PES SENDEIN'S 



r*\ 



AND 



Devoted to the Culture of Silk, Ag^riculture and Rural Economy. 



VOL. II. 



BOSTON, FEBRUARY, 1837. 



NO. 9. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY 



JOSEPH BRECK & CO. 

 51 4- 52 J^oHh Market St., at the JV. E. Farmer Office. 



T. G. FESSENDEN, Editor. 



Fifty cents per year — twelve copies for five dollars 

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[0= Postmasters and Agents allowed 10 per cent on 

 all subscribers. 



BOSTON, FEBRUARY, 1837. 



MORUS MULTICAULIS, 



To the Editor of the Farmes and Gardener: 



Sir, — Having seen many statements and sug- 

 gestions in liie public prints, that the Chinese mul- 

 berry, (morus nnllticaulis, ) was not as hardy as 

 the White mulberry, and that it would not bear 

 the extreme cold of our winters, &c., I deem it 

 proper to state my own observation on the sub- 

 ject. I was the first jjerson south of New York, 

 who had the Morus Multicaulis; it was sent to 

 me by my old friends, VVm. Prince & Sons, in 

 1828, in a collection of seven other varieties of 

 mulberry. It was not then known by the present 

 name, but it was called the Phillipine Island mul- 

 berry, and I believe was received by the Messrs 

 Prince direct from those Islands. About a year 

 after 1 received it, accounts were received from 

 France of the receipt there of the Morus Multi- 

 caulis, and of its great value for feeding worms. 

 On examining my trees, I at once found that my 

 Phillipine Island Mulberry was the Multicaulis, 

 and immediately commenced feeding my Silk 

 worms with it; and from experiment, ascertained 

 the truth of all the French had said about it. — 

 From that time to this, I have continued to urge 

 upon all, the propriety of cultivating this, in jjref- 

 erence to the white mulberry. Its advantages are, 

 it is full us hardy as the wiaite ; one nound of its 



leaves contain as much nutritive matter as a pound 

 and a half of the white; the silk made from it is 

 of a finer texture and more lustrous ; its leaves 

 are so large that a pound can be gathered at half 

 the ex|iense and trouble that a pound of White 

 Mulberry leaves require ; it can be cultivated with 

 infinitely more despatch than any other kind. 

 These are all great advantages, and 1 am so well 

 convinced of the correctness of this statement, that 

 I do not hesitate to say, that within ten years, n* 

 other mulberry will be cultivated for feeding silk 

 worms ; simply because those who feed the worms 

 upon the mulberry leaves will not be enabled to 

 compete with those who feed on 31orus Multicau- 

 lis, and they will be either compelled to abandon 

 the silk business, or adopt the multicaulis for feed- 

 ing. In relation Jo the hardiness of the Morus 

 Multicaulis, I have cultivated it for seven years ; 

 never protected it in any manner whatever, and 

 never lost a tree by the cold of winter, or any oth- 

 er way. I had fifty young trees in my garden 

 last winter, and not even a bud on the extremity 

 of the branches was injured. It is true that about 

 fifty yards west from where the young trees stood, 

 there is a grove of oak trees, and on the nortli, 

 fifty yards distant, my dwelling-house stood ; and 

 my garden has an exposure to the south, v/ith a 

 gentle declination. But my residence in the win- 

 ter of 1831-2, was very diirereut. It was on a 

 farm, four miles in the country, in a northeast di- 

 rection : the situation at an elevation of 3 to 400 

 feet above the tide water. There my morus mul- 

 ticaulis had an open exposure to the northwest 

 wind ; yet none we.s't; nipired. During the whole 

 time, I have had the white mulberry of various 

 variefies, and have observed that they %vere all 

 equally hardy -^ none more so, than the multi- 

 caulis. I have seen the young unripened wood of 

 all varieties destroyed by the winter, and was very 

 early led to adopt measures to guard against it, 

 and uow J never la se a bud.. 



