Page:Tree Crops; A Permanent Agriculture (1929).pdf/125

 Mr. J. C. Calhoun, farmer of Ruston, Louisiana, says, "The variety is the 'Hicks.' I set them out 30x30 feet apart. I have 50 trees. They were mere switches when I set them out about three feet high. They began bearing the second year and made rapid growth. The fourth year after putting them out the trees would nearly touch, and they are abundant bearers—ripening from the last of April to the last of July. There is nothing that a hog seems to enjoy better than mulberries. I always feed my hogs at least once a day, but I find that it takes considerable less feed for them to thrive and do well during mulberry season," (Letter. March 7, 1913.)

In the course of much correspondence and a long journey through the Cotton Belt in 1913 I met many such enthusiastic statements.

In that east-central part of North Carolina where the mulberry orchard is a very common part of farm equipment, a veteran of the Civil War (a captain) declared, "When I lived