CULTIVATION OF THE MULBERRY. 41 



and which are afterwards cultivated, according to the rules 

 we have already prescribed. 



Three years after their planting, the new mulberry trees 

 spring up with vigor. When the branches of mulberry 

 trees are cut to nourish the silk worms, only one branch 

 above the foot of the old mulberry tree must be cut. It 

 is planted, and at the expiration of a year, it will have 

 taken root ; afterwards these plants must be taken up, and 

 carried elsewhere to form rows of mulberry trees. In this 

 manner the mulberry trees are propagated infinitely. But 

 when the branches of the mulberry trees of Lou are cut to 

 feed the silk worms, their thread has little strength and 

 suppleness. It would be better to plant, in a suitable pro- 

 portion, the mulberry trees of Kkingi; their leaves are 

 used to feed the silk worms, after the third moulting, 

 when the leaves of the other mulberry trees have failed. 

 [Sse-nong-pi-yong. ] 



THE FAVORABLE SEASON FOR PLANTING. 



Attention ought to be paid to the season, and the quali- 

 ties of the soil. The ten days that precede and follow the 

 period called Tchun-feu, (the 21st of March,) and the whole 

 of the tenth month, are the most favorable periods. In 

 the ten days that precede and follow the time called 

 Tchun-feu, (the 21st of March,) the trees begin to revive; 

 for that reason it is better to plant the mulberry trees then. 

 This is done, in countries situated to the east of Lo-yang, 

 in an extent of a thousand /, (hundred leagues.) In other 

 countries their seasons ought to be conformed with. The 

 mulberry tree grows easily ; and its vegetative life is sus- 

 pended, and it ceases to push only in the eleventh month, 

 6 



