THE MULBERRY. 347 



considerable size, ought to contain one or two trees. The fruit 

 ripens in July, very soon after the season of cherries. It is 

 rarely picked from the trees, as it falls as soon as ripe, and it is 

 therefore the custom to keep the surface below it in short turf, 

 and the fruit is picked from the clean grass. Or, if the surface 

 is dug ground, it may be sown thickly with cress seed, six weeks 

 previously to the ripening of the fruit, which will form a tem- 

 porary carpet of soft verdure. 



The Red Mulberry (Moras rubra,, L.) is a native species, 

 more or less common in our woods, with large, rough, heart- 

 shaped or lobed leaves. The fruit is about an inch long, and 

 very pleasant and palatable — though much inferiour to the 

 Black English. It bears transplanting well, or is easily raised 

 from seed, and may, undoubtedly, be greatly improved by re- 

 peated reproduction in this way. As it forms a large orna- 

 mental tree with a fine spreading head forty feet high, it is well 

 deserving a place on the lawn, or near the house, in ornamental 

 plantations. 



Johnson, a Seedling from Ohio. Fruit very large, oblong, 

 cylindric ; blackish colour, sub-acid, and of mild, agreeable 

 flavour. Growth of the wood strong and irregular. Leaves 

 uncommonly large. 



The Black Mulberry, or English Mulberry, [Morus nigra, 

 L.) is a very celebrated old fruit tree, originally from Asia, more 

 or less commonly cultivated in all parts of Europe, but yet 

 quite rare in this country. Its growth is slow, and it seldom 

 attains a height of more than twelve or fifteen feet, forming a 

 low, branching tree, with lobed leaves, but it is very long lived, 

 and there is a specimen in England, at the seat of the Duke of 

 Northumberland, 300 years old. In this country it is scarcely 

 hardy enough north of New York, except in sheltered situations. 

 An occasional extreme cold winter kills them ; they are also 

 subject to canker and die ofiT. 



The fruit is incomparably larger and finer than that of the 

 Red Mulberry, being an inch and a half long, and nearly an 

 inch across — black, and of delicious flavour. 



There are many varieties of the White Mulberry, commonly 

 cultivated for silk, but which produce fruit of no value. 



The best soil for the Mulberry, is a rich, deep, sandy loam. 

 The tree requires little or no pruning, and is of very easy cul- 

 ture. It is usually propagated by cuttings, three feet long, 

 planted in the spring, half their depth in the ground; cuttings 

 made of pieces of the roots will also send up shoots and become 

 plants. 



Everbearing. Originated here from seed of the Multicaulis. 

 Tree very vigorous and very productive, an estimable variety, 

 and surpassed by none except the Black English, and possesses 

 tlie same rich subacid flavour. It continues in bearine* a long time. 



