64 ON MULBERRY TREES, hc. 



SAMUEL Eaton's statement. 

 To the Committee on White Mulberry Trees : 



Gentlemen, — My white mulberry plantation occupies about 

 three acres of ground and contains about four thousand trees ; 

 They are set in hedges twelve feet apart and two feet in the hed- 

 ges, a part of the land had been planted one year wiih potatoes 

 manured in the hill, and a part were set on mostly ploughed 

 Sward, the trenches were made by passing a plough four or five 

 times in the same track till they were sufficiently deep to receive 

 the roots, and the earth carefully filled in with the hand and hoe, 

 and the spaces planted with potatoes and beans, and hoed twice 

 the first season ; the second season the spaces were agMn plough- 

 ed, manured, and planted with potatoes, and hoed as the first ; the 

 third, or present, the spaces have been occupied in the same 

 way, but the trees have not been hoed or cleared of weeds. — 

 From two to three hundred bushels of potatoes have been raised 

 yearly on the ground, besides a quantity of peas and beans for 

 family use. About thirty three hundred of the trees are of five 

 years growth, two in the nursery and three where they now stand, 

 and about? or eight hundred are of four years growth from the 

 seed, two in the nursery and two where they now stand; — 

 ^hose trees planted on the sward land did quite as well as those 

 planted on that which had been previously planted with pota- 

 toes, although they were not quite so promising at first. I would 

 remark here that the distance of two feet in the hedges is less 

 than it should be, and if every other tree were removed so as 

 ^0 leave four feet, I think the trees would afford more leaves 

 than they now do, and the distance of twelve feet between the 

 hedges is just about such as to give the trees room to grow and 

 'to allow of ploughing and passing between them to the best ad- 

 vantage, 



I have fed about eight thousand worms the present season 

 from leaves gathered from my tress (and I might have kept a 

 much larger number if I had been prepared foi it,) which have 

 made about twenty three pounds of cocoons, averaging about 

 three hundred to the pound. The leaves were gathered and fed 

 out by two little boys, one eight the other thirteen, assisted by 



