No. 



Speculation hi Morns MullicimUs. 



155 



twenty in a sintjle summer: from 1500 

 trees, then, 30,000 may Ije raised. Willi an 

 outlay, ihcret'ore, of $IH75, and the very 

 triliinir expense of cultivating an acre of 

 ground, $35,000 may he realized in six 

 months!! O, ye farmers who have been 

 toilinjr and toiling all your lives long, in 

 raising ^^•heat, corn, and potatoes, and clear- 

 ing your $10, $20, or $30 per acre aimually ! 

 O, ye nursery-men, who plant an ap])]e-seed, 

 and patiently and carefully cultivate the seed- 

 ling for three years, then ingraft it, and 

 prune and trim it for three or four years 

 more, and at the end of your seven years' 

 labor and care, sell it for ten cents; can you 

 believe that the " present price" of the mul- 

 ticanlis arises from a " fair estimate of their 

 present intrinsic value 1" Will any gentle- 

 man of this city who has a farm cultivated ; 

 can any farmer believe that this " present 

 intrinsic value" will be maintained to a 

 "period somewhat remote," or "for some 

 years to come at least?" Why, at such a 

 price, mulberry trees would soon cover the 

 •whole length and breadth of the land, and 

 instead of bread and potatoes, we should 

 have only the " delicious cream" to subsist 

 on, which the newspapers tell us is prepared 

 in France from the silkworm, after it has 

 ceased spinning. 



I can state from undoubted authority, that 

 in silk-growing France, the multicaulis 

 could be purchased last August — only four 

 months ago — at five cents per tree; how is 

 it that their "intrinsic value" in a country 

 where they are actually used, is so very 

 smain 



"Multicaulis" does not deny that some 

 speculation has been carried on in mulberry 

 trees, and it may be possible, notwithstand- 

 ing he does not think so, that this has raised 

 the price a little. I could cite many in 

 stances in which something very like specu 

 lation or gambling has almost doubled the 

 price in a short time ; one may suffice. A 

 friend of mine purchased a lot of multicau- 

 lis last summer, authorized an agent to sell 

 them, and was absent a few days from 

 home. On his return he found his trees 

 had been sold at an advance of one thou- 

 sand dollars, and I understand the same lot 

 of trees has changed hands four times since, 

 rapidly increasing in " intrinsic value" each 

 time ; the trees remaining, of course, in the 

 ground wmsed. 



(.Jan " Multicaulis" show by his " cypher- 

 ing" that the actual use of the morus mul- 

 ticaulis in feeding silkworms, and the real- 

 ized profits from the culture of silk during 

 the past season, have raised the price of the 

 trees from twenty-five cents each — at which 

 price they were oflered last spring — or 12A 



cents which was the price a year before, to 

 $l.'2r>] 



But it is so notoricnis that a wild and 

 wonderful speculation has been carried on in 

 this city, during which the price of these 

 trees lias been more than quadrupled, that 

 here no proof of it is needed. A few facts, 

 however, connected with it may be riew to 

 distant readers of the Cabinet, and perhaps 

 l)revent some of them from being dt reived. 

 They may be assured that Philadelphia is 

 the great focus of the orand speculation ; 

 the market to which the nnilticaulis are 

 brought from every quarter. Our newspa- 

 pers have contained advertisements from 

 the north, south, east and west, offerintr to 

 send trees here. Paragraphs may be found 

 in distant newspapers from all directions, 

 stating the high prices at which the multi- 

 caulis arc sold here, and recommending the 

 cultivation of them in their respective neigh- 

 jborlioods for this market. Even last spring 

 [large quantities of them were brought here 

 jfrom Florida, as the sale advertisements 

 'stated. Notwithstanding all this, we are 

 here told by the mulberry speculators, both 

 in advertisements and in conversation, that a 

 vast market is opening in the south ami 

 west, and that incalculaljle numbers will be 

 sent there, and this is hfeld out as a strong 

 inducement to purchase and cultivate them 

 here. Speculators from Philadelphia and 

 neighboring places, have scoured the coun- 

 try as rapidly as steam could carry therr., 

 from lake Ontario to the far south, (and I 

 understand some have even gone to France, 

 and others sent orders there,) to purchase 

 morus multicaulis for this market. How 

 preposterous is it to represent that vast mar- 

 kets are opening in the very places from 

 whence we obtain our supply. 



In the next place let us have facts in re- 

 lation to the hardy character of the multi- 

 caulis. Its namesake tells us " it is consti- 

 tutionally hardy, indeed more so than most 

 trees known to us — that it will bear to he 

 buried in the earth for the six winter months, 

 and in the spring when dug up, be a vigor- 

 ous and healthy tree." Now, I believe that 

 " most trees known to us" may be buried and 

 dug up in like manner and condition. Euthow 

 was it discovered that the multicaulis is thus 

 remarkably hardy 1 simply by finding it 

 necessary to bury it during the " six win- 

 ter months" to preserve its life ! " Multi- 

 caulis" states that " it will bear the rigors 

 of our winters without injury, when three 

 years old." Suppose then — fori like exam- 

 ple belter than precept, and "cyphering" 

 better than assertion — that a farmer has one 

 of his fields, say ten acres, filled with mul- 

 berry trees, comprising probably two hundred 



