268 SILK. 



thoroughly boiled, and is better if boiled in milk and water. 

 It should be served up like cauliflowers, with melted butter. 

 It comes in at a season in which our vegetables in this 

 country are very deficient." 



Mr. Armstrong says, " In November, whether your bed 

 has been filled with plants or with seedlings, be careful to 

 cover them with a thick coat of well-rotted dung, and so 

 soon in the spring or summer as you find them pushing 

 through this covering, put over each a garden-pot inverted, 

 having first stopped the bottom holes. The signal for cut- 

 ting is when the plants have arisen about three inches 

 above the surface." 



SILK. The following article, on a subject, whose im- 

 portance is beginning to be duly appreciated in the United 

 States, was written expressly for this work, at the request 

 of the compiler, by a gentleman, who has a practical, as 

 well as scientific knowledge of the processes pursued in 

 Europe in the manufacture of silk : 



The cultivation of the soil is a duty, which was imposed 

 on man almost coeval with the creation. It bears with it 

 the sanctity of a primeval ordinance, and is irresistibly en- 

 dearing, inasmuch as it admirably suits our nature, so as 

 to promote, in a singular degree, health and comfort, vigour 

 and clearness of mind ; the blessing on a ready compliance 

 with this divine law is evident from the happiness which 

 flows therefrom, and which would make of the cultivators of 

 the land, under some better advantages of education, the 

 greatly favoured order of society. It is at the table of their 

 own providing, that the nation is entertained it is to the 

 vigour, and to the faithfulness of their arm, that it trusts 

 for its security. 



All hail, Agriculture and its noble bands ! On the fra- 

 grant earth their appointed labour is performed ; their dome 

 is the pure vault of heaven, and their employ is that by 

 Mercy assigned for the renovation of our race. There, 

 since the days of old, has been the firm foundation of na- 

 tional greatness and prosperity ; and there it must remain 

 until the end of time. It is to those purposes, that com- 

 prehensive and active minds would find delight in directing 

 their powers, because of the vastness of the field to ex- 

 plore, and of the greatness of the results to be expected. 



Much has been said of the roughness of the New Eng- 

 land soil and climate, and much more than ever was true. 

 Since the time of the Pilgrims, however, what harshness 

 there was has beep softened, and the climate, in our days, 



