84 Silk Manufacture. 



' Pullein gives very ample directions for forming and rear- 

 ing plantations of mulberry trees. His work has been con- 

 sidered one of higii authority, and may be profitably consulted 

 by any who require more minute information than it is desira- 

 ble to furnish in this volume. 



' Ingrafting is considered to be one of the surest methods 

 of obtaining nutritious leaves from mulberry trees. Monsieur 

 Bourgeois observes, that mulberries ingrafted on wild stocks, 

 when the graft is chosen from a good kind, such as the rose- 

 leaved or the Spanish mulberry, produce leaves which are 

 much more beautiful, and of much belter quality for feeding 

 silk worms, than such as are ingrafted on the common wild 

 stock. The same observation has been made by Monsieur 

 Thome, whose authority is of the greatest weight in whatever 

 relates to the rearing of silk worms, to which object he devo- 

 ted forty years of his life. 



' Although ingrafted mulberries certainly produce a greater 

 number of leaves than the wild trees, and these leaves are 

 thought to contain more nourishment to the insect, yet the 

 wild tree has an advantacre over that which is ingrafted, in 

 its superior longevity. The former has been known to exist 

 for two centuries ; while the increased quantity of leaves 

 produced by ingrafting causes a premature dissipation of the 

 sap of the tree, and accelerates its decay. Monsieur Pomier, 

 in a treatise which he has written upon the subject, recom- 

 mends that white should be ingrafted on black mulberries ; 

 and the reason urged for the adoption of this plan is, that the 

 white species commonly decays first in the root, while the 

 black is not subject to any disease. 



' The more attention that is bestowed upon the tree, by 

 dressing and pruning the overgrown branches, the greater 

 abundance of good leaves will it furnish. It is very hurtful 

 to the trees to strip them when too young, because leaves are 

 organs which fulfil important functions in plants, contributing 

 greatly to their nutrition by absorbing vessels, which imbibe 

 moisture from the air. The leaves may be safely gathered 

 after the fifth year. Mulberry trees are so plenteously stored 

 with sap, that they sometimes renew their leaves twice or thrice 

 in the same year. When the winter has been mild, they put 

 forth leaves very early ; but it is always dangerous, in any 

 but hot climates, to accelerate the hatching of the worms in 

 expectation of this event ; for no leaves should be depended 

 on till the beginning of May, as those which appear prior to 

 this period are exposed to destruction from frost.* 



* For the culture of the mulberry in this country see Vol. I. p. 86. et 

 seq. Naturalist, or Cobb's Manual. ed. 



