fc2 THE MULBERRY TREE. 



" It is important that the young plants should be 

 hoed and cultivated for a few years, with as much 

 care as is usually bestowed on carrots or onions; 

 and in order to do this, with as little expense as pos- 

 sible, potatoes, beans, or ruta baga, may be planted 

 between the rows, and when the potatoes are hoed, 

 all the weeds around the mulberry trees must be 

 carefully destroyed. 



" When the trees are three or four years old, and 

 have begun to spread, and fill the ground, I would 

 thin them out by digging up and transplanting every 

 other tree. Experience will enable you to decide at 

 what time this is proper to be done. 



" I ought to have added above, that potatoes should 

 be between the rows, well manured, so that the whole 

 ground may be rich like a garden. 



" I observed the last year, that the young mulberry 

 trees, grew as well where potatoes were planted be- 

 tween the rows, as where they were omitted, and the 

 trees cultivated in the same manner without potatoes. 



" I would begin to prune the young trees the first 

 year, and continue it every year, observing to cut off 

 all sprouts which grow near the ground ; no leaves 

 ought to be suffered to grow nearer than two or three 

 feet to the ground. The earlier you begin to prune, 

 the easier it will be to form good trees, and the more 

 rapidly they will grow. 



" The second year, I would begin to make silk of the 

 twigs which are trimmed off. If the trees have been 

 properly cultivated from the beginning, I think you 

 may make silk enough the second year, to pay all the 

 expense of making the silk, and of cultivating the 

 trees that year. The principal object, however, 

 ought to be, not to make silk the second year, but to 

 cultivate the trees in the most judicious manner. 



