286 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



13. Hilling tomaioes. — Hilling tomato plants, during two years, has 

 given no favorable results. 



14. Trimming tomato plants. — Trimming the plants after they have 

 made a good growth in the field gave no advantage this year, and it is 

 doubtful if it is advisable. 



15. Single-stem training. — This year, as last, single-stem training in the 

 field gave decidedly heavier yields to the square foot of land, and the crop 

 was earlier. 



16. Fruit-rot. — Rot was not serious this year, and it did not appear to 

 be influenced by methods of cultivation or varieties. 



17. Southern or field blight. — A new tomato disease appeared in our 

 plantation this year. It is probably a bacterial trouble which may become 

 serious. No remedy is known, but rotation of crop will probabl}^ check it. 

 It is characterized by a yellowing, curling, and drying of the leaves, which 

 finally become black and dead. 



18. Farie/tes.— Few varieties were tested in 189'i, and while they 

 possess merit, none of them appear to be destined to supplant varieties 

 already in existence. 



L. H. BAILEY, 

 L. C. CORBETT. 



MULBf^RRIEiS. 



The mulberry is a neglected tree. It possesses decided value in orna- 

 mental planting, and some of the varieties are useful for hedges, shelter- 

 belts, and small timber. The fruit has merit for the dessert, 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 mulberry can be grown 

 with profit for the market, because there is no demand for it, but it is cap- 

 able 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 intelligent discussion can be made of their horticult- 

 ural merits; but this subject 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 material appears only to have augmented the per- 

 plexities. Of all fruits cultivated in America, I think that none have so 

 meagre a literature as the mulberries. There is an abundant record of the 

 early attempts toward silk culture in this country and the mulberries which 

 were grown for feeding tlie worms, but with the failure of these attempts 

 the mulberry nearly passed from sight. There are men still living who 

 remember the " multicaulis craze '" of the thirties. Perrottet had intro- 



