314 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Tlie irritation which, the Russian mulberry has produced 

 reminds one of the multicaulis fever of sixty yearn ago, but it is 

 far less seiious and widesprea/i than thait disease. This Russian 

 Mulberr}' has suffered fmm indiscriminate and exaggerated praise. 

 Save an occasional spoi't, it has no merit foi' fruit, unless it 

 serves to attract bii'ds fi*om cherries and other fruits, but even 

 tliis is a pi'oblematicrtl advantage. In the east, at least, it has no 

 merits for timber, as it is too small and gi-ows too slowly. In the 

 }>rairie soils of the west it often grows into respectable post 

 timber in a short time. ]\Ir, I. Horner, of Emi>oria, Kansas, 

 writes as follows, coneeming it: 



" It has been said that this ti-ee is only a bushy shrub. I here 

 exhibit to you a section of a Russian mulberiy tree five yeai-s old, 

 and which has been grown in a shelter belt and overshadowed 

 with Cottonwood trees. It is five inches in diameter, and, as you 

 see, a nice, straight and smooth trunk eight or nine feet. long. 

 Another year's growth would make it suitable for pcxsts. I 

 measured one tree Avhich gave a circumferance of thirty-seven 

 and one-half inches at a point two and a half feet albove the 

 ground, and which was only eight years old. * * * It is one 

 of the very best trees for shelter belts and fence posts. From a 

 hedge-ix>w fifteen rods long, I saw 200 nice fence ix>sts cut. The 

 ww>d is verv durable. * * * It is a tree for fuel, shelter and 

 posts for the western prairies." "There is a vast difference in 

 character of growth and quality of fruit. Most trees sold by 

 nurserjiiien have been gTown from seed gathered from mulberry 

 hedges and trees, with no regard to quality of tree, anjd which 

 naturally generates a large per cent of inferior stock. These may 

 be known by a dis])osition to branch freely close to the gi'ound, and 

 a diiooping inclination of their growth. They bear small notched 

 leaves, and very small insipid fruit." *' Shelter belts should be 

 ooDstructed in rows trvvelve to sixteen feet apart, tand the trees 

 from two to four feet in the row. When three years old, cut all 

 level with the ground. From their roots will spring up a strong 

 and rapid grtywth of shoots. Remove all but the strongest to 

 each tree. After two years, thin out as may be desired." 



