MULBERRY. 245 



riment of grubbing up their hedge-rows, and planting 

 fences of mulberry-trees, we have no doubt but that in a 

 few years they would reap as great a profit from their 

 hedges as from their corn. It would find immediate em- 

 ploy for many labourers, and would in time require the 

 assistance of thousands of the lower classes to gather the 

 leaves, and attend to the breeding and feeding of the silk- 

 worms, the winding of the silk, &c. ; indeed, the whole pro- 

 cess is calculated as an employ for the aged and the infirm, 

 who, being unable to do laborious work, must now, of 

 necessity, add to the weight of the parochial taxes. The 

 author is fully of opinion that it would be the foundation 

 of a permanent reduction in the poor-rates, which must 

 continue to augment, unless employ be found equal to the 

 increase of the population. It is worthy of notice that 

 the trees which are planted for the feeding of the silk- 

 worms, are seldom suffered to grow to a height to injure 

 the land ; but they are kept as shrubs or espaliers. The 

 great nurseries of mulberry plants in the plain of Valencia, 

 in Spain, are produced from seeds obtained by rubbing a 

 rope of esparts with ripe mulberries, and then burying the 

 rope two inches under ground. As the young plants 

 come up, they are drawn and transplanted ; the trees are 

 afterwards set out in rows in the fields, and pruned once 

 in two years. 



It is supposed that this plan could be advantageously 

 carried into effect without the loss of a single year; as 

 many persons whom we have consulted on the subject are 

 of opinion, that the young plants from the seeds would 

 be as good to feed the worm as those of older trees. 

 Father Loureiro states, that in Cochin China they root up 

 the plants every third year, and make fresh plantations of 

 the cuttings, because the young shoots afford a more de- 

 licate food for the worms, and produce a finer silk. 



At Genoa, and other countries where the silkworms 



