■392 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 7 



ingforthe growth of any other kind. This kind of 

 food is perhaps equal to any, and will be at least quite 

 good enough for the other parts of his early manage- 

 ment; and, in the mean time, by planting a few thou- 

 sand cuttings of the muUicaidh, of a single bud each, 

 with careful culture, any desirable numbermay be raised 

 in as few years as will be necessary for the adventurer 

 to learn how to manage his worms, and their products. 

 We would further urge on every farmer who has the 

 least idea of hereafter trying the business, to plant a 

 a few of these trees as a stock to propagate from, if 

 needed. But we also ask him not to believe that this, 

 or any other particular kind, (as either Brussa, Canton, 

 &c.^ is so far superior to others as to be indispensable ; 

 and we advise him not to buy them, or at least but 

 very few of them, at the exorbitant prices which the 

 always easily gulled public have heretofore paid, and 

 which are now threatened to be advanced. 



The northern nursery-men have as yet had the sup- 

 plying of the southern demand for these plants, although 

 at double the prices at which far better plants might 

 have been bought in Virginia. John Carter, near 

 Richmond, who went early (too early, as it seemed,) 

 into this business, for want of purchasers, had to dig 

 up and throw away thousands of young morus multi- 

 caulis trees, after they had grown so large that he 

 could not spare them the ground they occupied. Sub- 

 sequently, he sold the remnant to a great northern 

 nursery-man, at less than half the price at which these 

 (or much worse ones, if not these,) were sent back 

 from New York, and sold in Virginia, and in some 

 cases probably to gentlemen not far from Richmond, 

 but who had not heard of any supply to be obtained 

 except from northern nurseries. The farther north 

 the plants are raised, and the more careful and more 

 forcing their culture, the worse they are to propagate 

 from. The northern nurseiy-men endeavor to romedy 

 the defect of their climate by using the richest soil, and 

 the most stimulating culture. The plants are pushed 

 in growth unnaturally ; and when winter stops their 

 further vegetation, half the year's increase of wood is 

 immature, and is so succulent and tender as to be unable 

 to stand the winter, and unfit to raise from, even if kept 

 through winter sheltered from frost. These immature 

 buds, however, will sell ; and they are fit for nothing 

 else. A southern plant, raised without forcing culture, 

 is worth more, to propagate from, than half a dozen 

 from a northern nursery, of equal size. This has al- 

 ready been fully proved in Virginia, by those who 

 have bought plants and cuttings from the north, as 

 well as near home, and subjected both to the like treat- 

 ment after being planted. 



It was said above that in France an opinion was held 

 that the silk produced from feeding on the multicaulis 

 wanted strength. This is not the only objection there 

 made to this kind of mulberry. It is considered to be 

 short-lived, and that its decline and decay is as much 

 in advance of other kinds, as its early growth and fit- 

 ness for use. If this be true, it has not been suffered 

 to be discovered, much less reported, in this country ; 

 because almost every possessor of the trees has regu- 

 larly cut them up every year into cuttings to produce 

 young plants, and very few have been permitted to 



grow even to be five years old. Now whether they 

 would begin to decline so soon as is alleg'ed, or not, if 

 permitted to live, it is certain that few persons in this 

 country have ever seen a plant except under three 

 years old, and of course in a state of greater succu- 

 lence and more rapid growth than to be expected in after 

 time. This remark would apply to every kind of tree 

 — and in a remarkable degree to the native mulberry, 

 of which the leaves in early growth (even in the fo- 

 rests) are often seen four times as large as is usual on 

 large trees. But all the interested puffers and sales- 

 men of the morus multicaulis assume, and their cus- 

 tomers seem as readily to admit, that the succulent and 

 large-sized leaves, so remarkable in the early and 

 forced growth of the frees of one and two years, are 

 always to distinguish the mature tree. This expecta- 

 tion must be unfounded, judging by all analogous 

 cases ; and moreover it is very doubtful whether this 

 feature would be desirable, even if it could be retain- 

 ed. The large size of leaf, so far as caused by, and in- 

 dicative of, succulence in the plant, and that again 

 caused by excessive supplies of nourishment to the 

 plant, is certainly not desirable for its proper and ?ble 

 object, that of producing silk. For it has long been 

 known in the silk-growing parts of Europe that the 

 leaves of mulberry trees growing on moist or very rich 

 land, and therefore of rapid and succulent growth, are 

 not as healthy food, and do not furnish as good silk, 

 nor as much profit in the product, as the leaves of trees 

 on poor and on dry land. Thence it may be safely in- 

 ferred, that if the forced growth of the multicaulis in 

 this country had been used to much extent to feed silk- 

 worms, instead of to sell to new adventurers, it would 

 have been found to be liable to the objection just 

 stated. But that objection would probably not have 

 been promulgated, as being likely to lessen the great- 

 est value of this kind, which is to be sold at high 

 prices. 



The first introduction of this plant from the Philip- 

 pine Islands, was into France ; and its superior advan- 

 tages in some respects were there seen and generally 

 made known, so as to insure to its culture a favorable 

 consideration, and a fair trial. But though introduced 

 in this country, from France, after it had excited at- 

 tention and gained much favor in that country, the 

 propagation has spread here so much more rapidly, 

 that there are already ten times the number of plants 

 here that there are in France. The cause of this re- 

 markable difference is plainly enough seen in the dif- 

 ferent circumstances of the culture in the two coun- 

 tries. In France, the main object in cultivating this 

 tree, was to feed silk-worms. Here, the almost sole ob- 

 ject, has been to sell the plants, and buds, and to pro- 

 duce as much growth as possible for each year's har- 

 vest and sale. Besides, each culturist in France would 

 scrutinize (perhaps too severely) the characters of the 

 new mulberry ; while here the interest of the cultu- 

 rists would necessarily direct the concealment of all 

 defects, and the exaggeration of the real advantages. 

 In this way the northern nursery-men have duped 

 their neighbors more to their injury than their south- 

 ern purchasers ; for the plants will flourish here, and 

 they will not stand the winters^of New England, not- 



