Those who raise mulberry leaves are not usually the feeders of the silkworms and the leaves from this orchard were being sold at one dollar, Mexican, per picul, or 32.25 cents per one hundred pounds. The same price was being paid a week later in the vicinity of Nanking, Kiangsu province.
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Fig. 188.—A near view of a mulberry orchard in Chekiang province, China.
The mulberry trees, as they appear before coming into
leaf in the early spring, may be seen in Fig. 189. The
long limbs are the shoots of the last year's growth, from
which at least one crop of leaves had been picked, and in
healthy orchards they may have a length of two to three
feet. An orchard from a portion of which the limbs had
just been cut, presented the appearance seen in Fig. 190.
These trees were twelve to fifteen years old and the
enlargements on the ends of the limbs resulted from the
frequent pruning, year after year, at nearly the same place.
The ground under these trees was thickly covered with a
growth of pink clover just coming into bloom, which would
be spaded into the soil, providing nitrogen and organic
matter, whose decay would liberate potash, phosphorus
and other mineral plant food elements for the crop.
In Fig. 191 three rows of mulberry trees, planted four
