THE MULBERRY 
349 
The first trees were brought to this country 
by the monks, one still standing at Syon and 
supposed to be the oldest in the country,having 
been planted while the house was a monastery. 
James the First spent largely in planting Mul- 
berries near his palace, and, with the hope of 
setting up the silk industry in Britain, he gave 
seed to any who would rear the trees. Old 
records tell how a certain French noble sold 
1 00,000 trees to English planters in 1 609, but 
the silk-culture never prospered this side the 
Channel, and slowly the trees fell into neglect 
and have succumbed in times of cold, such as 
the winter of 1860-61, which killed many an 
old Mulberry tree. There is something in the 
Mulberry suggestive of the days now gone for 
ever, — my lady's bower ; the cloister walk ; 
the hush of some great fane where the head 
is bared, and the voice sinks to a whisper ; the 
fervid glow of dreamy noontide when Nature 
draws her myriad toilers to her quiet places, 
murmuring " be still, my child." But these 
are foibles of the past. The world has time 
neither to dream, or meditate, or even rest. 
Thehush and quietude have gone amid a bustle 
where place is given to him who shouts the 
loudest, where that which is "boomed" is all 
in all, and chivalry, and reverence, and the hush 
which hears the things alone worth hearing, 
have passed away. And the Mulberry has gone 
too, save from such byways and backwaters of 
modern life where alittle of the hush yet lingers. 
It may be urged that with us the tree is not 
seen as it is in warmer climes, where its dense 
crown yields grateful shade and the branches 
are never riven byfrostorborne down by snow, 
as sometimes happens here. But though we 
cannot showsuch beautiful old avenues as may 
be seen in ancient gardens and monasteries of 
the sunny south, yet there are individual trees 
of finer growth in northern Europe with its 
extremes of temperature, than are common in 
the south, where during centuries they have 
been enfeebled by unnatural loss of leaf. With 
us the Mulberry has had scant care for genera- 
tions past, and the hardy Russian and the 
improved American kinds are still almost un- 
known among us. Such kinds as nervosa are 
beautiful and unlike anything else, while a 
little group of Mulberries upon a lawn makes 
ashelter proof against the fiercest heat, though 
little will thrive in their deep shade. The 
Russian Mulberry, so hardy and enduring in 
the worst soils and most exposed positions, 
makes an excellent hedge, and tiny dwarf forms 
such as Morns Fegyvernekicina are pretty in the 
rock-garden. Most young Mulberries need 
! protection until well established, and some- 
times suffer even then in hard winters, but 
new wood soon replaces such soft shoots as are 
destroyed, and wounds are covered with sur- 
prising rapidity. A merit of the Mulberry 
is its indifference to the smoke of cities. Until 
recently many old trees grew in London, fruit- 
ing freely under the worst conditions. 
Though many Mulberries have been de- 
scribed as species, careful study has reduced 
the number to six or seven, the other hundred 
or so ranking as forms of these. The Black 
Mulberry [Morus nigra) is the best known in 
this country, and nearly all the old trees are 
of this kind. It grows well over a great part 
of England and Ireland, but only thrives in 
sheltered places or against warm walls in Scot- 
land. It grows best in the moist rich soil of 
river-valleys, though trees will grow almost 
anywhere if the land is well drained and not 
too cold and heavy. Young trees three or four 
years old should be selected for planting in 
October or November, their thick fleshy roots 
being laid out carefully without shortening, 
and the tall stems of standards swathed in 
hay-bands to keep them moist until estab- 
lished. For a while young trees grow rapidly, 
though as they begin to fruit freely (mostly 
after six or seven years) growth becomes slow, 
and insensibly the tree assumes its spreading 
mature form. It sometimes happens in rich 
or manured soils that this luxuriant growth 
continues and the tree remains unfruitful ; 
root-pruning or other means of restriction 
will often correct this when the trees are of a 
good stock, though there are sterile forms 
which no amount of care will induce to fruit. 
No pruning is required beyond thinning, the 
natural form of the tree being freely branched 
and spreading. Much water is needed, especi- 
ally while the fruit is swelling, and for want 
of this, trees that bear heavily will often cast 
their fruit in a dry season. The same thing 
happens when conditions are against complete 
fertilisation while the trees are in flower, the 
