52 SILK GROWER'S GUIDE. 



SECTION XVIII. 



HEDGES, OR DWARF MULBERRY TREE PLANTA- 

 TIONS. 



In China, in India, in Persia and Turkey, and at this 

 day in France, the mulberry is raised in hedge rows, not 

 being generally allowed to rise higher than six or eight 

 feet. By close planting in hedge rows, and by careful 

 cultivation, the land is wholly covered in the shortest 

 possible space of time with a large mass of foliage, 

 yielding a profit both sudden and more immediate, a 

 produce even far more abundant than from full-grown 

 trees. This same system is now gaining ground in Bel- 

 gium and in Italy. Thus half the labor of gathering the 

 food is saved, and the tedious cultivation of many long 

 years. 



Dwarf or Low Mulberry tree plantations, therefore, 

 and their formation, is the mode which I shall recom- 

 mend for general adoption, for the following reasons : 



1st. They arrive to a state of productiveness with 

 comparatively little expense of time and tillage. 2d. 

 Sufficient sun and air are admitted to the tree to render 

 the leaves of the first quality, and to enable them to put 

 forth early. 3d. The ground is more suddenly and 

 completely filled and occupied than by planting stand- 

 ards. 4th. The tree is more easily managed and its 

 form controlled. 5th. The produce of leaves on the 

 same quantity of land, is admitted to be full half as 

 much more from the cultivated hedge rows than from 

 standard trees in their best estate, while the labor of 

 gathering the leaves is full one third less. 6th. Women 

 and children can gather the food with perfect conven- 

 ience from hedges, which they cannot so easily do at all 

 from large trees. 



Rosier, and other modern writers of France, partic- 



