WILLOW, ECONOMICAL USES OF THE. The willow is applied to a very large number of useful purposes. The white willow, the weeping willow, and the osier willow, may be regarded as the types of three great classes, marking out three different kinds of applications. Taking them one with another, almost every part of the plant, in each of the three classes, is made available. The leaves of the growing tree furnish food for insects ; the flowers for the the young leaves and shoots for cattle, horses, and goats. Sometimes they are dried and stored for this last-named purpose. In the north of Europe the inner bark is dried, ground, and mixed with oatmeal for peasants' food in years of scarcity. Willow twigs are much used in rude states of society for bridles, boat-cables, fishing-tackle, and various household implements. The bark of the young shoots is woven by the Russians for the upper parts of their shoes ; while the outer bark serves for the soles. The outer bark as a material, and strips of the inner bark as a fastening, are much used for making baskets and boxes, and roofing houses. The bark, when steeped in water, may easily be stripped into fibres, and spun to make thread for cloth. The bark also yields a black dye, or tanning ingredient, and a medicinal agent. The wood of the willow is applied to many useful purposes. The timber of the larger trees is soft, smooth, and light. Its lightness led to its employment by the ancients in making shields. It has qualities which render it fitted to be used in making cutting boards for tailors and shoemakers ; sharpening boards for fine steel instruments, such as cork-cutting knives ; many kinds of turnery articles; shoemakers' lasts, &c. It is durable enough to form a good material for rafters in dry buildings, on account of its lightness. Its softness renders it applicable as a lining for waggons and carts intended to contain coal or stone, as it will not splinter from blows of hard angular materials. Being dur able in water, it is much employed for water-wheels, floats of paddle wheels, &e. Before the invention of iron hoops for cart-wheels, felloes were often made of red-willow wood, which speedily shod itself with small angular fragments of durable stone and gravel. The smaller portiOns of the wood of the trees are applied to an almost infinite variety of purposes. In some cases the straight stems of young trees,
either split or whole ; in some, the more vigorous shoots cut in two ; and in some, the smaller shoots—are thus employed. Styles for ladders, fencing-poles, hop-poles, vine-props, clothes-props, rake-handles, handles of various tools and implements, hurdles, crates, hampers, hay and straw ricks, barrel hoops, binders for brocoli and other vegetables when sent to market, binders for standard trees and shrubs, skeleton frames for plants, are all made in large quantities from the parts of the willow now under notice. Many ornamental articles are made from strips or shavings of the wood of the white willow. Such shavings are first obtained in thin layers by a cutting instrument, and then sepa rated into strips by a kind of steel comb having sharp teeth. The strips or ribbons are woven into a framework for bonnets and for light silk hats, and into a substitute for straw hats.
The downy substance which encloses the seed is in some countries used for wadding, and as a stuffing for cushions, beds, pillows, &c.
Some varieties of the tree are valuable when planted on the banks of rivers and canals, to retain the soil against the encroaching action of the water. Some kinds furnish good coppice, to be cut down every six or eight years for hoops, poles, and faggot-wood. The shrubby species make good hedges. The toppings, branches, and old trunks, when used as fuel, produce when dry a clear fire with little smoke. The wood produces excellent charcoal, especially for gunpowder.
Especially useful is one large group of willows, in furnishing the osiers for basket-making. The Dutch were the first to use osiers extensively for this purpose; the English imported the twigs from that country ; but early in the present century, chiefly through the encouragement atibrded by the Society of Arts, osier culture became extensive at home, and has ever since been continued. The osiers are cut in the form of rods. For coarse work they are used with the bark on ; but for finer work the rods are peeled before being made up into bundles. For some work, again, the rods are used whole ; while for others they are split or bisected. Some particular kinds only are known in the market as 081117 ; all the rest receive the general name of willows. For the mode of use, see BASKETS.