62 CULTIVATION OF THE MULBERRY. 



beginning of the planting, instead of the manures indicated 

 above, aquatic plants and cotton seed should be used. The 

 roots will be kept warm, and the tree will grow rapidly. 



According to an author named Siu-kouang-ki, a paste of 

 beans, hemp, or cotton seed, of hog, sheep, cow, or horse 

 manure, may be used. 



At the commencement of Spring the branches will grow 

 with rapidity. The small dried boughs must be lopped off. 

 When a tree is low and small, its roots must be opened, and 

 surrounded with mud ; without it, the leaves will grow 

 slowly, and they will become thin and destitute of juice. 



When the branches are laid down in the ground to make 

 layers, they rot if the ground is damp ; but if the ground is 

 warm the roots soon grow. It is more advantageous to re- 

 produce the mulberry trees by layers than by seed. 



There is an insect called sang-nieou^ that does a great 

 deal of injury to mulberry trees. Its nest must be looked 

 for in the cracks of the bark, and some oil of the tree thong, 

 (bignonia tomentosa,) poured upon it, the insect is immedi- 

 ately destroyed. 



Some persons make use of the plant pou-mou-tsao, the 

 leaves of which resemble those of the bamboo. This plant 

 is boiled, and with the decoction the leaves attacked by this 

 insect are watered. Leguminous plants may be cultivated 

 among the mulberry trees. 



The kind of tree called yang must not be planted in the 

 mulberry nursery. The cracks in the bark give refuge to 

 a great number of insects, which eat the epidermis of the 

 mulberry trees, and there place their nests where their eggs 

 will be hatched. Siu-kouang-ki says to the contrary, that 

 these trees must not be banished from the nursery of mul- 

 berry trees ; only great care must be taken to destroy the 

 insects they harbor. 



