20 



THE FARMER'SMONT[]LY VISITOR. 



The Mulberry. 



We say but little in relation to tlie cnltivation of 

 the mulberry, because from the experiments alrea- 

 dy made, we are not quite sure that the common 

 white mulberry, much more that the Morus Mul- 

 ticaulis or Chinese mulberry, will succeed in this 

 northern climate. In various positions, where great 

 pains Iiad been taken to rear the common mulber- 

 ry, we liave seen them killed down to the ;^round 

 year after year, and it remains to be proved to us 

 that tl]ey can be sustained to full growth in this 

 climate. 



As a substitute for the common mulberr\', the 

 Morus Multicaulis has been introduced, and this 

 is said to be peculiarly valuable from the circum- 

 stance tliat it will yield abundantly from tlie cut- 

 tings and grovv'th of a single year. We very much 

 doubt whether leaves can be produced in abund- 

 ance and cheap from the growth of one season. 



We consider it a fortunate circumstance that the 

 Morus Multicaulis fever has not yet reached New 

 Hanipsliire : it is raging equal to an eastern land fe- 

 ver at the South, and not fartlier south than Mas- 

 sachusetts. We somewhere have seen it mention- 

 ed that a person sold a hundred very young trees 

 for four hundred dollars ! A few trees will furnish 

 a sufficient number of buds to count a thousand 

 dollars ; so that a trader in the Chmese mulberry 

 may carry his fortune in a pair of saddle bags ! 



A vender of mulberry trees recently called on 

 us: wc suggested to him the difliculty of our cli- 

 mate. He assured us there was a kind, tiie Alpine 

 mulberry, which would certainly stand tiiis climate. 

 We shall be glad to be informed if any of our 

 readers have tried and proved this Alpine juulber- 



The silk growth is an important one tor the 

 country : to produce here what annually costs the 

 nation in money sent abroad twenty millions of 

 dollars, is worthy the best efforts of our couiitrv- 

 men. There are cases of the successful produc- 

 tion of silk in this State for a succession of years ; 

 we mention the instance of Mrs. Kimball of Hop- 

 kinton, N. H. who has produced it in all its varie- 

 ties from the cocoon to the manufactured garment 

 for the last three years. We might also mention 

 the little town of Mansfield, in Connecticut, which 

 within the last icw years has increased its produc- 

 tion of the best of sewing silk, much of which is 

 retailed in New Hampshire, from $^.5,000 to ^69,- 

 000 per annum. Such examples should encouraire 

 all to persevere in the culture of the mulberry as 

 far as prudence will allow. 



Hon. Rufus M'Intire of Parsonsfield, Me. says 

 in a communication published in the Yankee Far- 

 mer, he brought two of the young Morus Multi- 

 caulis from Baltimore to Maine si.T years au-o, and 

 after repeated trials with new cuttings he has but a 

 single root left, and that was cut down to the 

 ground by frost last winter. He cautions the peo- 

 ple of Maine not to calculate confidently on rais- 

 ing silk from feeding on this species of mulber- 

 ry- 



American Silk. 



The signs are most auspicious that we are aliout 

 to make a very important addition to the number 

 and value of the products of American industry, 

 by adding Sil/i to the list of our staples. As a 

 measure tending to embody and diffuse widely and 

 most efficiently all information to be gathered on 

 the growtli and manufacture of silk, from the best 

 sources at home and abroad, the late Convention at 

 Baltimore unanimously recommended the estab- 

 lishment of a Journal to be devoted to these ob- 

 jects; and happily, as we think, for the success 

 and usefulness of the measure, they have solicited 

 Mr. Skinner, the founder of the American Farmer, 

 and of the Turf P^egister, to become the editor of 

 this national work. A portion of the Silk Journal, 

 which is to consist of thirty-two pages monthly, 

 will be set apart for the kindred subject of agricul- 

 ture, horticulture, and rural economy. The price 

 is two dollars per annum. ; Mr. Skinner, expressing 

 his conviction that the culture of Silk is destined 

 to be, and that speedily, an object of profitable 

 employment for the now unproductive laboring ca- 

 pacity of the country, and to add very larcrely to 

 the wealth of the nation, has accepted the invita- 

 tion of the Society to conduct the Journal with all 

 his ability and attention, " consistently with a strict 

 discharge of his official duties" as postmaster. 

 The first number will appear in the course of the 

 present month. 



Another striking sign of the success of the silk 

 culture is the offer of a wealthy house of Glas- 

 gow, in Scotland, to establish in Virginia a manu- 

 factory which shall demand annually $100,U00 

 worth of raw silk — J\'ational fntcfli'rcnccr. 



[nrHere is something tangible in relation to the 

 Morus Multicaulis; A Mr. Olmsted of East Hart- 

 ford, Conn, while on a visit at Augusta, in Geor- 

 gia, exhibited to the editor of the Georgia Consti- 

 tutionalist samples of sewing silk, twist, and raw 

 silk of various colors, of tlie best qualities, and 

 which were raised and manufactured on liis own 

 farm during the last year. Tile editor says — "The 

 samples exhibited to us were parts of the product 

 of an eighth of an acre of ground, planted as an 

 experiment. — We were informed by Mr. Olmsted 

 that the trees from v/hich the worms were fed, were 

 planted between the 15th and SOtli of May last, in 

 rows of three and a half feet apart, on land culti- 

 vated the preceding year, and of a sandy loam ; 

 ploughed up about the middle of September. He 

 commenced gathering the leaves and feeding about 

 the 10th of July. The quantity of leaves gather- 

 ed amounted to 11C4 lbs. The number of silk 

 worms fed, 3'.2,O00 ; and the quantity of cocoons 

 produced nine bushels, vicflding nine pounds of 

 silk, waste silk and floss 1 lb. About .5U00 of the 

 worms were fed on 180 lbs. of leaves, and the pro- 

 duct of them was two bushels of cocoons, or two 

 pounds of silk. This establishes the fact that 'M 

 lbs. of leaves of the Morus Multicaulis are suffi- 

 cient to produce one pound of silk. He commen- 

 ced plucking the leaves when the trees were 3 and 

 4 feet high, leaving four or five leaves at the top 

 of the tree. He thniks the produce of the eighth 

 of an acre would have been more than 1200 lbs. of 

 leaves; but being short of worms he had \ise for no 

 more than 1164 lbs. If we take the estimate of 

 1200 lbs. of leaves to the eighth of an acre, as a ba- 

 sis, the produce of an acre would be over 100 lbs. 

 of silk ; but allowing even 100 lbs. to the acre, the 

 silk, as manufactured in sewing silk, being worth 

 §10 per pound, the produce of one acre of land 

 would be $1000, besides multiplying the trees for 

 market." 



The Chinese Mulberry will be as valuable in 

 New Hampshire as in the South, if its profitable 

 culture can be effected from the buds of the same 

 year. All sorts ofknavery are practised in regard 

 to this new stock of Mulberry : let every man ful- 

 ly ascertain facts before he venture on much ex- 

 pense. 



Jlslics are supposed to be of a drying nature and 

 to operate best on cold and wet ground. This is a 

 mistake: the practical editor of the Boston Culti- 

 vator says ashes will keep dry grounds moist lon<r- 

 er than any article he has ever applied. 



From tb" same authority, we state that trees for 

 transplanting, for the apple or ])ear, peach or plum, 

 are much better, when well taken care of, at two 

 or three years growth than when older. Trees for 

 rapid and continued growth ought not to be more 

 than five feet high : a larger tree is apt to be stun- 

 ted. 



Instead of ploughing apple orchards for culiiva- 

 tion in the spring, it is recommended that they be 

 ploughed under either with or without a coat of ma- 

 nure, in the month of September, roll the furrows 

 down close, harrow and sow with herds grass or red 

 top — reserving a few pounds of clover to be thrown 

 in winter upon the snow. The crop of grass will 

 be abundant with manure; and, without it, the 

 green sward ploughed under will keep the ground 

 in good condition. 



Where the ground is too stony for the plou.o-h, 

 a drove of hogs is said to be good for an orchard : 

 those will change its complexion in a short time. 

 An eye should be kept upon them that they do not 

 gnaw the bark of the tree. 



Land that is too wet for the hoe may be made to 

 produce grass by turning over with the plough in 

 September: spread upon the top fine manure if 

 necessary, harrow down, and sow with herds grass 

 or red top. Clover should not be sown till winter, 

 when it is too late for the seed to vegetate, as 

 the young plant will winter-kill which starts in 

 the fall. 



Grass does not impoverish land like grain:the roots 

 of grass becoming matted bind out. Low grounds 

 should be ploughed as often as the rushes and sour 

 grasses expel the better grasses for hay : the grass- 

 es, roots and other vegetables turned under become 

 manure and keep the ground light. It is believed 

 the plough in the low intervales will best extirpate 

 the water-willow and other troublesome bushes 

 which invade the soil ; after the plough, harrow 

 without turning the sod, roll and sow with herds 

 grass and red top. 



There is a slocking factory in Portsmouth, N.H., 

 in which 1200 pairs of hose are made in a week. 

 It gives employjnent to 70 hands — and will in an- 

 other :ycar probably give employment to 2(10. It 

 operates part of the time by water, and when that 

 fails, by eteam 



Cattle Leanto. 



The Yankee Farmer recommends that instead of 

 a leanto with a hard plank floor, through the crevi- 

 ces of which the liquid part of the manure disap- 

 pears and is not again heard from till tlie barn is 

 pulled down or removed — the cattle should be pla- 

 ced in a stall where the floor is loam or sand, cov- 

 ered with the orts of the manger, or straw, or 

 leaves, or some other material ; that the back part 

 of the stall should be several inches lower than the 

 front, so that the creatures will have an easy bed ; 

 that in the spring the whole bed be removed for 

 manure, to be replaced every year with a new bed 

 of the same kind. 



The same writer recommends, as a still better 

 method of wintering cattle, that they be kept in 

 cellars or basements open to the south and east, to 

 be fed from the floor of the barn above standing 

 on a side hill. Here the cattle, being suffered to 

 run loose, choose their own bed, always a dry one 

 — rise early with heads at liberty — in the cold and 

 wet finding shelter, lying abroad in the warm 

 nights. In spring the sides of cattle kept in this 

 manner are clean as in autumn, and the milk from 

 cows is also obtained clean : being not so much 

 exposed to the sudilen extremes of heat and cold 

 as cattle often are that are kept in close stalls, they 

 eat with a better relish, consuming the orts of the 

 yard when exposed to the open air ; and when the 

 yard racks are properly made, less hay is expended 

 and wasted than in the stall. The labor is stated 

 to be much less in attending them. But the grand 

 object is the manure, which, instead of being froz- 

 en and dried up, is generally trampled dow.i and 

 mixed by the cattle with the litter or other rubbish 

 carted into the yard and under the barn and sheds, 

 where it is intermingled with the stale, and not dis- 

 turbed till It is wanted for the field. In this way, 

 if the cattle are constantly supplied with water in 

 the yard, not a particle of manure is wasted. This 

 method is recommended by Win. Buckminster, 

 Esq. an experienced fiirmer of Framingham, Ms. 



Wild Lands in Maine. 



From the report of the Land Agent of the State 

 of Maine, we learn that $28,2-50 82 have been ex- 

 pended on the Arostook road in the wilderness of 

 that State, and that the lots have been all taken up 

 adjacent to the road, and settlements commenced. 

 One man who commenced a settlement in town- 

 ship No. .5, raised last year sixteen hundred bushels 

 of grain, and another person in township No. 4, 

 raised one thousand bushels. The number of acres 

 sold to settlers of the State lands last year is 12,- 

 827 ; the consideration received $9,428 27, averag- 

 ing seventy-four cents per acre. 



According to the limits as claimed by Maine un- 

 der the treaty of 1783, the unlocated public lands 

 belonging to Massachusetts and Maine, are estima- 

 ted at t),O22,000 acres ; the lands located in town- 

 ships, 2,6.50,000 acres : total, 8,672,000 acres. 2,: 

 240,000 acres of these lands lie north and east of 

 the St. Francois and St. John rivers. Besides 

 these public lands there are about 225 townships 

 lying south of the monument line, belonging to 

 proprietors. 



The State of Maine is destined at no very dis- 

 tant day, if her boundary shall be settled according 

 to the letter of the treaty of 1783, to become the 

 greatest and most wealthy State of New England. 



Lake Erie open. 



The steamboat Columbus, from Huron, arrived 

 at and sailed from Cleaveland on the 14tb of Janu- 

 ary. The steamboat Cincinnati also sailed from 

 there on the 16th, for Detroit, with a detachment 

 of United States troops for Buffalo, under command 

 of Captain Clary. 



The Oswego river and harbor (on Lake Ontario) 

 were perfectly clear of ice, and the schr Gazette 

 left Oswego on the 11th Jan. for Rochester. — .'llba- 

 ntj .'Ir^us. 



There is something remarkable in the meliorated 

 climate of the interior receding from the Atlantic 

 Ocean westward. The lakes Ontario and Erie are 

 due west from the six New England States. While 

 their waters were open to navigation in the month 

 of January, all the fresh water, the rivers and 

 lakes of New England, were fast closed in ice. The 

 ice in the Merrimack in this town was at an aver- 

 age thickness of eighteen inches when broken up 

 by the sudden storm of the 26th January. 



The gradual rise in the waters of the great west- 

 ern lakes for the last three or four years lias been a 

 subject of remark and wonder. Both on Erie and 

 Ontario in Sejitember last, the editor of the Visitor 

 personall}' witnessed the effects of this rise. Ordi- 

 nary forest trees which had grown U]> high and dry 

 and free from the water were killed the last season 



