MULBERRY FARM 







"Boxly," the beautiful estate owned by Frederick Winslow 

 Taylor, at Highland Station, Philadelphia, Penn., was known, over 

 a century ago, as Mulberry Farm. 



In 1803, the Count Du Barry, a friend of Joseph Bonaparte, 

 (brother of Napoleon), purchased the property, which even then 

 possessed historic interest, having been given by William Penn, In 

 1863, to Francis Daniel Pastorius, the founder of Germantown, Penn. 

 Du Barry was ail enthusiast both in landscape gardening and silk 

 culture. He laid out the grounds of Mulberry Farm in imitation of 

 the gardens at Versailles, France, with statuary, arbors, rare shrubs 

 and flowers. The wonderful rows of boxwood, covering an area of six 

 hundred feet, and still in a flourishing condition, are of his planting. 

 The apple trees, French russets, brought from his own country, are 

 standing today; and as their lack of vitality is becoming apparent, 

 they are to be grafted upon young trees. 



Hopeful for the success of the silk industry on his premises, Du 

 Barry planted the necessary trees, his Mulberry Walk surviving to 

 our own time as one of the features of the place. Two of the tiny 

 houses erected by him for the purpose of boiling the cocoons, still 

 remain, and between them is the old greenhouse, the front of which 

 he covered with French roses. But like other efforts at silk-raising 

 in the New World, his venture was doomed to failure, possibly on 

 account of unfavorable conditions of climate. 



MULBERRIES OF MCSHERRYSTOWN 



About the middle of the last century, interest in silk-culture in 

 America had a brief revival. In Connecticut, several communities 

 engaged in this business, and on Frankford Road, near Philadelphia, 

 Penn., a Dutch family conducted it on a large scale. 



A handsome avenue of mulberry trees leading to St. Joseph's 

 Academy at McSherrystown, Penn., remains to tell the tale of similar 

 endeavor. About 1850, they were planted there, by the Ladies of 

 the Sacred Heart, the Sisterhood in charge. The trees flourished, but 

 as often happens in the case of experiments, "the patients died," the 

 silk-worms that had been imported to feed upon their foliage, refusing 

 to thrive. 



But though failing to fulfill their intended mission, the mulberries 

 with their grateful shade, have for many a year added beauty and 

 charm to the old convent garden. And in their early youth, these 

 trees witnessed stirring scenes. McSherrystpwn is practically on the 

 boundry between the North and South, and during the days of the 

 Civil War, soldiers passed through the little town on their way to 

 Gettysburg, Penn. 



Pupils at the convent watched them straggling by, ragged and 

 footsore, and offered the men their own supper, eagerly handing it 



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