REARING SILKWORMS. 65 



tain the worm. It does not grow so rapidly as 

 others, and is slow to send out new branches 

 when pruned. It yields about one pound of 

 cocoons to fourteen pounds of leaves. 



The Morus alba proper is the stock from which 

 the Japonic& t rosa, and Morctti have been pro- 

 duced by cutting and grafting. In all the silk- 

 growing countries of Europe it is considered a 

 standard tree. It yields one pound of cocoons 

 to every fourteen to sixteen pounds of leaves. 



The Morus multicaulis is a native of the Philip- 

 pine Islands. The leaves are very large. It 

 grows very rapidly, and sends out a multitude 

 of branches, but it requires eighteen pounds of 

 leaves to make one pound of cocoons. As it 

 leaves out early in the spring-time, the leaves do 

 very nicely for the first two ages of the silkworm. 



The Morus nigra, or Persian mulberry, is a 

 fine hardy tree, that will thrive even in a cold 

 climate. It flourishes greatly in southern Cali- 

 fornia. It bears rich, large black fruit, valuable 

 as a marketable product. The leaves are of 

 medium size, coarse as the grape leaf, which 

 they resemble. They are dark green on the 

 upper side, and covered on the under side with a 

 kind of white down. In Asiatic countries they 

 feed this leaf to silkworms as a medicine. In 

 California it has proved a valuable food all 



