£175 3 48 



and particularly those that terminate branches:* these will certainly 

 produce straight and handsomo trees; while cuttings taken from hori>. 

 zo^'.tal branches, will ever liave an inclination to grow in a spreading 

 manner. The cuttings should be of the last summer's shoots, and 

 from six to fifteen inches in length, Piant them in rows, in shady 

 borders, early in the spring, and about two-thirds their length in the 

 ground; close the earth well about them, and in dry weather let them 

 be watered. After a year, they may be transplanted into open nur- 

 sery rows, if well rooted. 



6. Slickers. — These may be separated from the parent plants early 

 in the spring, each with some roots, and planted either in nursery 

 rows for a year or two, or the largest in the place intended for them 

 permanently. It is essential for the success and quick growth of 

 young plants, that the giound around them should be hne, so thai the 

 tender roots may not be obstructed in their progress. Slugs and 

 SNAILS are very destructive to mulberry plants, and will eat down 

 numbers of them in one night, and, in a moist season, will ruin a nur- 

 sery, if not prevented. To prevent their depredations, surround the 

 beds with soot, hot lime, or ashes, sprinkling a fresh parcel when they 

 have been wet with rain; bui no soot should be put on the berls, being 

 too acrid for the plants. If the insects appear, destroy them after sun- 

 set. Mr. Pulleint says the best defence against them is a hair rope, 

 which should be trimmed so as to be made as bristly as possible; this 

 being pinned to the ground round the. border of the bed, will so piick 

 their tender skins that they would not venture to cross it. 



In order to secure early food for silkworms, the cultivator should 

 plant a hedge of mulberry trees, or a few young trees in a warm situa- 

 tion. In the spring they should be covered with straw, or any other 

 way, at night, to prevent injury from frost. As the white mulberry 

 tree grows readily, with proper care,:^ they may be easily multiplied. 

 They m.ay be planted along the fences of a farm, and if the branches 

 be wattled through the rails, they will form an impenetrable hedge, 

 and the fence will never require renewing. A great advantage will 

 attend such a hedge, viz: the ease with which the leaves can be ob- 

 tained: the avoidance of falls by young persons from large trees, is 

 another consideration in favor of propagating mulberry hedges. This 

 accident may also be prevented by annuall}' pruning the trees, and 

 restraining their upright growth to the extent they are commonly per- 

 mitted to attain. The quantity and quality of the leaves will also be 

 •thus greatly increased. Practical writers, particularly Sauvage, dwell 



* These are termed cock-shools by gardeners. 



I On the culture of silk. Loiidrn, 1758, p. 32. 



■• A number of these trees, which were plnnted by the late Joseph Cooper, of New 

 Jersey, measured from twenty to twenty-six inches in diameter, after standing' twen- 

 ty-three years. — Mem. Phila. Soc. for Prom. Agric. vol. 5, p. 190. The MS. jour- 

 nal, left by the Rev. Mr. Baltzius, of the German settlement of Fibenezer, Georgia, 

 imder date of Marcli, 1757, mentions, that two trees in front of the Parsonage, 

 whicb had been planted ten years before, measured three feet eight Indies in cir- 

 c4;m^erence. lie saw another five years old, v/hich measured two feet round the 

 trunk. 



