156 [ THE WHITE MULBIRRY 



heartwood of the mulberry is close grained, yellowish 

 brown beautifully veined with black, and takes a high 

 polish. The tree is among the earliest to ripen its 

 fruits. These are much relished by children and, as an 

 early fruit, the white mulberry is not undesirable for the 

 table, although owing to its sweet pasty taste it is rather 

 flat and insipid to many palates ; but it is quite healthy 

 and can be indulged in without ill consequences. 



The tree is propagated by seed and very rarely by 

 cuttings, and valuable varieties are propagated by 

 grafting or budding on own seedlings. Propagation by 

 seed gives the best results, and is that usually followed. 

 The seed should be selected preferably from trees which 

 are well fertilized by the presence of male trees in close 

 vicinity. The fruits are picked when they are perfectly 

 ripe, they are crushed or mashed together without 

 injuring the seed, and the pulp is washed in water, 

 when the seeds will fall to the bottom of the receptacle, 

 and are then collected and dried, the stalks being 

 afterwards separated by a sieve. The seed can be sown 

 at once, or may be stored in small cloth bags to be sown 

 in the following spring. The general practice with our 

 gardeners is to sow at once as soon as the fruits are ripe, 

 and instead of separating the seeds they resort to the 

 following process. The ripe fruits are squeezed together 

 and mixed with some garden soil or sand to form a paste 

 which is spread out to dry in the sun. It is then reduced 

 to a rough powder, and the seed along with the powder 

 is sown in small seed beds which have been well supplied 

 with rotten manure. The seed beds are laid out 

 preferably in a cool situation along the northern side of 

 a wall. They are then covered with dry twigs or foliage 

 to preserve the moisture, and are watered lightly but 

 frequently until germination has taken place, when the 

 covering of twigs is removed. Another process which 

 is still followed by the older gardeners, is to take lengths 

 of i to 2 metres of the rough grass cordage used in 



