52

A DISCOURSE

cows, sheep, and other cattle, especially young porkers, being boiledwith a little bran. The fruit is excellent to feed poultry. In sum,whatever eats of them will with difficulty be reduced to endure any thin°-else, as long as they can come by them. Ta say nothing of their othersovereign qualities, as relaxing of the belly, being eaten in the morning,,and curing inflammations and ulcers of the mouth and throat, mixed withmel rosarum, in which receipt they do best when taken before they areover ripe. As for drink, the juice of the berry, mixed with cyder-apples,,makes an excellent liquor both for colour and taste.

10. To proceed with the leaf, for which the Mulberry is chiefly”cherished, the benefit of it is so great, that they are frequently let to farmfor vast sums; so as one sole, tree has yielded the proprietor a rent oftwenty shillings per annum for the leaves only, and six or seven poundsof silk, worth as many pounds sterling, in five or six weeks, to those who-kept the worms. We know that, till after Italy had made silk abovea thousand years, they received it not in France , it being hardly yet anhundred since they betook themselves to this manufacture in ProvenceLanguedoc, Dauphine, Lionois, &c. and not in Orleanois till Henry theFourth’s time ; but it is incredible what a revenue it now amounts to inthat kingdom. About the same time, or a little after, it was that KingJames did, with extraordinary care, recommend it to this nation by abook of directions, acts of council, and all other princely afsistance.But this did not take any more than the proposal of Henry the Fourth,about the environs of Paris, who filled the highways, parks, and gardensof France with the trees, beginning in his own gardens for encourage-ment. Yet I say this could not be brought into example till this presentgreat monarch, by the indefatigable diligence of Monsieur Colbert, (super-intendant of his Majesty’s manufactures,) so succefsfully revived itthat it is prodigious to consider what an happy progrefs they have made*in it; to our shame be it spoken, who have no other discouragementsfrom any difficulty whatever, but our sloth and want of industry; sincewherever these trees will grow and prosper, the silk-worms will do soalso; and they were likewise averse, and from the very same suggestions,where now that manufacture flourishes in our neighbour countries.—It is demonstrable, that Mulberries in four or five years may be madeto spread all over this land; and when the indigent and young daugh-ters in proud families are as willing to gain three or four shillings a day