308 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



tree reached America in 1829 or 1830, by way of the nurseries of 

 Messrs. Prince, on Long Island, and in 1830 or 1831 it was intro- 

 duced intlo Massacliusetts by William Kenrick, author of the 

 "New American Orchardist^" The fame of the tree spread rapidly, 

 and there arose a fever of speculation such as has never been 

 known in any other horticultural venture in America. The records 

 of the next ten years read like fiction. Many nurserymen gave 

 up all other business that they might grow the mulberry, and 

 they realized several hundred per cent profit. Tlie secret of the 

 Chinese silk had been discovered and every available acre from 

 New England to the Gulf must be covered with the marvelous 

 herbage of this mulberry, and men must train their hands to 

 the breeding of the worms and spinning the silken threads! One 

 nurserymen, who is still living, went to the West Indies that he 

 might grow hundreds of thoiLsands of trees duinng the winter 

 season, so great was the haste for plants. From the thinly-settled 

 portions of the west the planters came eager for treevs aiti almost 

 any price, and even in Maine the demand was great.. Then came 

 the reaction. The market was supplied and soon overstocked. 

 A disease appeared. The winters of New England were too 

 severe. One man near Hartford lost nearly 10,000 rrees 

 from cold. Men lost their fortunes; and in 1839 the bubble 

 burst. One man near Philadelphia smld 250,000 trees at one 

 auction in the fall of that year. He realized thirty-one cents each 

 with a discount of seven and one-half per cent for cash. His buyers 

 were mostly from the west. The eastern men had groT\Ti cautious 

 before this. Other dealers sold for much less, and many had thou- 

 sands of trees left ujwn their hands. " The trees were sold, in some 

 instances, for a few cents each, and thousands, if not. millions, were 

 never replanted after they had been tfiken out of the ground in 

 the fall of 1839." So Moras multicaulis passed from sight and 

 the present generation knows nothing of it. No nurser^Tuan 

 grows it. The last specimen in the easts so far as any one knows 

 was cut down nearly ten years ago. It stood on the old battle 

 ground at Germantown. Only one tangible result of this great 

 contagion remains to us. Charles DoT\Tiing, whose name will 

 long remain a household word among those who love gardens and 



