Mulberry tree

“ Recent experiments, however, have shown that by due management it is possible to make the mulberry tree bear fruit when only three years old. Its propagation is by no means difficult, for a branch torn off and thrust at once into the ground, readily takes root, and becomes ere long a tree; while so tenacious is it of life, that roots have been known to send up shoots to the surface after having lain dormant in the earth for twenty-four years. It rarely reaches a height of thirty feet, and though of a much-branched spreading character, does not usually attain a very large size. ”

“ It is rather important that you seek a spot, just near enough to the grounds to be companionable, there to place a mulberry tree. There is no fruit that is more to their mind than this and it will be a source of delight to watch the shyest birds reward you by flaunting their colors before you as they flit in and out, feeding off the berries so temptingly displayed for their exclusive use. ”

“ The mulberry succeeds as a standard in the warmer parts of England, especially in sheltered situations, but in the north of England and the less favoured parts of Scotland it requires the assistance of a wall. The standard trees require no other pruning or training than an occasional thinning out of the branches, and are generally planted on lawns, to prevent the fruit being damaged when it falls. The tree succeeds best in a rich, deep, and somewhat moist loam, but grows well in any good garden ground. ”

“ The tree, probably a native of China, is grown under cultivation in eastern Canada and United States. It grows rapidly in moist soil and is not fastidious in its light requirements. Its chief value is for screening and for underplanting in woodlands.
The red mulberry (Morus rubra) is apt to be confused with the white mulberry, but differs in the following characters: The leaves of the red mulberry are rough on the upper side and downy on the under side, whereas the leaves of the white mulberry are smooth and shiny. The buds in the red are larger and more shiny than those of the white. ”

“ In this country the Black-fruited Mulberry always assumes something of a dwarf or stunted character, spreading into thick arms or branches near the ground, and forming a very large head. The bark is rough and thick, and the leaves cordate, unequally serrated, and very rough. The fruit is large, of a dark purple, very wholesome, and agreeable to the palate. This tree is remarkable for the slowness of its growth, and for [154] being one of the last trees to develope its leaves, though it is one of the first to ripen its fruit. ”

“ In temperate climates they can be preserved through the winter without hatching until the time when the mulberry tree puts forth its leaves in the following spring. This tree forms the entire food of the caterpillar, and seems almost exclusively its own; for while other trees and vegetables nourish myriads of insects, the mulberry tree is seldom attacked by any but this insect, which in many parts of its native country, China, inhabits the leaves in the open air, and goes through all its changes without any attention from man. ”

“ Growing no crop in the orchard. I think windbreaks are essential, and prefer Russian mulberry, three rows, planted six by eight feet apart. I like the mulberry best because they come into leaf early and hold their foliage late. I prune a little, to thin out and let the sun in. I believe it would pay to thin fruit on the trees. I use stable litter, and fertilizer from the hog-pen, and think it pays if not put too close to the tree. I tried pasturing with hogs, but don't think it advisable, as they destroy the trees to get apples. ”

“ The first appearance of autumn in the orchard is invariably among the walnut-trees. The mulberry, which puts on its summer foliage latest of our familiar trees, and is generally supposed to lose it at the first frost, is even stronger than the walnut, and waves a beautiful head of the deepest green leaves long after that tree has become ragged and unsightly. The ash, if it bears many keys, is perhaps the next in succession to lose its leaves. Many ashes bear no seeds, and then they abound in foliage, while their more fertile brethren look the picture of misery. ”

“ Start with a young mulberry tree, if possible, for that fruit is the most attractive for birds of all kinds. And bees like to hover about mulberry blossoms, too, and get their nectar there. In my opinion, a mulberry tree is a necessity if one wants to keep birds and bees happy.
“Besides the mulberry tree—or three or four of them, if you can find them of a size easy to remove from the woods—take the elderberry bushes, the choke-cherry, dogwood trees, wild black cherry and other kinds that not only blossom profusely but bear fruit that the birds like. ”

“ The mulberry tree which produces the natural food of the silk worm, flourish on all our bench lands, and our climate is adapted to the healthy condition of the silk worm. I would recommend the planting and propagating of the mulberry tree as shade trees, and as ornamental trees; they also yield a great abundance of excellent fruit. Let our cities and gardens be adorned with trees that are both ornamental and useful. ”

“ Planted in the garden or in the border of the lawn where no walk will be defaced by the dropping fruits, the mulberry is a particularly desirable tree because it attracts some of our most desirable song-birds to build on the premises. ”

“ Mulberry trees are common in Lower Egypt. The sunt tree (Acacia nilotica) grows everywhere, as well as the tamarisk and the sycamore. In the deserts halfa grass and several kinds of thorn bushes grow; and wherever rain or springs have moistened the ground, numerous wild flowers thrive. This is especially the case where there is also shade to protect them from the midday sun, as in some of the narrow ravines in the eastern desert and in the palm groves of the oases, where various ferns and flowers grow luxuriantly round the springs. ”

“ It is a shrewd thing to plant mulberry trees on the edges of fruit gardens, and set a row of June-berry trees along the road outside the cherry orchard. It is the scarcity of wild berries that brings the birds into our gardens. Many a fruit-grower has saved his crop by planting wild berry trees for the birds.
The elders are shrubby trees with large, fern-like leaves. They lift up flat, white flower clusters, sometimes as large as dinner plates, in June, and in the middle of summer dark red berries are ripening where the flowers were. ”

“ The white mulberry-tree is much cultivated in this section of the country, not for its fruit, which is but little esteemed, but for feeding the silk-worm. The silk forms a considerable branch of the Damascus trade, and the manufacture of it carried on to some extent. The black mulberry is found in considerable quantities, and is cultivated for its delicious fruit. The white walnut is with the natives a favourite tree. The nut is rich and of a pleasant taste. The tree gives a fine shade, grows well near the water, and is larger than most of the other trees. ”

“ Amos viii, 14; συκομορέα, Luke xix, 4; a large tree, according to the description of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Galen, resembling the mulberry-tree in the leaf, and the fig in its fruit; hence its name, compounded of συκέη fig, and μόρος, mulberry; and some have fancied that it was originally produced by ingrafting the one tree upon the other. Its fruit is palatable. When ripe it is soft, watery, somewhat sweet, with a little of an aromatic taste. The trees are very common in Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt; grow large, and to a great height ”

“ There is an allusion to garden knots in Holinshed's Chronicle. In 1512 the Earl of Northumberland "had but one gardener who attended hourly in the garden for setting of erbis and chipping of knottis and sweeping the said garden clean."
[009] Ovid, in his story of Pyramus and Thisbe, tells us that the black Mulberry was originally white. The two lovers killed themselves under a white Mulberry tree and the blood penetrating to the roots of the tree mixed with the sap and gave its color to the fruit. ”

“ Many of the forest trees were white oaks, and some may have been a thousand or more years old. These groves were revered by the Indians. Indians were fond of the mulberry tree. Smith notes: "By the dwelling of the savages are some great Mulberry trees; and in some parts of the country, they are found growing naturally in prettie groves."
Besides pine, oak and mulberry, there were, Smith writes, "... goodliest Woods as Beech, Cedar, Cypresse, Walnuts, Sassfras, and other trees unknowne." ”

“ The tree is more beautiful than useful, for the silkworms do not thrive well on the leaves and the wood is neither strong nor durable."
"Why, I thought," said Clara, "that silkworms always lived on mulberry-leaves?"
"The white mulberry is their favorite food; and another species, called the Morus multicaulis--for Morus is the scientific name of the family--has more delicate leaves than any other, and produces a finer quality of silk. These trees are natives of China, and the white mulberry grows very rapidly to the height of thirty or forty feet. ”

“ The specific characters of the White-fruited Mulberry are—Leaves with a deep scallop at the base, and either cordate or ovate, undivided or lobed, serrated with unequal teeth, glossy or smoothish, the projecting portions on the two sides of the basal sinus unequal. The fruit is seldom good for human food, but is excellent for poultry. It is a tree of rapid growth, attaining the height of twenty feet in five or six years, and plants cut down producing shoots four or five feet long in one season. ”

“ The mulberry tree that ripens when cherries are ripe has a value in the fact that every mulberry eaten by a bird saves a cherry and the birds are valuable because they destroy insects that cause the worms in cherries. ”

“ The full grown fruit is red, but turns black or very dark purple when ripe. The berry is composed of a compact and adhering cluster of drupes, each drupe about one thirty-second of an inch long. What seems to be a single berry is really an aggregation of very small fruits, each resembling a tiny cherry. The mulberry is naturally a forest tree, but it is permitted to grow about the margins of fields, and is often planted in door yards for its fruit and its shade. It is looked upon by many as a tame species. ”

“ We will pass over the inferior plants and, limiting ourselves to Phænogams, will not dwell on the less conspicuous evidence with the smaller types present. A few cases such as gardens supply will serve. All know that a Pear-tree increases in size for years before it begins to bear; and that, producing but few pears at first, it is long before it fruits abundantly. A young Mulberry-tree, branching out luxuriantly season after season, but covered with nothing but leaves, at length blossoms sparingly and sets some small and imperfect berries, which it drops while they are green ”

“ The mulberry does not thrive in these mountains; but in some localities this tree is cultivated for the sake of furnishing food to a particular insect which lives upon its leaves, and from which is obtained the lague or Chinese varnish. ”

“ A small tree, 15 to 60 feet high. The bark is rough, with long furrows. The twigs are a light greenish brown and the leaf-scars are oval, hollow, and alternate in arrangement. The bundle-scars form a closed chain around the leaf-scar. A milky juice comes if the stems are cut on warm days in winter. Very smooth buds.
The red mulberry is not particularly attractive in winter. In open situations its branches are wide spreading without being graceful, and it is broadly erect in shape without being stately. It grows to be a much larger tree in the South than it does in the North. ”

“ So they voted to find and dig up as many berry bushes or wild grape vines or other fruit-bearing plants for the birds as they could find and carry away before supper time.
Consequently, there was quite a brave showing of bushes and vines along the fence line before twilight that evening. One of the girls discovered a small mulberry tree which was taken up with all its wide-spreading roots. But it took the combined help of four scouts to carry it safely from the woodland to the field. ”

“ The mulberry grows wild over extensive areas in the United States, especially in the Ohio valley. It is a tree valued highly for its wood, which is lasting and excellent for fence-posts. The berries ripen early in the summer or late in the spring and are used as food to a limited extent. ”

“ Good vines will live and bear almost indefinitely.
Mulberry.—Both for fruit and ornament the mulberry should be more generally planted. Even if the fruit is not to the taste, the tree is naturally open-centered and round-headed, and is an interesting subject; some of the varieties have finely cut leaves. The fruits are in great demand by the birds, and after they begin to ripen the strawberry beds and cherry trees are freer from robins and other fruit-eating birds. For this reason alone they are a valuable tree for the fruit-grower. Trees may be purchased cheaper than one can propagate them. ”

“ The leaves of most trees fall in autumn, but in some at a later period, remaining on the tree till the approach of winter, it making no difference whether they have germinated at an earlier period or a later, seeing that some that are the very first to bud are among the last to lose their leaves—the almond, the ash, and the elder, for instance: the mulberry, on the other hand, buds the last of all, and loses its leaves among the very first. ”

“ We saunter into one of the many white mulberry plantations that surround us on every side, and observe that the leafless boughs are only just putting forth their tender spring buds: yet there is an unusual commotion amongst the rearers of the silkworm—whole families, men, women, and children, are variously employed; the earth round the roots of the mulberry trees is being hoed up; some are planting young shoots, others busy in the kitchen gardens; whilst, to the European eye, a few appear as though engaged in a mysterious occupation. ”