THE New American is one of the very best of the mulberries for cultivation in the north. It is hardy, vigorous and productive, and the fruit is large and of pleasant quality. The fruit is black at full maturity, an inch and a half in length, and evenly cylindrical. It ripens during July and early August.

I am unable to obtain any information as to the origin and history of this mulberry. Ellwanger & Barry, who furnished the specimen from which the illustration is made, tell me that they have handled it about ten years. A tree upon their grounds at Rochester, N.Y., measures several inches in diameter at the top of the trunk and is regularly loaded with the long and pretty fruits. It is considerably grown in California.

It is strange that the mulberries are not more generally known and cultivated. They succeed under any ordinary treatment, and their sweet and juicy fruits, ripening through four to six weeks, add a pleasant variety to the fruit garden. The fruit is unknown in our markets, although many inferior ones are common. The New American, Downing (Downings Everbearing), Johnson and Hicks (Hick's Everbearing) are the most reliable varieties. The Downing originated upon the Hudson with the Downings from the seed of the famous Morus multicaulis, which was introduced to feed silk worms. Of late years the Russian mulberry has been widely disseminated, and as it is comparatively worthless, it will be likely to prejudice many people against the mulberry. The wild species, Morus rubra, has long been cultivated to a limited extent, and it is worthy of greater at' tention.

The mulberry thrives best in a good sandy loam. Three or four trees will ordinarily supply a family. The tree requires little pruning or care. It is readily propagated by cuttings, either of the recent wood or of roots. It is also grafted. It is a long-lived tree, and it sometimes attains a considerable size. It is not uncommon to find specimens of the old-fashioned white mulberry a foot and a half in diameter at the base and twenty-five feet high. Many of the varieties are hardy in Michigan, New York and Massachusetts.

As ornamental trees, the mulberries possess merit. They are particularly conspicuous because of the curious and various lobing of the leaves. Individual trees vary much in style of leaf, even of the same species, and the lobing of the leaves on the upper branches is often different from that on the lower ones. A batch of mulberry seedlings often presents an interesting study in this direction. Mulberries are among the last trees to leaf out in spring, but in late summer, when most other plants have lost their special charms, the mulberry begins to ripen its sweet and curious fruits. In most varieties the fruits ripen successively through a number of weeks. I picked the last fruits from a large mulberry tree this year in September. This habit of continuous ripening obscures the amount of fruit which a mulberry tree bears. A member of the Western New York Horticultural Society stated at the last meeting that he has a tree which bears ten bushels in one season.

The mulberry has become most widely known through its value in silk culture, but in the north, at least, it is more valuable as a fruit-bearing tree.

L. H. B.

"O, the mulberry tree is of trees the queen! Bare long after the others are green, But as time steals onward, which none perceives, Slowly she clothes herself with leaves.

* * 'By and by when the flowers grow few, And the fruits are dwindling and small to view, Out she comes in her matron grace With the purple myriads of her race.

- D. M. MULOCK.

"A Quaint old Mill, with an Overshot Wheel".