13 



multitude of claimants it occasionally 



iilicient jnorit to 



lined ;i:id beeomo a permanent acquisition 



: rriiis. Tlu> tomato, flu- horceole, t.lio 

 -hum, and some, improved va: i<- 

 itatoes, and turnips, 

 u> naturalized within tlio mem- 

 ory <>!' the pr. Cation. Tin- failures 

 iiicantim-.', have been innumerable. A new can- 

 didate tor public favor, which has excited somo 

 attention for two or three years past, and has 



very modestly introduced, is ihe Ramie- 



. a n. -\v tibrons plant, allied apparently 



'on family, and which has been for 



some year-; largely cultivated in Mexico. The 



following are the claims made for it by its advo- 



: 1. The fibre is described as of a fine 

 white, of even texture, and stronger than 

 sat hemp or than the best Belgian flax. 2. 



i be nsed separately in the manufacture of 

 cloth, or may be combined with silk or wool. 

 8. The plant itself, hardy and vigorous, is not 

 affected by long periods of rain, and stands dry 



I.T equally well with cotton, while it 

 will produce the greatest amount of textile 



.f any plant known. It has been grown 

 with success in Mexico, where the rainy seasons 

 are much lunger than in the Southern States. 4. 

 1; makes from three to five crops per year, and 



- from 400 to 800 pounds per acre. It 

 boars no seed, but is grown from the roots and 

 ratoons only. 5. After the land is once stocked, 

 the planting is good for a number of years. G. 

 The cultivation of this plant requires less labor 

 than that of cotton, and the fibre commands in 

 market a better price, having been sold in Liver- 

 pool at G5 cents per pound. 7. It is particu- 

 larly suited to the soil and climate of Louis- 

 iana, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. 

 Time will determine whether these claims can 

 be fully sustained. A textile fibre of this de- 

 scription would certainly be a valuable addition 

 to our materials for manufacture. 



The attempts to introduce the Alpaca, and 

 the Angora or Cashmere goat, as domestic ani- 

 mals which would furnish valuable additions to 

 our textile materials, have failed, the former from 

 the difficulty of acclimating the animal, the lat- 

 ter from its unruly and mischievous character, 

 and the lack of demand for the wool or fleece, 

 which no manufacturer seems inclined to use. 



For many years past, efforts have been made 

 to raise our own silk, in various parts of the 

 country. These have generally been on a small 

 scale, and but moderately successful. The 

 Morw multicaulia, which was the subject of 

 such stupendous speculation, thirty years ago, 

 proved to be unfit for feeding silk-worms in 

 the Atlantic States, though it answers a valu- 

 able purpose for the young worms in Cali- 

 fornia. Other species of mulberry, the Mortis 

 alba moretta and nigra^ answered a better 

 purpose, but the climate of the Northern 

 aid Middle States was too cold and vari- 

 and the work too severe and repul- 

 sive to make silk - culture a popular or 



favorite employment. Since the cocooneries 

 of France and Italy have been affected with a 

 which destroys the worms \>y millions, 

 attention has been directed anew to the matter, 

 ami attempts have been made to introduce a 

 more Iwrdy species of silk-worms here. Two 

 kinds have been tried: the Ailanthus tilk- 

 worm, a native of China, which feeds upon the 

 leaves of the ailanthus and other species of the 

 sumach, and the Tusseh-moth^ or Silk-worm, a na- 

 tive <>f Japan, which feeds upon oak-leaves. The 

 silk from these is inferior in texture and beauty 

 to that of the silk-worms which feed on the mul- 

 berry, but it is strong and durable. The Ailan- 

 thus silk-worm has proved a failure here thus 

 far, though it is, after long discouragement, suc- 

 ceeding moderately in France. The introduc- 

 tion of the Tusseh-moth is as yet an experi- 

 ment. 



Meantime, California is engaging in silk-cul- 

 ture with that energy and on that extensive 

 scale which marks all its undertakings, and 

 crowns most of them with success. Mr. L. 

 Prevost, of San Jose", the pioneer in this enter- 

 prise, is an experienced silk-grower, and ho has 

 awakened such an interest in the subject by his 

 efforts and writings, that citizens are embarking 

 in the business largely all over the State. The 

 climate is admirably adapted to it, and the silk 

 produced there is fully equal in quality to the 

 best of European or Asiatic production. Sacra- 

 mento County alone has over three millions of 

 mulberry-trees, and furnishes already food for 

 ten millions of silk-worms, and other counties 

 were doing nearly or quite as well. Mr. Pre- 

 vost says that in their fine climate one person 

 can raise and take care of as many worms as 

 eight persons could in France or Italy. 



In no country in the world's history has 

 agriculture made as rapid progress as it ia now 

 making in the United States. There is yet very 

 much careless, improvident, wasteful, and slov- 

 enly cultivation ; there are yet too many farms 

 which grow poorer and poorer every year; too 

 much land which suffers for want of manure 

 and drainage; but a comparison of the fanning 

 of twenty or eren ten yf ars ago and that of to- 

 day, shows an advance which seems almost in- 

 credible. Meantime, each year witnesses a for- 

 ward movement along the whole line of our 

 Western frontier, by which a breadth of more 

 than thirteen miles of virgin soil is brought 

 under cultivation, and the frontier lands on the 

 Pacific slope, looking eastward, are being sub- 

 dued in an almost equally rapid ratio. It is 

 but a short time since the practice of manuring 

 land, annually, was confined to the Eastern and 

 Middle States, with perhaps some exceptions on 

 the westward slope of the Alleghanies. The 

 rich soil of the Mississippi Valley, and the fer- 

 tile and arable lands of the South and South- 

 west, it was thought, required no food to supply 

 the waste of exhaustive crops. The wheat, 

 corn, tobacco, hemp, and hay were removed 

 from the farm, and the constituents they had 

 drawn from the soil were not replaced. A 



