PRACTICAL FARMER 



103 



the common white mulberry for the nourishment 

 of silk worms ; such is its decided superiority over 

 all others. 



The prediction of the laie Dr Pascalis, in 1830, 

 that "after the discovery of this plant, a doubt no 

 longer exists, that two crops of silk may be pro- 

 duced in a single season " ; this prediction has 

 since been accomplished — its truth fulfilled by 

 experiment — the soil and cidtivation, the habita- 

 tions for the successive generations of silk worms 

 being yet the same, all thus converted to double 

 use, and the production of a two fold harvest, — 

 it will be obvious that the actual }trofit, thus aug- 

 mented, must be manifold. 



SOIL, SITUATION AND CLIMATE. 



Although the mulberry flourishes most luxuri- 

 antly in a moist and rich soil, and protected situa- 

 tion, yet the leaves which are produced in such 

 soi!s, are more crude, and not of a quality so nour- 

 ishing. The growth of tiie tree in such soils and 

 expositions, besides being more rapid, is prolonged 

 t© a later period in autunin, or until suddenly 

 arrested by frost ; and the immature wood of a 

 forced growth being more tender, is consequently 

 more liable to be kiled by early frosts and win- 

 ter. Such appears to have been the case in the 

 winter of 1831, '2, which destroyed so many full 

 grown orchards and trees of the liardiest descrip- 

 tion, even to the root. The ravages of that de- 

 •structive winter, like that of our last, seem to have 

 been confined to particular situations and soils — 

 to the productions of the forced growth, of a sum- 

 mer not less uncommon and extraordinary 



This Uiulbcrry braves the most rigorous winters 

 of France. Of this important fact we have in- 

 disjjutable testimony ; even of the unconmsonly 

 severe winter of 1829, '30: it has tiiere been ac- 

 climated, even to the extreme north, as far as 

 Havre ; and where it has been cultivated by M. 

 Eyries, from its first intrcduction to that country. 



We distinguish between trees and plants which 

 grow in a state of nature, and those growing 

 in a state of artificial cultivation. In a state of 

 nature, and in the shade ami ] rotection of the 

 forest, or of herbage, the growth of the young 

 seedling tree, during the first year, is indeed slow, 

 but the young plant finishes its srrowth for the 

 year, and attains to a ligneous consistence, and 

 the wood completely matiu'es in due season. — 

 While in a state of cultivation, the growth is pro- 

 onged, and the wood immature ; it meets the 

 frosts of autumn and of winter unprepared, and 

 even the young seedling plants of the j)lum and 

 pear, the quince and the cherry, whose growth 

 has been by art forced on, must be, in our climate, 

 by art protected on a naked and defenceless soil. 

 The same protection, during the first winter, is 

 alike required to the young plants of the Morus 



Mukicauiis, so valuable, the layers of but a single 

 summer's growth, which are separated in autumn. 



Even some of the hardiest trees of the forest, 

 require jirotection in our climate, during tho first 

 winter, in a state of cultivation so opposed to na- 

 ture ; they find not in a highly cultivated and 

 naked soil, that essentially necessary protection at 

 the roots which they always find in their own na- 

 tive forests. The danger in this case becomes 

 four-fold from these several causes combined. 



The destruction to young and delicate trees and 

 plants, which is sometimes occasioned by winter, 

 is caused by the alternate freezing and thawing of 

 the earth at the surface. Tho frost, by its expan- 

 sive power, operating as a girdle by compression, 

 death assails at the surface, and the top dies as a 

 consequence. The bountiful covering of moss, 

 and herbage, or leaves, with which provident na- 

 ture clothes the earth, being amjily sufficient to 

 modify the growth of the plant, and to defend at 

 the roots. This protection, like the fleecy snow, 

 being two-fold ; it defends alike from the blasts 

 of sudden and excessive cold, also from the still 

 more destructive and pernicious rays of the sun. 



Since the introduction of the Morus Multic;:ulis 

 to New England, in 1831, this tree has had to con- 

 tend, eten in its young and tender age, with two 

 winters, such as were never before recorded in the 

 memory of man, or in the armals of our country ; 

 winters doub'y severe and destructive, and with 

 augmented power to kill. 



Yet, during the last winter, and where the ther- 

 mometer had descended from 30 to 40'^ below 0, 

 and in various parts of New England, and in situ- 

 ations the most bleak and exposed to cold winds, 

 the Morus Multicaulis, the well estabHshed plants 

 of three or four years of age, in suitable soils, 

 have borne the trial, with jjovver to withstand, 

 defying the storms and the piercing cold, even 

 such a winter as tliis. 



Others there might be, those of younger growth, 

 and those especially, which late in autumn had 

 been transplanted to new positions — or, the 

 forced trees of but a single summer's growth, 

 defenceless, unprotected, and all exposed, on an 

 unsuitable and naked soil, which the winter over- 

 came ; causing them to sutler even unto death, 

 and to share the fiite of those other trees, of other 

 kinds and species, of a mature and hardy age, 

 which the same dreadful winter had killed. ' 



The proper soils for the Mulberry trees are ^dry, 

 sandy, or stony.' And trees growing on dry, sandy 

 or stony soils, and situated on the ppeu plains, 

 and on hills the niost exposed to cold winds, will 

 be found to suffer least of all from the destructive 

 frosts of autumn and of winter. With all authors, 

 I must agree in recommending a soil of but mod- 

 erate fertility ; and least of ab, a cold, moist and 

 heavy soil, or even a very rich soil. A diy soil, 



