160 [ THE WHITE MULBERRY 



the silkworm. It is a low tree or shrub with many stems 

 or branches coming up from the trunk or rootstock at the 

 level of the ground. The leaves are large or very large 

 and tender, and are produced in great profusion. The 

 tree is very easily propagated by cuttings in winter or 

 early spring, but cuttings can be struck almost as easily 

 in summer when the tree is in full vegetation. 



When planting mulberries for the silkworm industry 

 it is important to keep well in view the following points, 

 in order to obtain satisfactory results. 



a). The plantation should be situated away from 

 dusty roads, as the dust will impair very materially the 

 quality of the foliage. 



b). The trees should be planted on good land, to 

 secure vigorous growth and an abundance of foliage of 

 good quality. 



c). The trees should be trained low, not higher 

 than two or three metres, so that the foliage can be 

 picked quickly and cheaply, without the use of ladders. 



d). The trees should not be less than five metres 

 apart, so that there may be no difficulty to make the 

 land to yield approximately the same field crops as if 

 there were no trees. This of course will greatly reduce 

 the cost of production of mulberry foliage. 



e). The fruit-bearing sorts produce less foliage, but 

 the deficiency can be made up financially by feeding the 

 fruits to pigs and poultry. 



Defoliation for silkworm rearing should be gradual 

 and systematic, and should be distributed uniformly 

 over the whole plantation, so as to cause no check to the 

 vegetative power of the trees. Old trees with many 

 malformed or unhealthy branches may be rejuvenated 

 by pollarding early in February, and in performing 

 this operation it is better to pollard the main branches 

 than the stem. However, if there is no option the 



