108 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [March, 



berry which they could procure, did not, it is understood, find 

 the MulticauHs in use in China for the production of silk. 

 The proximity of Manilla, where this tree was found, to Can- 

 ton, and the constant intercommunication between the two 

 places, would long since have caused the introduction of this 

 tree into China, had it been preferred ; but it is understood to 

 have been carried from Canton to Manilla. It is valued, but 

 certainly is not preferred in Italy ; nor in Germany, where the 

 silk culture, which was given up about half a century since, is 

 now reviving and strongly urged upon the people on the same 

 grounds of public and private economy, on which it is ad- 

 vocated here. 



I take the liberty of subjoining, on this subject, an extract 

 from the private journal of a highly intelligent friend, entirely 

 disinterested in the case, who with his family, have recently 

 returned from Europe, and who made the silk culture matter 

 of particular but merely incidental inquiry. 



" When visiting the botanic garden, at Montpelier, Professor 

 De Lisle gave us his decided opinion against the Morus Multi- 

 cauHs as food for the silk worm. One of his reasons was that 

 the leaves, in comparison with those of the French mulberry, 

 are thin and weak, and will not bear a single day's wilting 

 without becoming dry and crisp, and unfit for the worm. Al- 

 though the Multicaulis is prolific, and the leaves are large, still 

 it produces less in weight than the common French, which 

 bears a red or black fruit, grows freely at Montpelier, sending 

 up straight shoots even from old trees that have been topped 

 down, as they generaily are there. Of course the leaves are 

 easily gathered by a sweep of the hand along the branches, an 

 object of importance there, and still more so where labor is 

 dear. 



" The professor's reasons for condemning the Multicaulis is 

 more important there than elsewhere, because the leaves when 

 gathered are sold by the pound to the worm feeders ; and a 

 leaf which lasts good only one day is objectionable. The tender 

 character of the tree too, is an objection at Montpelier, because 



