PRACTICAL FARMER. 



185 



MUIiBERRY TREES, 



Mr Fessexden : — By answering the following 

 queries through the New England Farmer, you 

 will oblige a subscriber. 



First. — Can the common White Mulberry be 

 successfully cultivated by the slip ? 



The reason for this inquirj' is, tiiat among my 

 mulberry trees there is a great difference in the 

 quality of the leaves ; while some are large and 

 valuable, others are small, and of very little value ; 

 but those producing the best leaves, produce very 

 little, if any fruit. And I have thought, that if 

 we could propagate from the good trees by the 

 slip, we might get a variety much more valuable 

 than those raised from the seed. 



Second. — Is the foliage of trees increased by 

 being propagated by the slip, or by grafting ? l{ 

 it is not increased, 



Third. — Why are the leaves of those varieties 

 of apj)les which have long been propagated in 

 that way, larger than those of the natural tree ? 



Fourth. — Do fruits, whether apples, pears, 

 quinces, or gfapes, lose their seeds in any degree 

 by being propagated by the slip, or by grafting ? 

 We often see raisins destitute of seeds, and 



Fifth. — How is that quality obtained ? 



There are many reasons which have led to the 

 suggestion of these inquiries, but I will not pre- 

 sume to offer them at present. A. H. 



SferBig, Feb. 23, 1836. 



By the Editor. — With regard to the first ques- 

 tion, 1 would rejily that the'nnilbcrry is propaga- 

 ted by seeds, by layers, by cuttings, or by engraft- 

 ing. By the first method the seed should be sown 

 early in May in a rich, fresh, and well prepared 

 soil, in drills, or rows, two feet asunder, and at an 

 average distance of about an inch in the rows. 

 Cover the seed half an inch deep, and stamp or 

 roll the ground immediately. Keep the yoimg 

 plants free from weeds during summer, and before 

 winter commences protect them with a slight 

 covering of straw, evergreens, light manure, or 

 old hay; or take them up, and secure them from 

 frost in a cellar. 



B>j layers Bend the side shoots down, and 



secure them by hooks, and partly cover them with 

 earth, leaving out only their extreme ends. If 

 this is done in spring, or the fore part of stinmier, 

 the parts in the ground take root, and are cut from 

 the main [)lants in the fall. 



Cuttings. — The twigs or branches of the young 

 wood, or part young and j)art eld, are cut in 

 lengths of about six inches, and close below an 

 eye ; these are set more than two thirds of their 

 length beneath the soil, and the ground trodden 

 about the scions. 



Grafting or inoculating. — W^riters have recom- 

 mended to graft the common sorts of mulberry 



with the larger and finer varieties, which produce 

 larger, better and more numerous leaves. Per- 

 haps the Chinese mulberry might be successfully 

 propagated by grafting it on the common white 

 mtdberry, and the scion j)artake of the hardihood 

 of the stock. 'I his, however, is doubted, and 

 experiments on that subject are desirable. It is 

 said, in a periodical devoted to silk culture, pub- 

 lished at /\lbany, that " in this coiintry, the culti- 

 vation [of the mulberry] is so easy, and the growth 

 so ra[)id, there seems to be little necessity for any 

 other mode than raising from the seed." 



With regard to increasing the foliage of trees 

 by propagating from slii s or grafting; obtaining 

 ap[)les, pears, quinces, grapes, &c. without seeds, 

 we believe that great discoveries and imj)rove- 

 ments may be made. Darwin's Phytologia has 

 much on the subject of so managing fruit trees as 

 to induce the production of fruits instead of leaves, 

 converting leaf buds intti flower buds, &c. which 

 may lead not only to curious, but to useful specu- 

 lation. We should be glad to hear further from 

 "A. H." on these and other topics connected with 

 the objects of our publication. 



[From the Baltimore Farmer.] 



W^e published, some months since, a descrip- 

 tion of the apparatus used by the Hon. Charles 

 A. Barnitz, of York, Pennsylvania, for boiling 

 food for his stock, and from the deservedly high 

 reputation of that gentleman as a scientific and 

 practical farmer, combined with its very moderate 

 cost, it created no little attention, and we have had 

 several inquiries made of us to know, whether it 

 were possible that efficient fixtures could be put 

 up for so trifling an amount ; but the most amu- 

 sing of all the inquiries was one built upon a mis- 

 taken construction of that gentleman's descrip- 

 tion, which, by the bye, was so plain and easily 

 understood that he that run jniglit read. But to 

 dissolve the doubts built up in the imagination of 

 our correspondent, we addressed a letter to Mr 

 Barnitz, asking an explanation, which will be 

 found below in the form of a description, and 

 which he gave us with that promptness and cor- 

 diality of feeling which is at once so honorable to 

 the donor and so grateful to the recipient of favors. 

 For ourself, and in the name of the agricultural 

 community, whom upon this as upon numerous 

 other occasions he has benefitted so ^iiych, we 

 tender him our sincere thanks. 



CHEAP BOILI^"G APPARATUS. 



"Take a kettle or vessel of the capacity of for- 

 ty gallons ; (the cast iron kettles are to be had at 

 every hardware store, or foundry) place one of 

 them over a small draft or flue about a foot square, 

 and carry the fiua up behind the vessel in the 

 shape of a chimney — made so tliat the greatest 



