THE 



FLUSHING FARMER 



AND 



SILK CULTURIST. 



A MONTHLY PERIODICAL. 





Vol. I. 



MARCH. 



No. 1. 



A Short Treatise on the Mulberry. 



All the species of this tree are natives of China but one, and 

 that one is indigenous to North America. The different Chinese 

 species have produced innumerable varieties, more or less va- 

 luable for the silk culture, and the one American species has 

 produced two or three varieties, found in a wild state, and above 

 a dozen obtained by garden culture. 



The species and varieties of the mulberry, suitable for feeding 

 the silk-worm, are so numerous, that while some are best suited 

 to the southern states, and others to the middle, there are seve- 

 ral which will flourish and afford excellent silk even on the plains 

 of Abraham. 



No person residing in the United States need, therefore, to 

 despair of possessing a variety suited to his respective locality. 



Among those which now command pre-eminence for the 

 south, are the Morus Multicaulis, the Canton, and the Al- 

 pine. The one first named will succeed as far north as New- 

 York, without any winter protection after the second season's 

 growth ; although many persons are under the impression that 

 they must be taken up and housed every winter, an error which has 

 arisen from the general custom of housing the one year old plants. 



The Multicaulis tree produces incomparably larger leaves 

 than any other variety, and these are so thin and delicate, that 

 the worm consumes them entirely. It is distinguishable from 

 all other varieties by the leaf, the wood, and the manner of 

 growth ; and no mistake can ever occur as to its identity, it be- 

 ing so perfectly distinct from all other kinds, that confusion is 

 impossible. He who sells any other variety for the genuine 

 Multicaulis, must do it intentionally. A letter has been pub- 

 lished by some persons who have felt inimical to the Multicaulis, 

 from the pen of Dr. Ives, in which he states, that the Multicaulis 

 is only an improved variety of the white Mulberry, resulting 

 from a high state of culture — an error so gross, that the most ca- 

 sual observer may decide at occe, that it could only have arisen 

 from his having before his eyes the spurious variety, so long and 



