96 NATURAL HISTORY. [cH. V 



fourpence a day for hard work at hemp, flax, anfi 

 wool, the reputation of mulberries will spread in 

 England and other plantations. 



*' The leaves of the mulberry should be gathered 

 from trees of seven or eight years old — if of such 

 as are very young, it impairs their growth, neither 

 are they so healthful for the worms, making them 

 hydropsical, and apt to burst — as do also the leaves 

 of such trees as are planted in a too waterish or 

 over rich soil, and where no sun comes — and all 

 sick and yellow leaves are hurtful. It is better to 

 clip and let the leaves fall on a subtended sheet or 

 blanket, than to gather them by hand, or strip them, 

 which mars and hurts the branches, and bruises the 

 leaves, that should hardly be touched. Some there 

 are that lop off the boughs, and make it their pru- 

 ning ; and it is a tolerable way so it be discreetly 

 done, in the over thick parts of the tree ; but these 

 leaves, gathered from a separate branch, will die 

 and wither much sooner than those which are taken 

 from the tree immediately, unless you set the stem 

 in water. Leaves gathered from boughs cut off will 

 shrink in three hours, whereas those you take from 

 the living tree will last as many days, and being 

 thus awhile kept are better than over fresh ones. 

 It is a rule never to gather in a rainy season, nor to 

 cut any branch while the wet is on it, and therefore 

 against such suspected times you are to provide 

 beforehand, and to reserve them in some fresh and 

 dry place. The same caution you must observe 

 for the dew, though it do not rain, for wet food kills 

 the worms. But if this cannot be altogether pre- 

 vented, put the leaves between a pair of sheets, 

 well dried by the fire, and shake them up and down, 

 till the moisture be drunk up in the linen, and then 

 spread them to the air a little, on another dry cloth, 

 you may feed with them boldly. The top leaves 

 and oldest should be gathered last, as being most 

 proper to repast the worms with towards the last 



