MULBERRY. 243 



mulberry-tree and the making of silk in his kingdom, 

 although he filled the gardens, parks, and highways, with 

 these trees, beginning in his own garden as an example. 

 Louis the Fourteenth, by the indefatigable diligence of 

 Mons. .Colbert, superintendant of that monarch's manu- 

 factures, so successfully revived it, that it soon produced 

 an incredible revenue to that nation. 



Mons. Cadet de Vaux says, " Oliver de Serres has 

 been called the Xenophon of France, principally from his 

 pointing out the best mode of cultivating the mulberry- 

 tree, a tree to which France is so much indebted." 



Evelyn says, " It is demonstrable that mulberries in 

 four or five years may be made to spread all over this 

 land." Every later writer tells us, that in the south of 

 England they would be sure to succeed ; yet from the 

 mouth of the Thames to that of the Severn, you will find 

 ten thousand useless laurels cultivated without a purpose, 

 or affording a single benefit excepting only their indifferent 

 ornament, to one of these trees, which by their leaves 

 would employ the people and enrich the country, while 

 their fruit would greatly assist to counteract the scorbutic 

 complaints of our villagers, and afford us, by its juice, a 

 wine little inferior to that produced from the grape to 

 say nothing about the beauty of. the tree, or the value of 

 the timber. 



In speaking of the benefit derived from these trees, 

 Evelyn says, " that they are frequently let to farm for 

 vast sums ; so as one sole tree has yielded the proprietor 

 a rent of twenty shillings per annum for the leaves only, 

 and six or seven pounds of silk, worth as many pounds 

 sterling, in five or six weeks, to those who kept the 

 worms. 



We have already proved the longevity of these trees, 

 we shall presently shew that they will thrive in barren or 

 in rich land ; but we are now going to give the important 



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