Abstract
Mulberry being the only food of silkworm, Bombyx mori L., is of great economic importance to the silk industry, The success in cocoon production mainly depends on the supply of quality leaves in sufficient quantity. In mulberry, where the economic product is leaf, the uptake of nitrogen from soil is very heavy and high responses to application of nutrients have been reported. Nitrogen supports vegetative growth particularly the leaf biomass. Variation in nitrogen harvest index and other physiological and yield contributing traits were estimated in five mulberry genotypes. Considerable variation was observed for nitrogen harvest index, protein yield per plant and harvest index. The correlation studies indicated the protein yield per plant was significantly correlated with leaf yield, nitrogen content in leaf, nitrogen harvest index and harvest index. The broad sense heritability estimates revealed that harvest index showed highest heritability (88.07%) followed by nitrogen content (82.52%), protein yield (70.28%) and nitrogen harvest index (66.52%).