illows are largely cultivated in "little woods" for basket-making,
hoops, &c. Shoots of the _Salix caprea_ of only a year's growth are
large enough to be valuable for wicker-work. It appears to be held by
cultivators that the poorer the soil in which they are grown the oftener
these willows should be cut over. "In a good soil a coppice of this
species will produce the greatest return in poles, hoops, and rods every
five, six, seven, or eight years; and in middling soil, where it is
grown chiefly for faggot-wood, it will produce the greatest return every
three, four, or five years."

Horses and cattle are fed on the leaves of the willow in some parts of
France.

Willows are often "pollarded." That is, their tops are cut off, which
makes a large crop of young shoots spring out, giving a shock-headed
effect which in gnarled old pollards by river-banks is picturesque
enough.

The "little woods" of willow on the river Thames and the Cam are well
known. They are small islands planted entirely with willows, and are
called osier-holts.

Osier-beds of all kinds are very attractive "little woods." One always
fancies one ought to be able to make something of the long pliable
"sally-withys"--as the Wiltshire folk call willow switches. Indeed, as a
matter of fact, the making of rough garden-baskets is a very simple art,
especially on the Scotch and German system. Let any ingenious little
prowler in an osier-bed get two thickish willow-rods and fasten them at
the ends with a bit of wire, so as to make two hoops. These hoops are
then to intersect each other half-way up, one being perpendicular, to
form the handle and the bottom of the basket, the other being placed
horizontally, to form the rim. More wire will be needed to fix them in
their positions. Much finer willow-wands are used to wattle, or weave,
the basket-work; ribs of split osiers are added, and the wattling goes
in and out among them, and at once secures them and rests upon them.

This account is not likely to be enough to teach the most intelligent of
our readers! But one fancies that a rough sort of basket-making might
almost be devised out of one's own head, especially if he had been
taught (as we were, by a favourite nursemaid) to plait rushes.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: A corf is a large basket used for carrying coals or other
minerals in a mine.]

MAY-DAY,

OLD STYLE AND NEW STYLE.

"Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger,
Comes danci