416 DECIDUOUS TREES. 



mania, and numerous later instances to show the lengths to which 

 enthusiasm may carry a whole community when united in pursuit 

 of a supposed quick means of realizing large profits. The silk of 

 all the world is made from the leaves of the mulberry. The Morus 

 multicaulis, it was claimed, was the best variety to feed to silk- 

 worms. It was zealously inculcated that silk-worms, and silk, 

 could be produced with great profit in this country. As food for 

 the worm must be grown before the silk could be made, it followed 

 that those who would profit by the production of silk at home must 

 hasten to provide themselves with plants of the Morus multicaulis ! 

 The result was one of the most amusing and profitless speculations 

 of this century. It is hoped, however, now that the national enter- 

 prise has stretched an iron band across the continent, and put us 

 into close connection with Japan and China, that we will profit by 

 the more patient skill, and the long experience of their people, and 

 induce them to develop on our soil this profitable branch of in- 

 dustry, unrepelled by social or race prejudices, or the spirit of caste 

 which is apt to be arrayed against them. 



One characteristic of the mulberry tree is a profusion of foliage, 

 which, being borne on broad low-branching trees, makes a deep 

 shade. It bears a sweet berry-like fruit from three-fourths of an 

 inch to an inch and a half in length, and of the diameter of the 

 common long blackberry, which it resembles in appearance. The 

 fruit of some varieties is delicious. When ripe it is apt to strew 

 the ground below the tree, and form a great attraction for bees and 

 flies. This fact, together with another, that the leaves are favorite 

 food for other worms besides the exotic silkworm, has prevented 

 the best species of mulberry from attaining that popularity for or- 

 namental planting, which their quick growth, domestic character, 

 deep verdure, and dense shade would naturally give them. They 

 are truly fruit-trees, and very beautiful ones. It is surprising how 

 rarely their fruit is offered in our markets, some of the sorts being 

 superior in flavor to the blackberry, and ripening with it, and 

 during a period of a month or more after blackberries are gone. 

 The tree is long-lived, and we have no doubt will yet make pro- 

 fitable orchards in some parts of the country. Poultry are par- 

 ticularly fond of the berries, and in the back court-yards of old 



