Mulberries 



The mulberry is a neglected tree. It possesses decided value 

 in ornamental planting, and some of the varieties are useful for 

 hedges, shelter-belts and small timber. The fruit has merit for 

 the dessiert, and it is easily grown and is produced more or less 

 continuously throughout a period of two to four months of every 

 year. It is this value of the mulberry as a fruit-bearing tree 

 which I particularly wish to discuss in this paper. Perhaps there 

 is no immediate prospect that the midberry can be grown with 

 profit for the market because there is no demand for it, but It is 

 capable of adding so much to the charm of the home garden and 

 orchard that I desire to urge it upon the attention of every land 

 owner. The botanical relationships of the various forms are also 

 perplexed and they demand attention before any iatelligent dis- 

 cussion can be made of their horticultural merits but this sub- 

 ject is so difficult that' I enter upon it with caution. No group 

 of cultivated plants has bothered me more, and three years of 

 study and collection of materials appears to have augmented 

 the perplexities. Of all fruits cidtivated in. America, I think 

 that none have so meager a literature as the mulberries. There 

 is an abundant record of the early attempts towards silk culture 

 in this country and the mulbeiTies which were grown for feeding 

 the worms, but with the failure of these attemi)t8 the mulberry 

 nearly passed from sight. There are men still living who remem- 

 ber the " multicaulis craze " of the thirties. Perrottet had intro- 

 duced a new mulberry into France from the Phillipines ia 1824, 

 the large leaves and rapid growth of which at once attracted the 

 attention of all silkgi'owers. It turned out that this tree had 

 come originally from China and was the source of the famous 

 Chinese silk. Perrottet called it Moms multicaulis from its habit 

 of branching or sprouting from the surface of the ground. This 



