WILLOW: The timber willow, the weeping willow, the osier willow, and many other kinds, render a singular variety of uses to man. The leaves, flowers, and young shoots are eaten as food by various domestic animals. The dried inner bark is mixed with oatmeal iu Norway. The twigs are extensively used in Russia and Sweden as thongs and cords. The bark is used in the same countries for shoes, buckets, boxes, roof coverings, and other articles; it is also used as a tanning ingredi ent and when separated into fibres it is woven into cloth.
The willow timber is soft, smooth and light; it is employed in making cutting boards for tailors and shoemakers ; for cork-cutters sharpening boards; for turnery ; for flooring and rafters ; for lining waggons and carts ; for paddle-boards, water-wheels, and small vessels and boats. The smaller timber and shoots are used for ladder-poles, hop-poles, vine-props, clothes-props, rake-handles, hur dles, crates, hampers, hay-racks, hoop-barrels. In France, hats are made from strips or shavings of the white willow. Sheets of woven material called Willow, consist of a fabric woven with fine strips of willow wood, subsequently stiffened ; they are in common use for the framework of bonnets, and of light or ' gossamer' hats. A downy substance
which envelopes the willow seed is used in Germany as a wadding for ladies' dresses. The willow makes very excellent charcoal.
The best known use of the willow, however, is in malting baskets. For this pm-pose the kind called osiers is chiefly selected. The principal plantations of basket-osiers in this country, and indeed in every other, are made along the banks of rivers and streams. In England the Theme and the Cam are the most celebrated in this respect; in both these rivers small islands are frequently planted entirely with osiers, and are called osier-kolts. There are many such islands in the Thames, between Reading and London. The largest plantation of these willows is near Reading. The most extensive willow plantations in fields (instead of river banks and islands) are in the fenny districts of Cambridge and Huntingdon counties.
The application of these willows or osiers is described under BASKET 1111.xmo.