

42 CULTIVATION OF THE MULBERRY. 



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(December ;) all the other months of the year are proper 

 for that operation. 



Hemp or millet seed must be thinly sown to give shade 

 to the mulberry trees. Every year, the third day of the 

 third month, (April,) when the weather is clear or rainy, it 

 will be easy to discern the good from the bad. 



MANNER OF RAISING MULBERRY TREES. 



In a garden, surrounded by walls, (or hedges,) a place 

 well cultivated with the plough, or hoe, must be chosen, 

 and a square hole, about three feet wide must be opened. 



Liquid manure must be poured there, exactly like the 

 dwarf mulberry trees are planted, then a mulberry tree of 

 Khing, provided with all its branches, must be taken from 

 one of the squares where it has come from seed. It must be 

 raised up with its roots, by a spade, and planted in the 

 hole, in the manner above mentioned : after having pressed 

 and levelled the earth of the hole, with the surrounding 

 ground, a hill of light earth must be raised above each 

 stalk, to the height of one or two feet, and all around will 

 naturally be formed a circular gutter, (if it does not rain 

 it must be watered.) When the trunk of the mulberry tree 

 has attained the height of a tall man, the top of the tree 

 must be cut off, and the horizontal branches will then 

 grow more rapidly. Let it grow and extend itself, and 

 do not cut the new branches. In the spring they must not 

 be lopped, for after being cut, for several years the tree 

 will remain weak and unhealthy ; but in the twelfth month, 

 (January,) or the first month, (February,) of the follow- 

 ing year they may be pruned without injury. 



If the tree has been watered and cultivated in a proper 

 manner, in Autumn it will be as large, and as high, as those 



