592 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



darker; legs stout, the hinder ones being the 

 longest ; interior thighs inflated. The eggs are 

 deposited in May, but are not hatched before 

 August The eggs are laid in the earth, and also 

 in the dung of horses and cows, in which latter 

 the larvae seem to delight. They perforate the 

 earth in manner similar to a honeycomb, and in 

 this state live on the roots of the strawberry. 

 It is not, however, confined to this plant, but 

 attacks others also. Above where the colony in 

 its larva state is located, fine earth will be found 

 turned up to the surface. When such is ob- 

 served, the nest should be dug up, and the 

 larvae searched for and destroyed. 



The European names are — Fraisier, French 

 — Erdbeerpflanze, German— Aardbezie, Dutch 

 — Fragaria, Italian — Fresera, Spanish — Moran- 

 gueiro, Portuguese — Semljaniza, Russian. 



§ 5. — THE MULBERRY. 



The black-fruited Mulberry (Morus nigra 

 Linn.), a native of Persia, is the only one of the 

 family cultivated in Britain for its fruit. It is 

 supposed to have been brought to Europe by 

 the Romans, and most probably to England by 

 the monks, as it was cultivated in the gardens 

 about London at a very early period. Tusser, 

 writing in 1573, and Gerard in 1596, speak of 

 it as a tree well known. It attains, like most 

 slow-growing trees, a very great age, many still 

 existing in some of the oldest gardens in Eng- 

 land which must be a century or more in age. 

 One in the grounds of the Duke of Northumber- 

 land at Sion House is well known to be above 

 three hundred years old. Some of the old mul- 

 berry-trees in the gardens near London are no 

 doubt the remains of those planted in the time 

 of James I., who as unsuccessfully attempted to 

 set up a silk manufacture in England, as certain 

 wiseacres did towards the latter end of the 

 reign of George III., both in England and Ire- 

 land. It thrives well in the southern counties 

 as a standard tree, producing enormous crops of 

 fruit, which are used for all the purposes to 

 which the raspberry is applied, and to which 

 fruit it has a considerable resemblance. In the 

 warmer parts of Scotland it attains a respectable 

 size, but is less fruitful than in warmer cli- 

 mates. Like the strawberry, the fruit does not 

 undergo the acetous fermentation, and hence 

 with that excellent fruit it may be safely eaten 

 by those who are constitutionally prevented 

 indulging in fruit generally. 



Propagation. — The Black mulberry may be 

 propagated by seeds, which should be washed 

 out of the pulp when fully ripe, dried, and kept 

 till spring, when it may be sown in pots or pans 

 in light rich soil, and plunged in a mild bottom- 

 heat to hasten germination. When the plants 

 have attained 3 or 4 inches in height, they 

 should be transplanted into nursery lines 18 

 inches apart, and the plants 12 inches in the 

 row. The site should be warm and sheltered, 

 and the soil highly enriched. They are also 

 propagated readily by layers, cuttings, suckers, 

 and grafting. The former is the mode usually 

 practised by nurserymen, who have their mul- 

 berry stools, and propagate them by layers, 



training them to a single shoot. They generally 

 root the first year, and should then be planted 

 out in nursery lines 3 feet apart, and 18 inches 

 in the row, where their first training will be 

 effected. The fourth year, if in rich soil, they 

 will be fit for sending out for permanent plant- 

 ing. Cuttings of the previous year's growth, 

 having a small portion of older wood at their 

 base, if planted in autumn in rows a foot apart, 

 and 6 inches in the line, leaving only two buds 

 above the ground, will strike freely; and when 

 the two buds have advanced a few inches, retain 

 the strongest and best placed to form the stem 

 of the future tree, rubbing the other off, that all 

 the energies of the roots may be thrown into the 

 new stem. When rooted, and the foliage begins 

 to drop, they should be transplanted to nursery 

 rows, at the same distance, and treated as above, 

 for layers. Cuttings of the same year's growth 

 will root freely in a close warm frame, and in 

 either of these way s better stems will be obtained 

 than by the layering process. Cuttings, even of 

 the wood of several years' growth, will also root 

 and make excellent trees, and such, it has been 

 remarked, will come into a bearing state sooner 

 than by the other processes. For this purpose 

 straight clean branches, if planted even where 

 they are to remain permanently, will root, and 

 sometimes in four or five years begin to produce 

 fruit. Suckers are long in coming into a bearing 

 state, and the process of grafting or inarching may 

 be_looked upon as more a matter of experiment 

 than of utility, because we have no improved 

 varieties to perpetuate, and the stock would 

 produce a better tree and fruit as soon if left to 

 its own resources. 



Planting, soil, and situation. — Like all other 

 deciduous trees, the mulberry should be planted 

 by the end of October or beginning of Novem- 

 ber. The soil cannot well be too rich, and 

 enrichment applied to the surface over the 

 roots, either by top-dressing, mulching, or in 

 a liquid form, should be attended to during 

 its growing season. One tree is sufficient for a 

 large family, as they bear abundant crops ; and 

 as the fruit does not keep above a day after it 

 is ripe, a greater number would be superfluous. 

 It is best planted in the standard form, and on 

 a grass plot, or the ground under the branches 

 covered with clean straw, hay, or similar soft 

 material, for the fruit to fall upon without sus- 

 taining injury by bruising, or being soiled by 

 falling on the bare ground. The American 

 practice is, where the tree is growing on dug 

 ground, to sow the space as far as the branches 

 extend " thickly with cress-seed six weeks pre- 

 vious to the ripening of the fruit, which will 

 form a carpet of soft verdure." Clean moss may 

 also be used, or better, Haythorn's octagon net- 

 ting suspended to the lower branches, into 

 which the fruit would fall when ripe, and be 

 less likely to suffer either by bruising or mud, 

 while it could be much more easily collected. 



The mulberry is sometimes planted against 

 walls with a southern exposure, and in this way 

 produces large supplies. Two enormous trees 

 exist thus treated, one in the gardens at Hare- 

 wood House, near Leeds, and the other at Old 

 Alesfoord in Hampshire. Both are trained in 



