RESOURCES OF AMERICA, SILK, ETC. 413 



grounds near Boston. But in the low plains of the interior, and in 

 the valleys of the north, they are liable to be injured in their tops 

 by winter; yet in spring they start forth from the root with fresh 

 vigor and renewed luxuriance. Both varieties, being of a prolonged 

 growth, are therefore admirably calculated for the production of 

 numerous crops of silk in a season , 



CHAPTER VI. SUBSTITUTES FOR THE MULBERRY. 



Various are the substitutes which have been proposed for the 

 mulberry, which seems, indeed, the only suitable food. The Osage 

 orange, or MaclUra, is, in fact, a species of the mulberry, and is 

 found to answer well ; but the leaves cannot be gathered, except 

 with inconvenience, on account of the numerous thorns. Latterly 

 the Ramoon tree, a plant which grows only in the tropics, has been 

 introduced to our notice as admirably adapted as food for the 

 silk-worm, in its own proper climate* 



The RAMOON TREE (Trophis Americana) is an evergreen tree, a 

 native of the East and West Indies. In Jamaica it has been long 

 known and used as the food of horses and cattle, and especially 

 during the dry months, when, in some of those withering seasons, 

 the most fertile valleys and pastures become the scenes of utter des- 

 olation all being destroyed by a scorching sun. 



The Ramoon tree flourishes in the most barren and arid soil, 

 producing at all seasons a succession of fresh leaves, and never suf- 

 fers from drought. The leaves are oblong, acuminate or lanceolate, 

 smooth, and entire. A quantity of silk- worms having been imported, 

 and all other substitutes failing, the leaves of the Ramoon were tried 

 with signal and unexpected success. A Jamaica paper of March 9, 

 1838, states, that the silk-worms not only devoured them greedily, 

 but appeared also to thrive better on them than on the mulberry 

 The silk produced was of a pure white color, and worth forty shil 

 lings a pound ; and it was calculated that three crops would be pro- 

 duced in a year. The House of Assembly of Jamaica have voted 

 the discoverer the sum of fifty pounds, " with a view to a future 

 grant" as he progresses in the rearing of the silk- worm. 



CHAPTER VII. SOIL, SITUATION, CLIMATE, &c. 



Although the mulberry flourishes most luxuriantly in a moist and 

 rich soil and protected situation, yet the leaves which are produced 

 in such soils are more crude, and not of a quality so nourishing. 

 The growth of the tree in such soils and expositions, besides being 

 more rapid, is prolonged to a later period in autumn, or until suddenly 

 arrested by frost; and the immature wood of a forced growth, being 

 more tender, is consequently more liable to be killed bj 7 early frosts 

 and by winter. Such appears to have been the case in the winter 

 of 1831-2, which destroyed so many full-grown trees of the hardiest 

 35* 



