E. J. BUTLER. 9 
stripped of the greater part of their young leaf-bearing wooc 
during the rearing season. The sudden loss of a large proporticr 
of leaf so affects the upward current of water and food materia 
from the soil that the younger tissues of the twigs dry up and di 
of inanition. 
This over-plucking affects chiefly the younger trees, as th 
older are not so easily denuded. ‘Trees of all ages are, however 
injuriously affected by the manner in which the branches ar 
gathered. If the cutting were done with a proper implement s« 
as to secure a clean-cut surface on the part attached to the tree 
the wounds would be rapidly occluded and strong young shoot 
would be thrown out below the point cut. As a matter of fact 
clean cuts are the exception rather than the rule, and much of th 
crop is apparently obtained by the simple method of breaking th 
twig in the hand, leaving naturally jagged splinters and wound 
behind. ‘The parts immediately around and below these wound 
rot and die as with any other tree, and the buds just below th 
portion removed, whence the next season’s leaf should come, ar 
often killed outright or injured. Numbers of twigs of the curren 
year’s growth may be seen springing from the margins of ol 
ragged wounds, and these bear, as might be expected, small feebl 
leaves and show a tendency to die back from the tip. 
Unoccluded, jagged wounds with dead splinters attached, o 
just the sort that will most readily allow of intection by a woun 
parasite, the presence of the latter on dead twigs attached to th 
trees, numbers of weakly shoots arising from the injured branches 
these are the conditions which are common in the mulberries of th 
silk-worm rearing villages, and which constitute a real danger t 
the industry. That under favourable conditions the twig fungus i 
capable of causing great damage, is evident from the experienc 
in the nurseries in 1906. The two years that have intervened ma: 
be taken to be years when conditions were against the parasite ; th 
nurseries have practically escaped, though the losses in the vil 
lages are appreciable. Heavy injury to older trees was not reportec 
in 1906, but would not be so likely to attract notice as in th 
nurseries ; there is no reason to believe, however, that the forme 
