Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/438

422 work, and the light pony basket carriages in general use are the representatives of the Continental Holstein waggon of the early part of the century, which was a two-horse bas ket carriage of considerable size. In Berlin and Kiel there now exist large factories of &quot; Korb MSbel,&quot; devoted to the manufacture of basket-work chairs, tables, stands, frames, screens, &c., and the use of this description of furniture is very general in Continental houses. The materials which are actually employed in the con struction of basket-work are numerous and varied, and to the principal of these allusion will be made below. As it is, however, from various species of willow that the largest supply of basket-making materials is produced, we shall first confine our attention to this source. Willows for basket-work are extensively grown in Holland, Belgium, France, and Germany, whence large quantities are exported to Great Britain and even to the United States. The willows of France are highly esteemed by basket-makers as firm, clean rods ; and the Dutch produce are lowest in value, being soft and pithy. No Continental rods equal those of English growth for their tough and leathery texture, and the finest of all basket-making willows are now cultivated in large quantities in the valleys of the Thames and the Trent. It was only in the early part of this century that any considerable attention was given in Britain to the cultivation of willows suitable for basket-making ; and the industry was first stimulated by premiums offered by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures. Mr Phillips of Ely was one of the most successful early cultivators of willows, and to his exertions we owe the introduction of a valuable willow, the Brown Norfolk, Salix triandra. Mr Phillips s observations and experiments largely contributed to place the willow &quot;cultiva tion on a satisfactory commercial basis, and a similar service was rendered in Scotland by Mr Sheriffs ; but the systematic maintenance of willow holts has not been con tinued in Scotland. One of the most sucessful growers of willows at the present day is Mr William Scaling of Basford, Notts, who cultivates a salictum of about 100 acres in extent. Mr Scaling has the advantage of being a practical basket-maker, and the facts which follow regarding the growth and varieties of basket-willows are chiefly gleaned from his pamphlets on willow cultivation. The genus Salix, to which all willows and osiers belong, is extremely complex in its botanical characters, and the species and varieties, as systematically arranged, ara very numerous. Those cultivated for basket-making Mr Scaling divides into four classes. The first class, which alone get the name of willows among basket-makers, includes the rods of six or seven different species, all of which Mr Scaling classes with Salix frag His. The &quot; willows &quot; yield inferior basket-rods, having a tendency to throw out side- shoots which makes the rods &quot; rough.&quot; The second class comprises the osiers, including about forty varieties used by basket-makers all grouped around the osier, Salix viminalis, and these form the staple of basket-making materials. In the third class, which are known in the trade as &quot; Spaniards &quot; or Spanish willows, are included about thirty varieties which are classed under Salix amygdalina. The &quot; Spaniards &quot; comprise some of the most useful basket-willows, tho wood being more dense and elastic than is the case with osiers. The fourth class com prise the bitter willows, of which Salix purpurea is taken as the type, and the rods they yield are known as &quot; whip cord,&quot; &quot;swallow tail,&quot; or &quot;one-yard.&quot; These are the finest of all willows for basket-making, and owing to their bitterness they are not attacked by rabbits and hares, which frequently do much damage to all other varieties. It was long supposed that willows flourish nowhere but with abundance of water. Undoubtedly the osier class thrive well with a considerable degree of humidity, but a dry well-drained soil is best suited for all hard-wooded varieties. For the laying out of a willow holt, Mr Scaling recommends that the land should be well drained, cleared and tilled to a depth of about one foot. Willows are propa gated solely from cuttings, which retain their vitality long, and strike with great facility. The cuttings are made about 9 inches long, and two or three may be obtained from a single rod. They should be planted in rows from 16 to 18 inches apart, the plants in each row being placed at intervals of from 8 to 12 inches according to the size of the willow under cultivation ; and the entire length of the cutting should be pushed into the ground. The planting may be done at any time from late autumn to early spring during the period of plant rest, when the ground is free from frost. At the end of each year the shoots are to be cut down close to the ground, manure is laid on between the rows and ploughed in, and the soil should be kept as open and free from weeds as arable land. The produce of the first-year will, as a rule, be of little value; nevertheless, in Mr Scaling s opinion, it is .of consequence that the rods should be cut down. The second year s crop should yield a good return ; in the third year the plants are at their best, and for the ten following years they should exhibit undiminished productiveness, after which they gradually decline in strength. The entire cost of a salictum per acre Mr Scaling estimates, for the first year, at 33, 12s., and the return at 8, 12s. The outlay for the next two years he gives as 7, 5s. and 6, 15s., but the crops of these years should yield 17 and 22, just covering the cost of planting, which is the ordinary calculation of growers. The rods intended for basket-making are either taken entire, cut from the root, split asunder, or stripped of their bark, according to the work to be produced ; but in all cases they are previously soaked in water, and indeed sometimes boiled. The stripping is performed by drawing the willows through a bifurcated iron implement called a brake, which removes the bark, and the willows are then cleaned, as far as necessary, by manual operation with a knife. When they are boiled previous to peeling a very nice light brown colour is developed in the wood by the action of. the tannin contained in the bark, and rods thus prepared are much more durable than those peeled white. Next they are exposed to the sun and air, and afterwards placed in a dry situation. But it is not the less necessary to preserve willows with their bark in the same manner; for nothing can be more injurious than the humidity inherent in the plant ; and previous to use they must be soaked some days in water also. The barked or white osier is then divided into bundles or faggots according to size ; the larger being reserved to form the strong work in the skeleton of the basket, and the smaller for weaving the bottom and sides. Should the latter be applied to ordinary work, they are taken whole ; but for implements of slight and finer texture, each osier is divided into splits and skains of different degrees of size. Splits are osiers cleft into four parts, by means of an implement employed for that purpose called a cleaver, which is a wedge-shaped tool inserted at the point or top end of the rod and run down through its entire length. These are next drawn through an implement resembling the common spoke-shave, keeping the grain of the split next the iron or stock of the shave, while the pith is presented to the steel edge of the instrument, which is set in an oblique direction to the wood : and in order to bring the split into a shape still more regular, it is passed through anotherlimplement called an upright, consisting of a flat piece of steel, each end of which is fashioned into a cutting edge, like that of an ordinary chisel. The flat is bent round, so that the two edges approach each other at a greater or less interval by 