100 FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



BEST FOOD. 



There are several varieties of the Mulberry, some of which are by no 

 •means adapted to the wants of the worm. I have tried in vain to rear it on 

 the leaves of our indigenous Red mulberry (^Morus ruhrci); but it either re- 

 fuses them entirely, or dwindles and soon dies upon them. Morus multicaulis 

 has been the most extensively planted in this country, but the wood is so 

 tender and the leaf so thin and delicate, in this vaj^iety, that it often gets in- 

 jured by our severe winters and strong winds. Morus alba, with its numer- 

 ous sub-varieties, and moretti furnish the best food. They delight in a light, 

 loamy and deep soil, and grow with great vigor in the West. There is a 

 dwarf variety, called the rose, which leafs out earlier than the others and 

 this is an advantageous character in our climate. 



The Mulberry propagates easily by cuttings or layers and is also readily 

 grown from seed. When grown in plantations for silkworm ^^urposes the 

 trees are best planted 8 or 10 feet apart and kept dwarfed^ so that a good 

 supply of 3'oung succulent leaves and shoots will always be in easy reach. 

 The tree needs a warm location and should bo at least two years old before 

 robbed of any leaves. Leaves grown in the sun, with but little moisture, 

 are the sweetest and make the best silk, and all which are yellow or 

 blighted should be discarded. Where irrigation has to be emploj'ed it 

 should be abandoned three or four weeks before feeding time. Where the 

 leaves only are plucked a few of the terminal ones should always be left. 

 In the silk-growing parts of Europe, though often grown in plantation or 

 •orchard, the trees are more frequently grown along roadsides and in all 

 sorts of out-of-the-way corners; and a second crop, not used for the silk- 

 worms, is carefully gathered just before the natural fall of the leaf in au- 

 tumn, and used as fodder for cattle, being very nutritious and high!}" es- 

 teemed for this purpose. 



Silkworms have been fed on the leaves of a few other plants, and es- 

 peciall}' on lettuce, which is very useful, in case of too early hatching, as the 

 worms do very well on it during the first age; but seldom attain the spin- 

 ning age upon it. Some varieties — more especially the inferior ones — take 

 more kindlj- to it than others. 



The mulberry leaf is exceedingly free from the attacks of noxious in- 

 sects. A species of woolly Aphis called Kuica jirami sometmieii covers the 

 leaves in Jajjan ; but no insect of the sort is known to attack them here. 



OSAGE ORANGE AS SILKWORM FOOD. 



The Osage orange (3Iaclura aurantiaca) first discovered by Lewis & 

 Olark in 1804 and named by Nuttal in honor of Wm. Maclure, the cele- 

 brated geologist, and founder of the Philadeljjhia Academy of Science, is 

 well known as a hedge plant in the West. At first sight it seems to have 

 little affinity with the Mulberry, but it belongs to the same botanical Fam- 

 il}- (Urticaceai),'sind next to the Mulberry furnishes the most palatable silk- 

 •worm food. This j^lant was first introduced into France in 1820, by M. 

 Cels, of Paris, who received it through Micliaux from M. LeEoi of Balti- 



