Page:Tree Crops; A Permanent Agriculture (1929).pdf/121



For a large section of the United States the mulberry is easily the king of tree crops when considered from the standpoint of this book; namely, the establishment of new crops which are easily and quickly grown and reasonably certain to produce crops for which there is a secure and steady market for a large and increasing output.

The mulberry is excellent food for pigs. To harvest mulberries costs nothing because the pigs gladly pick up the fruit themselves. Therefore, mulberries fit especially well into American farm economics because labor cost is high.

The mulberry tree is no new wildling just in from the woods and strange to the ways of man. It is one of the old cultivated plants. It has resisted centuries of abuse. It has been tried and found to be good and enduring.

It can perhaps be called the potential king of tree crops for the Cotton Belt and part of the Corn Belt. The honey locust, oak, and chestnut probably have greater promise, because their crop can be stored; but the mulberry has already arrived and has proved its adaptability and its worth.

The mulberry is a tree with good varieties already established and waiting to be used.