106 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [March, 



form, the desired information in regard to the silk culture. In 

 visiting in Italy the neighborhood of the Alps, he found there 

 a species of the mulberry, said to have been introduced into 

 that country from China, and called the Chinese mulberry, 

 which was in high repute among the silk growers, and which 

 had proved capable of enduring without injury the rigors of a 

 climate as severe at least as that of New England, He brought 

 a considerable quantity of the seeds to this country, and they 

 have been extensively diffused. It is understood that, from the 

 product of these seeds, he has made abundant selections, which 

 he denominates the Alpine, by which name these trees are now 

 generally known. The results from the planting of this seed 

 have not every where given equal satisfaction, and many con- 

 tend that they are not superior to the white mulberry. It is 

 not for me to become a party in these disputes. There is little 

 reason to suppose that the trees now called Alpine are an origi- 

 nal variety. The leaf is of a large size, generally heart-shaped, 

 but many of them with deep indentures or lobed. They en- 

 dure the winter well. Of their influence upon the health of 

 the worms, and of the quality of the silk, which they produce, 

 I have as yet, no satisfactory information. I have not been 

 able to hear of any exact experiment in the use of them ; ex- 

 cepting a small one, to which I shall presently refer. 



5. The Perottet Mulberry, or the Morus Multicaulis, 

 that is, the many stalked mulberry, denotes another variety of 

 which I have already spoken, and of such pre-eminent noto- 

 riety, that it is destined to be immortalized in the history of 

 commercial transactions, if not of agriculture. This tree was 

 brought from Manilla to France by M. Perottet, in the year 

 1820 ; and to this country more than ten years since. It is 

 remarkable for its rapidity of growth and the shoots v/hich it 

 throws up ; and from this circumstance derives its name. Its 

 leaf is plainly distinguishable from other kinds of mulber- 

 ry leaf It is heart-shaped, and has a flaccid, loose, and on its 

 upper side a concave appearance, looking as if the ribs of the 

 leaf were not sufficiently spread to allow of the surface to be 



