JtJLY I, 1890.] 
THE TROP»CAL AGRICULTURIST. 
49 
SILK, 
It is claimed by some manufacturers we know of, 
that our dyes— we cannot say very fast”onea now-a- 
an,Ys— are unexcelled; that in the matter of plushes 
and velvets we stand alone. This may be so ; certainly 
the qualities are gorgeous. And in the matter of 
economy, ask our friends in the North — say, by the 
Clyde side— what they fabricate from the “• ends 
that were formerly of such little use — whence they 
procure these nozles and chenille curtains. The 
gouty threads of Eastern raw silk have stimulated 
the ingenuity of our inventors, and now the automatic 
fingers step the wandering of gouty silk so soon as a 
knob is encountered in the process. Very many of our 
readers witl doubtless avail themselves of admission to 
the St. James’s Square ball room, and will pdge for 
themselves on all the matters above mentioned. English 
ladies, certainly excellent judges in most matters, will 
fail in this instance. Raw silk from the East is very 
largely used here — much of it from an uncultivated 
worm. There are many observers now roaming over 
the Indian Archipelago and other places, promising 
surprises, or new sources of supply of articles of known 
value ; it is to be hoped that an observant botanist or 
two may be found amongst the comercial reamers who 
possess an eye to the evolution of silk and the food 
of the evolutionests. Our Antipodean co’ouists might 
find it to their interest to bestow more attention on 
the culture of the Mulberry tree and the breeding of 
the silkworm than they have done. 
From a recently issued Consular report on the trade 
of Italy, we gle.m he following particulars respecting 
silk. In passing, it may be remarked that, although this 
document consists of only eighteen pages of letterpress, 
the compiler hag in them stowed away a wonderful 
amount of statistical matter. He says ; — In the year 
1888-1889 over 60,000 quintals tl q. = 100 lb.) of raw 
silk were exported from Italy, which, together with the 
amount of cocoons form 9-lOths of the product exported 
under the denomination of materials necessary for 
industries ('about 320,000,000 fr., or £12,800,000 ster- 
ing). The sdk imported is couaequently in a very 
favourable condition, both in a raw and in a manu- 
factured state, while the import is steadily decreasing. 
As to the £ .«. d. aspect of the subject, doubtless in- 
formntiou could ho obtained from the President of the 
Association, Thomas Wardle, Esq., f.c.s., f.g.s.. 
Leek. — Gardeners’ Chronid e. 
MULCHING B^EUIT TREES, ETC. 
There is one matter of modern practice which gets 
insisted on in and out of season, by gardeners in 
print and in speech, and which runs the risk of getting 
ovrerdone, and that is mulching as applied to the roots 
of trees in our orchards and kitchen gardens. _ 
Mulching, as applied to trees newly planted, is right 
enough, and is a help to speedy rooting, equally 
applicable to the forest tree or garden shrub. Even in 
these cases the amount should be small, and not extend 
much beyond the root area, its sol» object being 
the retention of meioture in the soil ; for if the latter 
becomes evaro’"ated by hot sun and parching wind, the 
inter.sticps of the soil become filled with air, which 
draws the moisture, or in oth^r words the sap, out of 
the roots in a harmful degree, and the exhaustion of 
moisture from the soil is only partially replaced in the 
warm season by capillarv attraction from below, or 
by unce.rtain rains. Before mulching became so 
generally advised, we were taught to rely on a crumbly 
surface to retain moisture in the laud, and for all 
subject not recently planted, I prefer it to mulching, 
as being better adapted to our moist climate and 
weak sunshine. For if mulching has its benefits, it 
aiso bas the one great drawbick of hindering the 
action of the sun in aerating and warming the earth. 
We look to the siin as the one source of heat where- 
with jilants are enabled to grow, and yet we do much 
by putting '-.i masses of non-conducting material like 
wet straw and Fern, and even short grass, to hinder 
the access of sun-heat to the soil surrounding the 
roots of our trees. 1 will rrmem'iev an instance of 
7 
successful Peach, Apricot, and Fig growing in a garden 
SOO miles north of London, wherd the gardener— who 
by the way, had never missed a crop in the thirty years 
he hold the si tnation— never employed mulching to 
his wad trees after the first summer following replant- 
ing. The border was of moderate depth, of lightish 
loam resting on basalt rock, or tbe overlying strata of 
heavy loam inclining to clay. The soil of this south 
border was warm to the depth of one and a half feet 
because there was no non-conducting medium spread 
on its surface ; growth on the trees was moderate, and 
it ripened satisfactorily, forming plenty of blossom buds 
The surface was pricked up twice during the summer, 
and noRd an often as became necessary to Iroep down 
weeds ; and walking on it was by no means forbidden 
—and this was quite judicious, for nothing tends to 
good rooting, short growth, and fruitfulness like a 
firmly trodden soil. In wet weather only were the 
gardeners directed to keep to the row of rough plants', 
which stretched from end to end of the border 
Mulching, unless it be very light indeed, has a 
tendency to prolong growth in the autumn, and hinder 
Its commencement in the spring, and is wanted only 
m the lightest of soils, at lea^t so far as established 
trees are concerned. Rnsnrians will tell us that ex- 
hibition blooms cannot be got without mulching, and 
the season of bloom would be unduly shortened with- 
out It a^ yet good Roses can be obtained without 
its aid. The Rose grower finds it an easy way of feed- 
ing his plants, as by employing strong farm dung for 
tbe purpose he is ab e to do that, and needs not to go 
round to his pets with a potful of stinking manure- 
water from the^ piggenes or the stable, but instead 
thereof waters his mulching with clean water. That 
IS entirely a matter of convenience, and does not 
touch the real point of the case. He is satisfied if liis 
f moreover, 
the Rose puts forth its shoots at an early part of the 
season, and become early matured even under this 
taeatment and the Rose grower does not look for a 
tag crop, but only a few superlatively (rood flowers 
Wm “’'“/ho mulches does but little 
haim, even from mv point of view 
Where mulching i.g of the greatest use. a„d does 
scarcely any inpirv to the plants over which it is placed 
unless a great, thickness is made n.ce of. i,s on plants on 
the rockery, in the flower-bed,s, Strawberry beds edihta 
and sweet Peas in bed.s or rows, Hvacinthn Tnl:r^c’ 
Dahlias, Hollyhocks, Rhododendron? &c. wlSh ta 
the mam exist by means of roots near the surface of the 
soil. To encourage the growth of these roots by means 
of mulcliing containing little or no manurial elemeX 
or still better in the case of the vegetables named with 
one that may consist chiefly of dnno- - naitien, wirn 
reasonable and legitimate practice “ raw, is quite 
Coco-nut fibre refuse is now greatly in favour as a 
nriulch.ng material, and for covering the soil beneath 
plants with small sparse foliage, as bulbs which flower 
Xd S’oS XeX ^ort mediXe 
neatne.ss its employment imparts to^ beds of "it" 
and as it contains nothing thkt is edible If "1 ^ 1 - ’ 
To plants which arp not exnocfpfl fr* u i* 
cropBof fruits, one of the 
leaves, or rather leaves left to de?v about nialX^X 
many surface-roots These sb on M 1 » Plant.s with 
1 ifoh l„ IWekn.., ~ t*," 
K'7,S J" ’•'""'I" 
pieces of stone, boulders, or pebbles aXa muMX'""’d 
moisturaXd' a^s'o ?f"irXhXpis?f 
ance. Our ordinary XlXes are of 
keepers, but they are the worst of heat-kceXrs "wh 
