496 



FARMERS^ REGISTER. 



No. 8? 



peculiarly adapted to the mulberry, from having 

 observed the usual locations, and degree of luxu- 

 riance, oC the native growth. Mr. Weller has 

 found very decided benefit from sprinkling the 

 rubbish of old mortar, (from demolished brick- 

 work,) in his rows of multicaulis cuttings. The 

 great value, too, of bone-manure, Cthough bones 

 are of phosphate of lime,^ as slated by Mr. Plea- 

 sants, is a valuable fact, and helping to confirm 

 the opinion of the demand of this plant for lime 

 in some of its forms of combination. 



Mr. Weller plants at any time in winter or 

 spring, when he has the time. He has no objec- 

 tion lo, or fear of, fall planting, but has no spare 

 labor at that season. He cuts up, generally, into 

 eingle-bud cuttings, and drops the bits into the 

 furrow, with no care as to their position, and 

 about seven or eight inches apart, (rows three 

 feet) and covers carefully. We think a better 

 mode would be to stick the lower end of the cut* 

 ting into the soft mould, perpendicularly, and to 

 cover the bud not more than an inch, if near the 

 time to sprout. The lower extremities, where the 

 roots form, in this case would be as low as possi- 

 ble, and so much the more likely to keep moist ; 

 and the bud be very near, as it ought to be, to the 

 air. These objects will be still the better an- 

 swered, by cutting the branches as close above 

 each bud as is safe, and of course giving as much 

 length as possible of each cutting below the bud. 



Besides the rapid mode of propagation fi'om 

 single-bud cuttings, when they are allowed to 

 have the growth of an entire season, there is 

 another process which may be added, and by 

 which the product may be still more and greatly 

 multiplied. This is by summer layers ; which 

 mode is extensively practised by some of the 

 largest dealers and nurserymen, and which is cer- 

 tainly an admirable means of making profit by 

 imposing on distant and ignorant purchasers, still 

 more than to obtain the legitimate gain of the ac- 

 tual increase of the stock of plants. As describ- 

 ed to us, the following is the most approved and 

 productive plan of raising from layers. Early in 

 July, or as soon as the young shoots are 10 to 15 

 inches high, let each be bent down and laid on 

 the earth, and confined there by a forked stick, 

 and a Httle earth be laid on one of the buds near 

 theextremity. The leaves of the buried buds should 

 be cut off. From there roots soon strike out, and 

 each extremity runs up rapidly into what northern 

 nurserymen call " a tree." Soon after the first 

 operation, every alternate bud, of the stem laid 

 down, should be covered with earth in like man- 

 ner ; and from each of the intermediate buds, left 

 uncovered, there will be thrown up other upright 

 shoots, of which the connecting original stem may 

 be cut apart, before the growing season is over, 



and thus form so many of what are termed 

 "rooted and untrimmed trees," and sold aa 

 such, formerly at 25 to 38, and now at 60 cents or 

 more, a-piece. In this manner, in a good season^ 

 and during rapid growth, we are informed that 

 sometimes six, or eight, and even ten "rooted 

 trees," may be raised in a year from a single bud 

 planted the same season. This is a very useful 

 practice to increase a small stock rapidly; as these 

 secondary, though tery inferior plants, if well 

 preserved through winter, will furnish a greatly in- 

 creased stock of buds afid roots for the next year's 

 planting. But to sell these plants, of half a sea- 

 son's growth, to distant purchasers, as "rooted 

 trecp," without explanation, is a gross fraud, whicfe 

 has been most extensively practised already, and 

 by which hundreds of thousands of dollars have 

 been, and will be, unrighteously gained. From 

 this description many purchasers of plants will 

 now understand the manner in which their sup- 

 plies were produced. For plants from layers 

 must necessarily be of small height, the growth 

 late, and a large proportion of the stem unripe— 

 and always without branches, (though sold per- 

 haps at nearly double price for being " untrirn^ 

 mcd''^ — ) and the roots, consisting of a small horl-^ 

 zontal bit of the original stem converted to root, 

 with merely a few thread-like rootlets extending 

 therefrom. Purchasers should guard against re- 

 ceiving the products of layers as " rooted trees," 

 whether sold as " untrimmed" or not. 



Cuttings, also, may be separated fi'om young 

 plants in any wet season, during summer, and, if 

 set out immediately, will live, and form separate 

 rooted-plants. We are inclined to believe that 

 the topping of young plants, for this object, in 

 July, would be useful, by causing more extension? 

 of side-branches, and better maturing the budis on 

 the extremities. 



Among the great and unexpected products from' 

 this year's growth of mulberry plants, there will 

 be an abundant harvest of law-suits. We know 

 of several having been already commenced ; and 

 hundreds of others will follow. There will be many 

 novel points of agricultural law for the courts to 

 decide, whiih will be curious ; and not a little 

 amusing to all except the litigant parties. All 

 persons who make contracts, should be very cau- 

 tious as lo the other party with whom they deal, 

 and the manner of fixing the conditions. 



We will close these scraps of information with 

 some arithmetical calculations and estimates, 

 which perhaps may be of service to readers who 

 design either to buy or to sell, or who are in pos- 

 session of multicaulis plants. We have had rea- 

 son to be surprised to find, in sundry cases, how 

 little had been done, even by dealers to large 

 amounts of money, in the way of estimating 



