RAW-SILK. 



147 



annexed thereto. It is the moms alba, or white (K ) 

 mulberry, not allowed to fruit. 



2d. What kinds will grow best as standard Soonamooky. 

 trees, and what are the best adapted for cultiva- 

 tion on the Bengal plan?" 



Answer, Worms fed on the standard (settee ha 

 ddsee) or foreign, do not thrive ; it is therefore only 

 cultivated for fruit and that sparingly. It arrives 

 at maturity or fruit- bearing in about three years. 

 It is the morus rubra^ or red mulberry, approaching 

 to black, morus nigra. A poor fruit about an inch 

 long, cylindrical, bears twice in the year, about 

 October and March. 



Remark. The cut plant flourishes in the low- 

 lands about Ranjamattee, where the soil is sandy, 

 which keeps the roots cool ; and irrigation is not 

 so necessary, or indeed used here, as it quickly 

 loses itself in the sand : but in the high tenacious 

 ! loamy soil, where water will pass over the surface 

 quickly, irrigation is had recourse to, and a more 

 abundant crop is produced, consequently encou- 

 raged by the planter to his own profit. But too 

 I much watery matter, though eaten voraciously by 

 the insect, is hurtful, from its comparative want of 

 j nourishment or solid nutritive matter, as already 

 observed. The nature of the plant itself being 

 •sufficiently succulent without artificial means, a rich 

 isoil is by no means so proper as that with an ad- 

 mixture of sand above specified. 



L 2 Dr. 



