MANAGEMENT OF FRUIT TREES, &c. 113 



As old mulberry-trees produce not only a greater quantity 

 of fruit, but also much larger and of a finer flavour, than young 

 ones, it is well worth while to take some pains to repair the in- 

 juries which they may have sustained by accidents or age. 



I am sorry tb say, that this pleasant and valuable fruit is 

 but very little cultivated in this country*. 



* Gerard, in his description of the mulberry-tree, has the following cu- 

 rious paragraph *' Hexander in Atheneus affirmeth, that the mulberry. trees 



in his time did not bring forth fruit in twenty years together ; and, that so 

 great a plague of the gout reigned and raged so generally, as not only men, 

 but boys, wenches, eunuchs, and women, were troubled with that disease^" 



