| Show 1441 tige tile son SOU i BY LOUIS A BERTRAND jrz tree full of gods blessings delights in a deep rich light loamy soil rich bich mulberry soil sell abounds in our mountain home by rich soil I 1 mean a soil which being naturally composed of calcareous substances of silex humus cist matter and also of a small portion of gypsum or clay is consequently light friable and perfectly permeable such buch soils possess in a high degree the self recuperative powers en joyed by many of our beautiful vales whose loams coams have resulted from fromal e decomposition in of limestone rocks in our big field at grantsville Grants ville and specially at Poes boes sessions I 1 have remarked large spots where the mulberry should grow with a most luxuriant strength I 1 can not boast of having travelled much in utah but I 1 am satisfied that extensive tracts of mulberry soil exist in our northern and southern counties the quantity of silk that those highly favored spots can produce will wili sooner booner or later astonish our people and the world but I 1 do not mean by the above to impress on the readers or of the NEWS that valley land is alone suitable for the mulberry on our benches and even on the nills hills I 1 have observed very fine mulberry soil our peculiar system of irrl irrigation 9 aaion will enable us to transform thousands of barren spots into magnificent mulberry plantations brother geo D watts small hut flourishing one is unquestionably a strong evidence of this assertion and our best bat silk will be produced in the mountainous districts france and italy are the largest silk rowing countries in europe lombar dy y but especially the rich plains surrounding the city of milan produce an immense quantity of silk but its quality is far inferior to the silk blik raised on the mountains of piedmont the best silks in the world are produced in lies les ce cc vannesa ven nesa mountainous district of F prance rance as cold as and perhaps colder th than an sal salt t lake valley I 1 can not forbear to give div 0 hero a glance on the past history of that famous silk region about ninety years ago les Ce vennes offered to the tourist only dreadful chasms and torrents of cooled lavas those bare mountains were without vegetation they were thinly inhabited by wild tribes who by their roughness wretchedness and ferocity re recalled callea to the memory the clans of scotland A few years after everything was entirely changed no more fallow fields no more poverty were to be seen beautiful roads surrounded the mountains everywhere comfort was found instead of want humanity instead of barbarity one would say it was anew a new people however it was only a new generation born among groves roves of a tree unknown to their pre decess ors that tree was the mulberry it grows everywhere on the most narrow spots in the cavity of rocks it encircles the hills it crowns the mountains and every village appears as in a verdant basket the most beautiful white silks in the world are produced in les lea Ce vennes for instance the sina race cocoons raised and reeled on those mountains constitute the only material with the splendid laces of Caen called blondes and the matchless gauzes of paris and amiens akiens are manufactured with two pounds of that silk they can manufacture blonde worth or francs about three thousand dollars in gold fair ladies and maidens of utah what do you think of that I 1 am relying upon you for raising here the sina cocoons before dropping the present subject would indicate a natural law by which every one can discover whether his locality is a mulberry soil or not it is a fact generally admitted by the greatest european authorities on silk slik culture that every kind of soil sell where the peach tree grows and produces good fruit without being grafted is suitable for the mulberry now according to the evidences of that law I 1 am perfectly satisfied 1 s that every county in utah cache and bear lake valleys excepted can pro profitably cultivate that valuable tree and raise a superior silk fellow c citi elti til zens plant immediately the mulberry in every field in every corner or spot which is susceptible of irrigation preparation OF THE SOIL the roots of the mulberry tree striking downward I 1 will never cease to give this counsel to beginners to thor thoroughly u ehly and deeply cultivate the gollob soil before planting and that cultivation common to every class of mulberry becomes more or less necessary in the direct ratio of t the bhe h e permeability of the soils in jn which they t h ey are planted what is the best t time me for planting I 1 do believe our northern counties it is preferable to adopt the spring season in order that the may avoid the seve severity of the winter for his young trees in the he south it will be better to plant in the fall on account of the destructive droughts of the summer MULBERRY CULTURE the mulberry tree is propagated by seeds by cuttings by layers and in 10 europe U rope by grafting in order t to 0 form standard and half standard trees but I 1 think we have no need of grafting in utah for several reasons first by seeds the selection of the tree from which the seed is to be gathered is very important you must choose a middle aged one stout not growing in too rich soil and you should prefer a tree from which the leaves have not been gathered for two years the fruit must be perfectly ripe mash mush well the berries in a tub then fill it with water in order to clear the tho seeds from the glutinous particles by which they are covered to cause the bad seeds to swim over supply the first by new quantities quantified till the bottom af the tub is covered by the mass of the seeds those are the only good ones now if the seed is to be sown in the spring dry it on cloths claths in the shadel shade and when perfectly dry enclose it in hermetically corked bottles with the same amount of very dr dry y sand and keep your seed in a dry cool cool place where it lightly freezes a too severe frost would hurt its vegetal ive lve power if on the contrary the seed is to be sown immediately and then you must get it from the first ripe fruit dry the seed just enough to separate them if this be successful the sowing may bo favorable the young plants may ob tain much strength before the winter but in a cold climate they need to be protected against the frost by a light covering of earth the best time fer for sowing will inevitably vary much in utah according to the locality when the young trees begin to spring outa through the earth they are very tender and the least frost would kill them especially in our northern counties where the temperature frequently undergoes extreme variations therefore it Is impossible to point out exactly the time for sowing it may take place from the beginning of april for the warm localities to the end of may for the cold gnes ones sowing the mulberry seed burld during g the summer being forbidden in all regions where the berries can not be gathered before the beginning of june the season would be too short thereto enable the young trees to acquire strength enough to stand the severity of the winter therefore I 1 advise the farmers of the north to sow in the cpr ng mg sowing in drills will facilitate the weeding the rows should be three feet apart and the seed planted not to too 0 thick cover them but half an inch deep and irrigate frequently when the young trees are coming out you must hoe boe between the rows and weed carefully during summer thin them out when needed |
