The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-05-25


sale stripping would injure cold
trees" and should never be prac-
tised.
II is not supposed that the silk
raiser has trees TO supply the "exact |
amount or quantity" of leaves to
furnish certain quantity of silk,
thus compelling him to injure the
trees by completely stripping off the
leaves, but, that the trees are sufil-
cient in number TO take off enough
foliage to feed the worms raised,
and yet not cause an injury to them.
And here is where the Usage orange
hedges come in play, where or while
the mulberry is scarce.
With a plentiful supply Of these
hedges, as are TO be found all
through our Western States, il has
been found that the silk worms fed
for four weeks on the leaves of the
Usage orange, and balance of time,
till the spinning period, on the
leaves of the mulberry, produce an
excellent quality of silk. 1t must
be remembered, however, that the
first feeding must be on the Usage,
and the last feeding on the null
berry. This rule must never be re-
vcrsed. silk worms, fed first on
mulberry, and transferred from it
to Usage, will not thrive; while, on
the contrary, if fed first on Usage,
and then on mulberry, they thrive
well. l do not advise this plan
where mulberry is plenty, but in
cases where the latter is scarce.
The silk produced on the Usage
leaves alone sells for as much as
that produced Oh the mulberry.
The choice of the two is, of course,
in favor of the mulberry, " the
natural food of the silk worm,"
there being objections to the thorns
of the Usage (Which will disappear
in season or two, with proper
pruning and cultivation), and be-
cause the terminal leaves, becoming
succulent or milky just about the
spinning time for the worms, induce
disease if fed to them. This latter,
observe, is avoided by feeding the
leaves to the worms only for the
first four weeks.
Perhaps the Usage feeding is new
to Mr.. Marques. l cannot pretend
to enter into any argument with
those residing on your islands, they
understanding the climate, temper
ature, soil, etc., which do not.
But Mr.. Marques being a practical
sericulturist, and being there, has q
grand opportunity to prove whether
silk culture can be made success
on the islands or not.
l am not an advocate of the "old
style rules for propagating the mul.
berry tree for silk food, because ]
think them unnecessary. l do no.
believe in such severe "cuttine
down. year after year, but advocate
cutting sufficiently to impart vigo1
to the trees, the lower branches il
particular. Feeding to the worms
as we do, by using the leaves sol
twig and branch, cut from th'
trees judiciously, not only benefit
the worm, but the pruning, conse
quent upon such feeding, will b'
found to benefit the trees and b.
sufficient cutting down. to improve
them, while utilizing them from th'
2nd or 3rd year.
Mr.. Marques speaks truly as t.
the great fruit producer, the Russian
/ being the least profitable mulberr,
tree for silk raising, yet the leaves
are not "too coarse to produc
good silk. The white mulberry vii
be the best to commence with, AM
if desired the improved and grafte
t varieties may be got afterwards
, We advocate the Russian variet
here, because in some sections ou
winters are very severe, and tha
tree is very hardy. This last winte
in Wisconsin where nursery ma
c had the young Russian mulberr
p trees planted out, twice the temper
ature was at 400 below zero, an
the only injury done to the tree
i was little "nipping with FROST {
C some of the tip ends of the branches
not injuring the trees.
The mulberry silk worm (Bomby
NLori) is the only one in this countr
producing marketable silk, and
believe the experimenting with otht
C species, in your country, would onl
n end as it did here, in waste of tin
o and failure. Still perhaps it migl
be worth a trial.
Z E NELLIE LINCOLN RossITER.
IS New Lisbon, New Jersey, Apr. Il
G EOSI