14 



MANNER OF MULTIPLYING MULBERRY TREES BY 

 CUTTINGS. 



The soil chosen to receive the slips of the mulberry 

 tree should be prepared much in the same way as ha 

 been described for the seed. The cuttings of the mul- 

 berry are to be planted in the same manner as the cut- 

 tings of the vine ; that is, by making furrows by a line at 

 the distance of six feet from one to the other, and by cross- 

 ing them by furrows at the same distance, in order to 

 form squares. A two year old branch of a mulberry tree, 

 having wood of four or five years at one end, must be 

 selected, and the extremity of the old wood must be in- 

 terred to the depth of about ten inches. The branches 

 chosen from the white mulberry must be taken offin the 

 spring at the first rising of the sap. Two or three incis- 

 ions must be made in the joints or knots of the old wood, 

 because this operation will facilitate the shooting of the 

 roots, which always put forth from the joints of the old 

 wood. The cuttings must then be covered with a well 

 manured and friable earth, and the end of the branch 

 which rises from the soil must be cut off at the third bud 

 from the surface. If rains should not frequently occur 

 after the plantation is finished, it would be necessary to 

 water the plants often. The multiplication of mulberry 

 trees by means of cuttings is said to have the important 

 advantage of two years in advance over the establishment 

 of a nursery by means of seed in Europe. 



BY LAYERS. 



To make layers is to force a branch or a shoot of a tree 

 or of a shrub to become itself a tree or a shrub, by putting 



