CHAP. X VILLA GAEDENING 289 



flowers, it is a good plan to cut branches from the commou Nut, 

 which are fiu-uished with male blossoms, and suspend them on 

 the Filbert bushes to ensure fertilisation, and so obtain a crop. 



Varieties. — Red and Avhite Filberts, Frizzled Filbert, Kentish 

 Cob Nut. The late Mr. Webb, of Calcot, raised several kinds of 

 Coli Nuts, which I have heard highly spoken of 



The Mulberry. — -The black-fruited species (Morus nigra) is 

 the only one commonly grown in this country. It will thrive in 

 any good garden soil, and though, as a rule, hardy enough, yet 

 it suffers a good deal from frost in those extreme winters which 

 visit us occasionally. I never knew a Mulberry tree to be killed 

 outright, but the young wood on which the fruit is borne suffers 

 when exposed to a very low temperature, so that after a severe 

 winter the Mulberry crop is a light one. The tree lives to a very 

 old age, and so long as it possesses vigour enough to make and 

 ripen an annual growth it will bear good fruit ; but it does not 

 bear much early in life. It is not often that a Mulberry bears 

 much till after it has passed its twentieth year, unless some 

 dwarfing system of culture be adopted. 



Propagation. — Cuttings and layers form the readiest and 

 chief means of increase, and of these two methods the former is 

 the best. The cuttings should be taken from the upper fertile 

 part of the trees. They may be of any age, from the one-year- 

 old shoots, with a heel of two-year-old wood attached, to branches 

 of considerable size, sawn off any part of the tree from which a 

 large branch can be spared. To obtain fruiting trees early, have 

 the cuttings as large as possible, and plant their lower ends firmly 

 in a shady border, mulching the soil around them with manm-e, 

 and keeping it always moist. If cuttings 3 or 4 feet long, 

 and of eight or ten years' growth, can be procured, fruiting 

 trees may be obtained in a comparatively short period. Where 

 large cuttings cannot be had, we must fall back on the young 

 wood, with a heel of that which is older attached. These should 

 be cut about 8 inches long, and be planted firmly in rows 10 inches 

 apart, and 3 inches apart in the rows, burying all except the two 

 uppermost eyes, mulching between the rows with old leaf-mould, 

 or something of a non-conducting nature, for their shelter, and 

 to retain the moisture around them in dry weather. The autumn 

 is the best time to make and plant the cuttings ; but if they cannot 

 be planted so early, they must at least be cut off, trimmed, and 

 laid in the soil as soon as the leaves fall ; the work of healing 

 and callusing the wound preparatory to the formation of roots will 

 then begin. The second year the young plants may be transplanted 

 to the nursery rows, and encouraged to grow into handsome, 



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