1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



4»1 



uiiJ of tliit< and that fine specimen of silk; but 

 {rencruily these silU societies and individuals have 

 Ibund ihey could raise and sell trees to more profit 

 than ihey could realize Ironi feeding silk-worms, 

 and they have frenerally adopted that course. Tiiis 

 will do no injury to the public, lor soon ihe whole 

 country will be sup])lied with the trees, and then 

 both societies and individuals will fall back to 

 their original object, tiie culture o(" silk. 



Description of the MuUicauUs. 



The morus multicaulis is a dwarftree, or more 

 properly a large shrub, with many stalks, as its 

 specific name implies, growing like the hazel, lilac, 

 &c. It is continually sending up young shoots 

 Irom the crovvn of the root, and when these be- 

 come numerous, and the tree 6 or 8 years old, 

 some oi' the oldest stalks die out; but whether from 

 natural decay or being perished by their vigorous 

 young brethren, I am unable to say. JVly old tree 

 has been as high as 15 leet, 6 or 7 leet of which 

 was young wood; but as I generally cut od' most 

 of the young wood for propagation, it has never 

 exceeded that height. The leaves when full 

 grown on the vigorous wood are 12 to 15 inches in 

 length and 10 to 13 inches wide. The rapidity of 

 their growth causes the ribs to grow faster than 

 ihe web of the leaf, and hence the large leaves, are 

 always concave, so that they cannot be spread out 

 flat without tearing them from the edges to the 

 mid-rib. The leaves are so heavy that they 

 always hang, pendulous, and folded somewhat 

 like a towel hung upon a nail. The surface of the 

 leaf has a somewhat glossy appearance on the 

 outer surface, but is a little rough 1o the touch. 

 The Irnit of the multicaulis is very black when 

 ripe, and when crushed yields an intense purple 

 juice, the stain of which is exceedingly difficult to 

 wash out. The fruit is about the size and Ibrm of 

 the white mulberry, but generally contains very lit- 

 tle good seed — probably my old tree never pro- 

 duced more than 20 at one season. 



It is a remarkable fact that all the species and 

 varieties of mulberry tree are exempt from the 

 depredations of ail insects except the silk-worm. 

 During ten years that I have been a close and 

 daily observer of the morus multicaulis particu- 

 larly, I never saw an insect of any kind upon it. 

 The common caterpillar seems to be omnivorous — 

 with the exception of the mulberry only — it never 

 attacks that. The elm a few years ago was con- 

 sidered exempt; but it also is now annually stripped 

 of its foliage by insects; and the linden also sufl'ers 

 more or less, but the mulberry remains untouched. 

 Even the grasshoppers of the present year, 183S, 

 more destructive than they were ever before 

 known to be, pass by the mulberry, seemingly in 

 acknowledgment of the great law of nature 

 which devotes it as food for the silk-worm exclu- 

 sively.* On the other hand there is no other ve- 



* The fact stated in tlie text is witliout doubt very 

 generally true, but not universally. Within a few 

 days, we have seen several young multicaulis trees, 

 partly stripped of their leaves by broods of caterpil- 

 lars, which had spread their webs over the pait of the 

 plant of which the leaves were already devoured, and 

 whose depredations were in full progress, when they 

 were discovered and killed. — Ed. Far. Reg. 



getable that I ever was able to make the silk-worm 

 cat as Ibod. 1 have starved them, it is true, till they 

 would cat lettuce; and ultimately till they would 

 nibble at oak leaves; but they ate them and all 

 other substitutes, as human beings, in a state of 

 starvation, eat old shoe leather, not as their pro- 

 per Ibod, but in the hope ot" sustaining nature a 

 lew moments longer. 'I'he Osage orange, Ma- 

 dura, is an exception. They eat that freely; but 

 it is so like a mulberry in all its characters, that it 

 reijuired considerable ingenuity in the naturalists 

 to call it by another name. 



Having given my preference for the multicaulis, 

 over all other kinds, and my reasons for it, it wdl 

 not be expected of me to say any thing of other 

 kinds; lor, if the reader puts confidence in what is 

 here written, he will adopt the multicaulis with- 

 out inquiring about other kinds; and if he do not 

 thus confide in my statements, any thing I could 

 say about other kinds would be of no avail. 



The mode of cultivating the multicaulis, is the 

 next subject for consideration. The simplest and 

 most common plan is as follows. Prepare the 

 ground in the spring as lor corn. Run liirrows 

 four or five feet apart, as preparatory to planting 

 corn. Then take the limbs and young wood that 

 grew last year, cut ofl" close to the tree, and lay 

 them lengthwise in the furrow; the but-end of one 

 limb a short distance, a foot or so, from the top-end 

 of the last laid down; cover the whole limb, with 

 a hoe, about one or two inches deep; generally 

 every bud on each limb will grow, and make a 

 tree 3 to 5 feet high by autumn. The ground 

 should be kept free from weeds and grass, by cul- 

 tivation, as in corn. About the last of July, it is 

 best to take a sharp spade and separate the young 

 trees, by driving it down midway between them; 

 but this is not essential; they can be separated 

 when taken up the spring following. The next 

 spring they should be taken up and planted in re- 

 gular form in the orchard, where they are perma- 

 nently to remain. The best method is to plant 

 them 6 or 8 feet apart in the row, and the rows 

 10 to 15 feet apart — the rows running north and 

 south, or north-west and south-east. By this 

 mode of cultivation it will be perceived that eight 

 or ten times as many multicaulis trees may be 

 raised on an acre of" ground as of corn-kills, and 

 that, as the crop is ready for the market, (when 

 they are raised to sell) as early as a crop of 

 corn, there is no reason for the extravagant prices 

 demanded tor them. They would be a very pro- 

 fitable crop at 5 cents a tree. 



There are other modes of cultivation which it 

 may be well to describe here. Where cuttings 

 are scarce, and the loss of any of them is of much 

 consideration, a hot-bed should be made in the 

 usual way, and the cuttings started in it as follows: 

 Cut all the limbs and young wood into short 

 pieces, with one bud on each; lay them flat on the 

 surface of the hot-bed, in lines lengthwise, the 

 ends of the cuttings a quarter of an inch apart, 

 and the lines of cuttings two inches apart, with the 

 bud uppermost. Then silt rich garden mould 

 over them, hall" an inch deep, and put the glass 

 l"rames on the beds. J>ery night and morning 

 water them with a watering-pot, merely enough 

 to keep the earth moist. They should be planted 

 in the hot-bed one month before the usual disap- 

 pearance of frost. In and around Baltimore, 

 about the 1st of April is the timcj as frost usually 



