346 



THE MULBERRY TREE. 



Chap. XYI. 



the hand, while the shoots are left to grow on 

 until the autumn. At this period all the planta- 

 tions are gone over carefully ; the older bushes 

 are pruned close in to the stumps, while the shoots 

 of the younger ones are only shortened back a 

 little to allow them to attain to the desired height. 

 The ground is then manured and well dug over. 

 It remains in this state until the following spring, 

 imless a winter crop of some kind of vegetable is 

 taken off it. This is frequently the case. Even 

 in the spring and summer months it is not unusual 

 to see crops of beans, cabbages, &c., growing under 

 the mulberry trees. 



During the winter months the trees are gene- 

 rally bare and leafless. Those persons who are 

 accustomed to live in countries with marked sea- 

 sons, where the winters are cold, and where the 

 great mass of vegetation is leafless, would not be 

 struck with this circumstance in the silk country 

 of China. But the view one gets in this country 

 in the summer months, after the first clipping of 

 the shoots, is curious and striking. As far as the 

 eye can reach, in all directions, one sees nothing 

 but bare stumps. It looks as if some pestilential 

 vapour had passed over the plain and withered up 

 the whole of these trees. And the view is ren- 

 dered still more striking by the beautiful patches 

 of lively green w^hich are observed at this time in 

 the rice-fields and on the banks of the canals. 

 This system of clipping close in to the stumps of 

 the old branches gives the trees a curious and 



