OSIER, the common term under which are included the va rious species, varieties and hybrids of the genus Salix, used in the manufacture of baskets. The chief species in cultivation are: Salix viminalis (the common osier) and S. triandra, S. amygda lina, S. purp-urea and S. fragilis, which botanically are willows and not osiers. The first named with some 4o of its varieties, formed until recent times the staple basket-making material in England. It is an abundant cropper, sometimes attaining on low-lying soils 13 ft. in height. Full-topped and smooth, it is by reason of its pithy nature mainly cultivated for coarse work and is generally used as brown stuff. Some harder varieties, known as stone osiers and raised on drier upland soils, are peeled and used for fine work. S. fragilis, with some half-score varieties, is almost exclusively used by market gardeners for bunching greens, turnips and other produce. Owing to the increased demand for finer work much attention has been given (see BASKET) in recent years to the cultivation of the more ligneous and tougher species, S. triandra, S. purpurea and S. amygdalina with their many varie ties and hybrids.
It is commonly supposed that osiers or willows will prove remunerative and flourish with little attention on any poor, wet, marshy soil. This is, however, not the case. No crop responds more readily to careful husbandry and skilful cultivation. For the successful raising of the finer sorts of willows good, well drained, loamy upland soil is desirable, which before planting should be deeply trenched and cleared of weeds.
At any time, from late winter to early spring, the ground may be planted with "sets," i.e., cuttings of about 9 to 16 in. in length, taken from clean, well-ripened rods. These are firmly set to within 3 to 6 in. of the top in rows, 16 to 20 in. apart and spaced at intervals of 8 to 12 in. Yearling sets are largely planted, but the practice of the best Midland and west of England growers proves the superior productiveness of sets cut from two yearling rods. Great care should be exercised in planting lest the bark be frac tured, loosened or removed from the wood and if not subject to periodical alluvial floods the ground should be manured yearly. The coarser S. viminalis may be raised on lowland soil if not water-logged or marshy. The more valuable kinds are known as : New kind, Black mauls, Spaniards, Glibskins, Long-bud, Long skin, Lancashire red-bud, French, Italians, Pomeranians and Coun cillors and scores of other local names. A hybrid of S. viminalis and S. triandra, known as Black-top has been found to produce the heaviest crops on the best Leicestershire grounds.
Cutting and binding take place in early winter after the fall of the leaf, the crop being known as green whole stuff. The coarser kinds are sorted, cured (dried in the sun and wind) and stacked ready for market. These are known as brown rods. The finer kinds, after the more shrubby or ill-grown rods, termed Ragged, have been rejected, are peeled or buffed. Two methods of strip ping are chiefly practised: from the heads (sets) and from the pit. By the former method the rods are left on the ground until spring advances, when a rapid growth of the cork cambium be gins. They are then cut direct from the head and the bark is
easily removed by drawing the rods through a bifurcated hand brake of smooth, well-rounded steel, framed in wood. Improved brakes worked by a treadle strip two rods at a time. For the smaller sizes, rubber brakes are sometimes used and, for the very smallest, the fingers either bare or protected by linen bands. This method ensures a clean-butted unfractured rod, but unless great judgment is exercised in selecting the proper time for cutting the rods will remain double-skinned and the head may bleed. By the "pit" process the green rods are stood upright in shallow pits of water at a depth of about 6 to 9 in. until the sap rises and growth begins, when they are ready for the brake. The defects of this method are that the tops are liable to split in the brake and the butts to remain foul. A third, known as the "pie" system, enables the grower to bridge over the interval, and to keep his hands em ployed, between the end of the "head" and the beginning of the "pit" strippings.
The willows are cut at the first indication of the sap rising and "couched" in rotton peelings and soil at a slight angle, the butts being on the ground, which should be strewn with damp straw from a manure heap. The tops are covered lightly with rotted peelings and by periodical application of water, fermentation is induced at the bottom, heat is engendered, the leaves force their way through the covering and peeling may begin. Peeling is chiefly done by women and lasts from early May to the middle of July, but a motor peeler has recently been introduced in some osier grounds. After stripping, the rods are bleached in the sun and stored for sale as White. If the rods are to be buffed they are immersed in large tanks of boiling water from 4 to 6 hours. They are then allowed to cool and mellow, are stripped and carefully dried in sun and air and remain dyed a rich tawny brown or buff colour. Brown rods may also be buffed by sinking them in cold water which is heated to boiling point, and main tained at that temperature for the requisite period.
In its natural habitat the osier or willow is a dioecious plant reproduced by cross fertilization but for at least 2,000 years has been cultivated from cuttings. The stocks have therefore become enfeebled; their cultivation is attended with many disturbing causes—ground vermin, fungoid and insect pests as well as winter floods and spring frosts. A suggestion made to the British Min istry of Agriculture and Fisheries by the present writer that under suitable conditions improved stocks of basket willows could be raised by cross fertilization and their disease-resisting power strengthened has been actualized and experiments in this direc tion are being carried out at the Long Ashton Research Institu tion, Bristol.
See W. P. Ellmore, The Cultivation of Osiers and Willows, 2nd ed.; also a leaflet (No. 36) on the same subject published gratis by the British Ministry of Agriculture. (T. 0.)