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duction of vegetation during the next season. There are two saps 

 continually ascending and descending. The ascending saps pass 

 through the wood and give nutriment to the branches and leaves, 

 and the descending ones pass through the skin to the roots, and 

 produce new wood from season to season as the tree grows older. 

 The preservation of the leaves is not so necessary to the existence of 

 a tree as its roots, as from these it derives its principal support and 

 nourishment ; it will therefore be gathered from these remarks, that 

 it is impossible to propagate mulberry trees for silk culture by 

 cuttings, but that they must be raised naturally from seeds in order 

 that perfect roots may be formed for the sustenance of the tree in the 

 future periods of its existence, and when it shall be necessary to 

 gather its leaves for the education of the precious worm. As the 

 grand object of the cultivation of the mulberry tree is to fit it for 

 the production of leaves in the least possible time, nothing must be 

 neglected by its cultivator to attain that object, not so much by the 

 expenditure of a large amount of capital as an assiduous study of the 

 necessities of the plant, as no tree in the world yields so large a 

 return to its propagator as this one. The good quality of 

 the ground is certainly of great importance to the prosperity 

 of the tree ; but the judicious pruning and training of its 

 branches is of far greater moment, and the excuse of the bad 

 cultivator as to the indifferent quality of the soil only tends to 

 betray his ignorance of the art of cultivating the mulberry. The 

 time for pruning and training the branches greatly depends on 

 the climate and the situation in which the trees are placed. From 

 great experience in the cultivation of the mulberry, I am convinced 

 that the establishment of plantations of these trees will yield large 

 returns, and be of great benefit not only to the agriculturist but to 

 the whole community. The demand for silk produced from the 

 worms fed upon the leaves of the mulberry is always increasing, and I 

 cannot foresee any but the most beneficial results in its general 

 adoption in this country. In the composition of the leaves of the 

 mulberry tree there are five different substances, viz., solid or 

 fibrous, colouring matter, water, and saccharine and resinous or silky 

 matters. The three first substances are not absolutely necessary for 

 the life of the silk-worm. The saccharine matter nourishes and aids 

 in the formation of the animal, and the resinous matter imbibed by 

 the worm from the leaves is accumulated and purified by its peculiar 

 organisation, and collected in the two reservoirs of the worm, to be 

 discharged afterwards through its mouth in the form of silk. The 

 yield of silk will be found in accordance with the presence of more 

 or less of the saccharine and resinous matters in the leaves on which 

 the worm is fed. For instance, the silk produced by the leaves of 

 the black mulberry, which are hard, rough and tenacious, and which 

 was the principal food of worms in the warm countries of Europe, 

 (such as Greece, Spain, Sicily, Calabria, &c.,) is abundant, the thread 

 strong, but very coarse. The worms fed on leaves of the white 



