.
More than 500 bundles, each weighing 50lb will be harvested in the New Norfolk area within the next fortnight. They will be used for making baskets and light furniture in Tasmania.
Long: slender willow shoots harvested from New Norfolk's willow farm. The willows will be used for the making of baskets and some light furniture by a Hobart firm.
............................
WILLOW CULTURE.
Mr. William Carson writes in the Melbourne Argus : — Too much stress cannot be
laid on the importance in those colonies of
the willow and its culture. If set about
in earnest, it quickly yields an excellent
return near a ready market, and is one of
the least troublesome crops a man can
grow,
The industry of basket-making is in its
infancy here, but it is steadily growing,
and with facilities for obtaining the raw
material will quickly attain large dimensions.
At present the only regular supply
of osiers is obtained from Tasmania, and
owing to their scarcity they are largely
supplemented by the rattan cane imported
from India. Frequently the inmates of
;our blind asylums who practice the art of
' basket-making are kept idle from want of
material to work with.
'The following varieties of the willow are
good sorts to grow for the various uses in
dicated i— For basket - making — Salix
capre, S. vinimalis, S. germanica, S.
kerksii, S. ferruginea, S. purpurea; for
timber— Salix alba, S. larina, S. ccerulea,
S. alba, S. Bedfordiana. S. Russelliana ; for
hedges— Salix kerkBii, S. Purpurea, S. ger
manica ; for scenic effects or landscape
planting — the weeping the golden-stemmad
the purple-stemmed, and the silver
foliaged, with others, such as the pyramidal
and compaot-headed varieties, may be used.
All the varities give a .wood, the charcoal
of which is used for gunpowder, none other
—not oven the alder — being equal to it for this purpose.
They grow readily from cuttings or truncheons of wood from one to three years old.
.
To grow them as trees these must be
planted closely, say 3ft. apart each way,
giving 4,840 to the acre, and be allowed to
remain at that distance for the first six or
eight years, when they may be thinned out,
every alternate one being taken out, thus
leaving the trees 6ft. apart each way ; the
resulting wood being very saleable for
many uses.
At the end of twelve years
another thinning out may be effected,
giving very valuable wood, and leaving the
trees say 12ft. apart which will be ample
room for the full development of the tree
.for timber purposes. The distances named
are suited for the Bedford, the white Huntingdon, the Russelliana, and other
yarieties grown for their wood.
It cannot
be too.often repeated that the willow will
not arrive at perfection or yield the best
wood in swampy undrained land. The tree
will grow on slopes and even on the tops of
exposed hills, and, indeed, in all places except morasses or water-logged land, and the
dry arid plains, with little or no rainfall.
With the progress of irrigation, oven those
places not suitable now will yield a profit
able and annually-increasing crop. There
are thousands of acres owned by our sheep farmers and others which might be planted
successfully — serving the double purpose of
shelter belts and ornamental plantations and
yielding timber which is yearly advancing
in value and appreciation, while to the far
mer who enters upon their systematic
growth for an annual yield of the basket
willow, it will prove a constant and never
failing crop.
A notice of this— the true
'commercial method of growing the basket
willow: for profit— will be interesting
to intending planters.
In the month of March, in the Midland
Counties of England, the waste twigs, and
the refuse of the unpeeled shoots up to
half an inch in diameter are tied up in
bundles or sheaves and cut with a hand
chaffcutter in lengths of about a couple of
inches.
A, large portion of these will be
without any bud and of course, will not
grow, but 25 per cent;, at least will have,
a bud. These are sown just as they are,
broadcast, about. six or eight bushels 'to'
the acre; or they are picked* over 'and
planted in drills 2ft apart, and 6in between
the cuttings.
The soil is previously well
manured in the autumn, left in fallow
during winter, and brought to a nice
friable tilth in the 'spring, ready for the
sowing or planting.
A heavy roller is
passed over the field when the planting or
sowing is finished. Any of the larger
weeds, such as docks arid thistles; 'are cut
or hand-picked, but the minor weeds are
Boon killed or smothered by the vigorous
growths of the young cuttings.
The crop
is cut in the month of November, after
leaf fall, and this may be taken with a
' bean-hook, or even with a strong-bladed
' mower or binder. After the harvest of
the first and second years the soil is harrowed, without at all harming the little
stumps, to keep down the weeds, and
every second year it receives a light dressing of superphosphates or of well-decayed
farmyard manure.
In the course of four years every second
plant may be cut out with an adze-like
hoe, and they may again be thinned two
years afterwards, from which time up till
15 years the yield will be a maximum
crop.
The straw-like yield of the first
year find a ready market in France and
Switzerland for the more delicate wicker
ware there fabricated ; but every succeeding year will give an increasing payable
crop of robust shoots for the English
market.
No comments:
Post a Comment