248 The Osage Orange : The Mulberries. 



south-west, it makes a fire-wood of the best quality, nearly or quite 

 equal to hickory. 



982. The sap-wood is perishable, but the heart-wood is very dura- 

 ble. If cut in winter or spring, it is liable to the attack of borers, 

 but generally not when cut in August or early in autumn. The 

 wood is very easily split, and is therefore unfit for hubs, although 

 very suitable for spokes. From its great durability when exposed 

 to the weather, it is very well adapted for agricultural implements. 

 The wood has a very rich orange color, becoming darker with age, 

 and rendering it valuable for ornamental cabinet work. 



983. The osage orange is not a tree of rapid . growth. It will re- 

 quire from twelve to fifteen years for it to become large enough for 

 fence-posts, and some twenty-five or thirty years for railroad ties. 

 From its hardness and tendency to split, it is necessary to bore holes 

 before driving spikes. When planted at four feet apart, it will 

 need cultivation for four or five years, and it will need to be thinned 

 out in from eight to twelve years, according to the stage of its 

 growth and the fertility of the soil. As the staminate and pistilate 

 flowers of the osage orange grow in difierent trees, the seeds must 

 be gathered in its native region, where both sexes of the tree are 

 found growing. But one species is known to botanists. 



The Mulbeeey (Genus Morus). 



984. Some writers describe from ten to twelve species of this 

 genus, while others reduce them to five. They are found in the 

 north temperate zone, and within the tropics of both the old and 

 new world, and are of great economical interest from the fact that 

 their leaves form the principal food of the silk-worm. 



9S5. We have within the United States a native species, the Red 

 MuLBEREY (Morus rubra), that is widely diffused, being found in 

 most of the Atlantic States, and sometimes growing to the height 

 of sixty to seventy feet, with a diameter of two feet. The wood is 

 strong, solid, and durable, and much valued as fence-posts, and for 

 ship-building. From experiments that have been made in the feed- 

 ing of silk worms upon the leaves of the red mulberry, it appears 

 that the quantity of silk produced is less, and that the worms are 

 more liable to disease. 



986. The White Mulbeey (Morus alba) has been introduced in 

 many places, under the name of "Morus multicaulis," for the feeding 

 of silk worms, and a mania of speculation led to attempts at its cul- 



