30 



spring by cattle, is ratlicr a service than a disser- 

 vice. Hedges intended for the joint purpose of 

 fences and food, should be trimmed as before 

 prescribed, and be kept. at about 6 feet high. 

 PRUNING, 



It is said by some that a judicious pruning of 

 standard Mulberry trees should take place every 

 three orfcur years; but we incline to the belief, 

 that to render it proper, at any time, the necessi- 

 ty for removing unnecessary limbs or branches 

 must exist, and of this, the cuiturist must i.eces- 

 sarily be left to judge for himself. In the spring, 

 say about the beginning of April, all dead branch- 

 es or limbs ought to be removed from the living 

 wood, care being observed to let the taking oli' 

 of th. branch or limb, be done with a sharp in- 

 strument, so as to leave a smooth surface, which 

 should be smeared over with a mixture of three- 

 fourths fresh cow-dung and one-fourth chalk, 

 moistened to a proper consistence. 



It may be assumed, in addition to the pruning 

 above recommended, that always after the gath- 

 ering of the leaves of the season shall have been 

 done with, all the branches that may hare been 

 damaged in the operation, and all the dead ones, 

 ought ti> be lopped off, as well as those the vege- 

 tation of which seems too low; and those the 

 vegetation of which on the contrary is tooluxuri- 

 ent, ought to be restrained in that propensity 

 or trained in an oblique direction, which is a 

 means of restraining- atoo rapid growth: they ought 

 not to be left to grow to an excessive height, nor 

 to spread too far. The branches which obstruct 

 the development of the head, or hang too much 

 down, should be shortened; and lastly those that 

 have been thrust out of their natural direction, 

 during the gathering of the leaves, ought to be 

 set right again. As a general remark it may be 

 safe to add, that they should be treated in the 

 main as fruit trees are. 



GENERAL REMARKS, 



AS TO THE MODE OF MULTIPLYING. 



We have given succinct directions with respect 

 to the various methods by which the Mulberry 

 may be propagated ; but, as a general rule, we 

 should prefer the growing of the tree from seed 

 to any other form, and in this opinion, we are 

 backed by the experience of that eminent Italian 

 cuiturist, Count Dandolo. He says: 



"The leaf of the [seedling] tree, contains the 

 proportion of both the nutritive and silky sub- 

 stances. J have, says he, ascertained the follow- 

 ing facts: 



1. That 14^ Ibs. of wild Mulberry leaves, will 

 produce a pound and a half of cocoons; while 

 20f Ibs. of the leaves of the grafted Mulberry, 

 are required to yield the same quantity. 



2. That 7| Ibs. of cocoons, proceeding from 

 silk worms fed on leaves of Wild Mulberry give 

 about 14 oz. of very fine silk ; whilst generally 



the same weight of silk worms, fed with the 

 leaves of the grafted Mulberry, only yield eleven 

 or twelve ounces of silk. 



3. That the silk worms fed on the wild leaves, 

 are always brisker and have better appetites. 



The result is, that, taking two trees of equal 

 age and vigor, the grafted tree yields 50 Ibs. of 

 leaves, and the wild tree only 30 Ibs; the 

 weight of nutritious substance will be nearly 

 equal in each." 



To this authority may be added that of M. 

 Martleroy, an experienced cuiturist in France, 

 who found that silk worms fed with the leaves 

 of the seedling Mulberry tree, were more healthy, 

 vigorous, and less subject to diseases, than those 

 which are fed upon the leaves of the grafted 

 trees. 



The term " wild trees" as used by Count Dan- 

 dolo, must be understood, in every instance, to 

 mean trees raised from the seed, being used in 

 contradistinction to those propagated by the oth- 

 er appliances of the trade, used in the propagation 

 of valuable plants, and in addition to these rea- 

 sons, we believe the seedling will be found to be 

 more thrifty, luxuriant in foliage,and longer lived. 



Indeed, with such facilities as are possessed 

 in our country for multiplying the Mulberry tree 

 from seed, no inducement exists to a resort to 

 any of the numerous other methods of propaga- 

 tion. It may, perhaps, be said that seed of the 

 Morus Multicaulis cannot at present be obtain- 

 ed in America, arid that recourse must, of course, 

 be had to those other means of multiplying that 

 species ; that, for the time being is true ; but 

 then, we think it more than probable, that by the 

 time the spring opens, seed will have been pro- 

 cured from the European markets, and that in a 

 very few years, seed will be obtained in our own, 

 from trees already growing here. 



AS TO THE TIME OF SOWING SEED. 



In our variable climate, it is almost impossible 

 to fix any thing like a day for the sowing of seed 

 in the spring; for it is out of the question, to 

 calculate with any d< gree of certainty, upon any 

 considerable number of successive days of con- 

 genial temperature. Under such circumstances, 

 all we can do, is, to prescribe general rules of gov- 

 ernment; and in the furtherance of our views, 

 we would say that the seed should be sown as 

 early in the spring as the ground and weather 

 will permit. Say, in winters and springs of or- 

 dinary mildness in the more southern state$, 

 about the Is* of April in the western, from the 

 15th of April to the 1st June\n the middle 

 states from the 1st of April to the 1st of May, 

 in forward springs in backward springs, from 

 the 15th of April to the 15th of May, and in 

 the northern and eastern states, from the 1st of 

 May, forward during that month, as may be indi- 

 cated by the weather. 



