THE WISE TREE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 31 August 1942, Page 1

THE WISE TREE

A TRIBUTE TO THE MULBERRY Thus a writer in an old periodical:— T was talking, a short time ago with a Huntingdonshire cottager, and was saying how cold the day had been after our previous hot weather. ‘Yes,’ said my friend, 'you mus’n't expect the summer to come all at once. The Wise Tree would have told you better than that. I was up agen the hall this morning, and saw those two Wise Trees that grow nigh to the fish-stews, and they hadn’t put out a mossel o’ show.’ ‘And what tree may the Wise Tree be?’ I asked. ‘lt’s what some folks call the mulberry,’ was the reply; ‘but the Wise Tree is the name as I’ve always known it by ever since I was a child.’ ‘And why do you call it the Wise Tree?* •Why, because it isn’t silly like some trees as puts out their leaves early, and then gets nipped; but the Wise Tree, on the contrary, always waits till the frosses has gone right away, and ain’t to ne dece ved by a stroke o’ fine weather coming early in the season. But when it's sartin sure that it be fine weather and well settled, then it puts out its leaves. O yes, sir, you may rest content on the wise tree telling you when you may be safe against frosses.’ ”

This attribute of the mulberry is mentioned by Pliny, who says: “Of all cultivated trees, it is the very last to bud and it does not do so until the cold weather is entirely passed; hence it has been called the wisest of trees.” Even the Heralds have accepted this, for old Guillim remarks: “This fruit is an hieroglyphic of wisdom, whose property is to do all things in opportune season.” The Court-Pendu Plat Apple is called in some places ‘The Wise Apple.” because it opens its blossoms later than any other variety, and, consequently, they are less liable to be injured by frosts.