1840.] SENATE— No. 36. 119 



expected to send up a shoot ; or the whole tree may be laid 

 down in the spring. The plants will then form a kind of 

 hedge, and a crop of foliage will be easily obtained for the 

 feeding of the worms in that season. Until the foliage is 

 ready for the worms, however, the hatching of the eggs must 

 be kept back by a process which 1 shall hereafter describe. In 

 this way a good crop of silk may be obtained, as I have seen 

 in several instances, in the same season. 



The idea of extraordinary trouble attending this process at 

 once creates apprehension and objections. But the trouble 

 is not beyond what the occasion will fully warrant. If the 

 plants stand in a line, a plough in the autumn may easily be 

 passed along near to them, and they may be pulled out by the 

 roots, and covered in the field as I have described. In the 

 ensuing spring a furrow may be opened, and the trees laid 

 down root and branch in the furrow, and covered The cover- 

 ing must be done lightly at first, and after the buds have 

 started, a little more covering must be given to them ; and for 

 this extra labor, which will not indeed be much more than har- 

 vesting and planting and manuring an acre of Indian corn, 

 there will be found a compensation in the great facility of 

 gathering leaves from this low hedge of trees, instead of being 

 obliged to climb a large standard tree. Indeed a child in this 

 case would be able to gather as much foliage in an hour, es- 

 pecially as the young wood is flexible and can be bent by the 

 hand so as to be stripped with facility, as a man would gather 

 in six hours from a standard tree. If it shall appear upon 

 further experiment, that the roots can be safely left in the ground, 

 and the shoots taken off and secured in the cellar in the autumn, 

 the advantages of such management may be preferred ; but if 

 otherwise, the removal and resetting of the shrub annually, 

 need not be dechned on account of the labor attending it. The 

 experiment has been repeatedly and successfully made, and at 

 the rate of fifty pounds of silk to the acre of the very best 

 quality, as I have seen, have been obtained from the foliage of 

 the Perottet mulberry, planted or laid down in the same sea- 



