THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



iS 



Still there is no doubt that 

 ]k(s done and m:iv continue to 



ety, is equally true, 

 your society already 

 do niucli ^nod. 



Association, even where only " two or three are 

 gathered together, " is more potent than individual 

 effort alone : tlie experience of several collected is 

 bettor than the experience of one. Where much 

 time is not consumed — where too much e.^pense is 

 not incurred — wii'ere the shadow is not grasped for 

 tlie substance — where a passion for e.xtended ex- 

 periments does not outstrip and leave common sense 

 behind — we may e.xpect to derive much benefit from 

 the elforts of agricultural societies. 



I .'im quite sure, although many of these socie- 

 ties have passed away with the excitement in which 

 they were begotten, that not a ^c\v of them liave 

 done good. There are counties and districts of 

 New England much indebted to them for the supe- 

 riority which they have attained. Berkshire in 

 Massachusetts was tliu first to institute, and has 

 been the longest to persevere in her agricultural 

 society : her mountain region can find at this time 

 no superior in the United States in fertility and 

 production. Magnificent cattle range in her pas- 

 tures ; ten thousand flteces are taken from her 

 mountains : the fatlings of the flock are hers. The 

 crops of corn and wheat groan as the burden of her 

 hills and valleys. 



If the united efforts of individuals, judiciously 

 directed, can do much to promote agricultural im- 

 provements, so an ill directed zeal ma}' do not a 

 little to retard tliem. There is danger of over-ex- 

 citement ; and agricultural societies as well agri- 

 cultural periodical publications may be the instru- 

 ments of this excitement. Men who want experi- 

 ence, men who risque to go forward without reflec- 

 tion, may give an impetus to your societies and to 

 the periodical agricultural press. Your good sense, 

 gentlemen, will direct you to detect and avoid the 

 evil consequences of both. There are several things 

 among what liave been called improvements that 

 have turned out to be mere innovations ; and there 

 are other things that have been cried up as useful 

 that may prove worse than useless. 



The benefits of certain information. 



A good rule is never to swap away a certain good 

 in the uncertain prospect of something better; and 

 another good rule is never to risque so much in a- 

 ny untried experiment as will allow a failure to op- 

 crate extensive injury. For example, we may, on 

 the faith that a kind of corn has been raised in 

 Kentucky that yields a double vrop, seek out and 

 substitute that corn for our own lands, when it shall 

 turn out that the same kind here that is so success- 

 ful there, from difference of climate, will not ar- 

 rive to the growth of corn in the milk. On a rep- 

 resentation that the wheat brought from another 

 country is of excellent quality and yields in great 

 quantity, with no other information, we may sow 

 our usual ground in the spring with this choice 

 seed, and find at mid-summer that the seed we 

 have used should be sowed in a different prepara- 

 tion in the previous fall and not in the spring. 



Without accurate information, there is always 

 danger of failure in experiments. The most ingen- 

 ious first inventor of a machine curious and useful 

 seldom reaps the reward of his discovery : it pas.s- 

 es into other hands before it attains its ultimate 

 perfection. So the first experiments in agricultur- 

 al irhprovements are more useful to the public than 

 to the experimenter, because each individual to 

 whom the knowledge comes has equally the bene- 

 fits of the experiment, and can as readily avail him- 

 self of the benefits of its first errors. 



Certain accurate information is a point at which 

 the agriculturist should aim. Th:it book informa- 

 tion which describes only a part is worse than no 

 information. On points of experience 1 couldgain 

 move in conversation one half a day with a farmer 

 who has cultivated ground .<^imilar to my own 

 twenty and thirty years, than I could to pore over 

 European scientific publications on agriculture for 

 the space of a month. The reading may bo useful 

 to me ; but without the benefits of my neighbor's 

 experience along with it, my scientific reading will 

 avail me little. Tlie evidence of my talent will 

 consist in the discrimination and good sense with 

 which I ehall apply the knowledge which I have 

 gained both from conversation and reading. 



The Multicaulis not adapted to New- 

 I^ngland. 



I will notice a few of the failures which occur to 

 me as likely to result from the passion of farming 

 on mere theory, or froni scientific book farming. — 

 And first I will bring to your attention. 



The Morus Multicaulis or Silk fever. I believe 

 no agricultural society orpublication in New Hamp- 

 shire has yet induced our farmers to go extensively 

 into this business. In relation to the White Mul- 



berry the developments of the last twelve years 



have convinced me that neither will thistreestand 

 the climate nor can the worms be reared to produce 

 cocoons in suflicient quantities to make it a profit- 

 able pursuit on an extensive isolated .scale. I know 

 a large orchard that was carefully prepared ten or 

 twelve years ago and as carefully fenced and cul- 

 tivated, that made little or no progress after the first 

 two or three years. There are instances of the 

 White Mulberry in warm sunny positions out of 

 the wind and in a free rich soil where the tree has 

 flourished : such cases furnish the means for perse- 

 vering, industrious ladies rearing worms, reeling, 

 spinning and weaving beautiful specimens of silk ; 

 and this they often do as well to gratify a laudable 

 pride as to obtain profit. But the morus multicau- 

 lis, the n>ore tender Chinese mulberry, never can 

 permanently flourish either in Vermont, New 

 Hampshire or Maine ; and I very much doubt its 

 success either in Massachusetts or any other New 

 England State. Cultivated as an annual plaut, 

 the chance will be equal at least that it will not suc- 

 ceed ; cultivated as a permanent tree, it must ut- 

 terly fail. 



There is a possibility that the business may suc- 

 ceed in the warmer soil of New Jersey, and Penn- 

 sylvania, and in parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illi- 

 nois ; but for the same reason that the finer manu- 

 factures of cotton and woollen have never pros- 

 pered in the States dependent on slave labor, so the 

 silk growing business I fear may drag out a miser- 

 able existence in the States south of the Chesa- 

 peake and Ohio. The skill of more diligent, nicer 

 and more careful hands is required for the silk cul- 

 ture. Cheap labor is also required; and it is this 

 cheap labor, with exact and accurate, although 

 sometimes feeble hands, that enables France and 

 Italy and the extensive regions in Asia to turnout 

 the various silk manufactures in quantities. So 

 long as negro labor applied in a crude and rough 

 manner, can produce Indian corn, wheat, tobacco, 

 rice, cotton and sugar, there will be little encour- 

 agement to the planters to employ their slaves in 

 the cultivation of the Morus Multicaulis. The 

 present generation of white people in the land of 

 slaves will not be induced to apply their own hands 

 to the rearing of silk worms and the reeling of co- 

 coons. 



If at this time it were possible to make the man- 

 ufacture of silks a tolerable business, policy, would 

 direct the farmer of New Hampshire not to embark 

 in it as a main business. At present to incorporat- 

 ed compnnies success is out of the question : capi- 

 tal applied must be consumed with this as a sole 

 jiursuit, and overwhelming debt will finish the de- 

 struction. The encouragement in present pursuits 

 is too great, the prices of present products are too 

 high, so that there is no sufficient inducement for 

 any New Hampshire farmer to change his accus- 

 tomed pursuit for that of raising mulberry orch- 

 ards and attending cocoonries. The rearing ot'stock, 

 whether of cattle, horses, sheep or swine, froin the 

 present prices, will enabhvthe industrious farmer 

 with the proper soil to accumulate in all rational 

 anticipation. The growth of wiieat, rye and corn, 

 and the various grains, the cultivation of potatoes 

 and other root crops, the cash value of a liay crop, 

 the productions of the dairy, leave the farmer little 

 in doubt of a rich reward for his well directed la- 

 bor. If silk manufactures, without interfering 

 with these, can be introduced into our families, 

 and employ those fair or feeble hands that might 

 not otherwise be employed, very well. 



I am aware tliat in this caution to New England 

 farmers I am not without opposition : by some my 

 present doctrine will be considered heresy. A gen- 

 tleman in a town of Massachusetts situated not 

 much farther south ofKecnethan Keene is distant 

 from Concord, who has devoted his time in the 

 cultivation of the Mulberry the last seven years, in 

 a letter to Judge Buel of Albany, written the last 

 month, says he is " strong in the faith, that this 

 country will ere long, not only supply her own 

 wants in the article of raw silk, but have a large 

 surplus for Europe." He says "we can raise silk 

 on all our farms, and to more profit than any other 

 ao-ricultural production, cotton not excepted : I 

 will now assert (he avers) that we can raise silk 

 cheaper than France or Italy." The individual 

 who makes this assurance has embarked much 

 property in the undertaking, and is reported to 

 have made much money in the sale of Mulberry 

 trees at high prices. A newspaper published in 

 his town (the Courier of Northampton) is no less 

 confident in the success of the silk business than 

 Mr. Whitinarsh : the editor says — "We are satisfi- 

 ed that the silk business has become permanently 

 established in this country, notwithstanding public 

 skepticism; and further, that it will ultimately 

 constitute one of the most important products of 



the agriculturist in the United States." The same 

 paper says, one million of Mulberry trees are grow- 

 ing in Northampton and its vicinity; that many 

 individuals possessing character and zeal have there 

 been engaged in tlie business for years ; that the 

 trees are not owned by mere speculators, but that 

 almost every individual who has cultivated trees 

 extensively this year is also a grower of silk at 

 Northampton ; and that five or six individuals are 

 feeding from one to two hundred thousand worms 

 each, and many have smaller quantities, besides 

 the immense number which have already wound 

 their cocoons. 



A subsequent number of the same newspaper 

 says, "It is not a little remarkable, that notwith- 

 standing the crop of Mulberry trees this year ii 

 vastly greater than last, the trees should now be 

 scllino- at twenty per cent, in advance of what they 

 were at this period last September. Good trees are 

 not selling much less than fifty cents, whereas last 

 September, early in the month, 10,000 superb Mul- 

 ticaulis trees were sold in this town for 35 cents the 

 entire hill ! They doubled in value before the end 

 of the month, from which fact, in connection with 

 the price at which trees are now selling, we may 

 fairly infer, that this autumn and winter they will 

 be nearly as high as they were last winter and au- 

 tumn !" 



Strong confidence is expressed in many newspa- 

 pers and by distinguished individuals in the south- 

 ern States in the success of the silk culture. The 

 Philadelphia United States Gazette says many per- 

 sons in that city are feeding lots of silk worms, and 

 find it rather a pleasant recreation than luiiur ; and 

 has little doubt that silk will become one of the 

 products of this country. "We think it likely 

 (says the same paper) that many ni'llions of worms 

 will be reared in this city by females, who pur- 

 chase leaves every morning fresh in the market, 

 brouoht in of course by those who raise the Mul- 

 berry trees, but have not time to devote in rearing 

 the worms. Both these kinds of labor will in this 

 way he found profitable to those who engage 

 in it, and will be anotlipr abundant source of 

 wealth to individuals and to the country. We 

 know several ladies who are rearing silk worms, 

 and who find it a most pleasant employment, both 

 mental and physical, and as profitable as agreea- 

 ble." 



Perusing statements and anticipations express- 

 ing strong confidence in the ultimate success of 

 silk o-rowing, my hopes are almost inclined to pre- 

 pond°erate over my fears. If it can become a prof- 

 itable, and will become a general business in warm- 

 er latitudes than ours ; if it can be brought to e- 

 qual in importance the cotton cultivation, most 

 happily shall I be disappointed. If ladies and that 

 portion of our population in New England whose 

 labor is not Indispensable in other necessary em- 

 ployments, can bring forward the silk culture, they 

 will deserve well of the country. But for the pres- 

 ent it will be folly for our farmers to omit their u- 

 sual crops, and devote themselves exclusively to 

 silk. Disappointment to hundreds in the southern 

 States was the result of the passion for the Morus 

 Multicaulis of last year. Hundreds of thousands 

 of cuttings and buds, when placed in the ground, 

 never sprouted : these were purchased at a higlj 

 price and were not only a loss to the amount of the 

 first cost, but a double and treble loss in other ex- 

 penses incurred. 



From the confident statements of the Northamp- 

 ton editor the public are led to understand that the 

 price's of mulberry trees and mulberry cuttings are 

 to be kept up : speculation is stimulated by these 

 confident statements. But "Northampton is the 

 greatest market for silk and mulberry trees in New 

 England;" consequently the citizens of Northamp. 

 ton have a strong interest to keep up the excite- 

 ment. I have found it to be the invariable safe 

 course for all who have no property they can afford 

 to throw away, to purchase no article or commodi- 

 ty not absolutely necessary when that article or 

 commodity bears an unusual price. Wealthy men 

 may afford, as in the State of Kentucky, to pur- 

 chase a short horn Durham bull or cow at enor- 

 - mous prices, ranging from one to two thousand 

 dollars each ; and they will be gainers by it if they 

 can either sell immediately at an advance, or keep 

 up the delusion until the progeny of their purchase 

 can be disposed of at an equal price. The price of 

 a single breeder of the Berkshire swine at three to 

 five hundred dollars might not be exorbitant if a- 

 nother breeder could not be raised for a hundredth 

 part of that sum, and procured in various sections 

 of the country for the sum of ten dollars. 



I am quite sure, gentlemen, I give none of you 

 bad advice when I recommend that you purchas6 

 no Multicaulis buds or cuttings when the price i« 

 such as to yield a profit to the owr.er of front three 



