Page:Tree Crops; A Permanent Agriculture (1929).pdf/127

 facts. This is a reproach to station staffs and also a really interesting piece of human psychology. The mulberry tree warrants careful testing.

As nearly as I can Iearn through trusted correspondents in several southern states, there has been little change in the mulberry situation between 1913 and 1927. The neglect of the mulberry as a crop in the face of such evidence seems to require some explanation. However, this psychological and economic phenomenon becomes easier to understand when one recalls the slavish dependence of the southern farmer on the one crop of cotton. By tens of thousands they have resisted the temptations of clover and cowpeas and soy beans and vetch. They still buy hay for the mule. Nor have they planted pecan trees in their door yards. They grow no fruit, and some do not even have anything worth the name of garden. So the mulberry is after all in good company with the things they haven't done. Occasionally one finds a man who has tried mulberries and does not like them because of caterpillars, but in the main I have found enthusiasm among those pioneer farmers who were trying out the crop.