74 



FARMERS' REGfSTER, 



[N'o. 2 



these casess have occurred in tlie most northerly 

 parts ol'the Uniteil Slates. Arf lesp >x1h its litness, 

 on account ot the ta.ste and health oi' the worms, 

 we can have the evidence ol'evcry o.ie, I believe, 

 who has tried it since iis first intj'*)dai;tiun. i 

 have never heard of a dissen'ini!; opuiion from any 

 ^Wi who had led wiih it. Ii ^voald be needless 

 ; tointiojuce a c.iiaioirue oi'nanies, as ( have 



jady ijiveti niiiay in ilie previnas niinihers ot' 



e 'Sdkw )rui ;' l»ai eniia^'h can !)e g vea in sup 

 lor; ot' a I lii.; aa )ve latls lo esiaUlish aav laci ca- 

 p lit e orb,'ia_rs,itii)oried l»y ha mm i it's iin ) ly. 



With r.'sp.'ci M ili.i (|ii iliiv oiihe silk, tlie onlv 

 cvi lence ! can oaia n lioai any (av',ail)ie so, nee, is 

 that it is Ii n'.r an.l siron^'-r in projjorlion lo ihc 

 t-liti ol the fil):-!'. I h ive l);3i'n aljle lo olitain no 

 evidence Wiiicii cnaid he relied on. ii[)o!M'i:li!'rside 

 ot" ihe qaesiion, Irani experinsents in Ann'rica; hal 

 lr"j II I^arope, thou^'li many can he tpioied, I will 

 ffive hat one — in a re[)ori on the snliject, hy Al. 

 !Matihevv lian iliinx, the disrijile of Caant 'l)an- 

 d.)!o, and now director of the royal irardens ai 

 Turin, and r)rol) alily the hiijlicst aullioriiy on any 

 qaesiion lespeciina' l!ie irrowih of silk, oiaiiv man 

 II >w livinir. He l['..\ a nuinlim- of worms on the 

 leaves ol" the white nialherry, and an ecMiai riuni- 

 [li^r on those of the m')/-us ?7i,7/ixa.ii;'s. Bath fin- 

 ished in llie same time. Oi'lhe cocoons | roliiced 

 liythe white mnlherry, it reipiired 410 lothelli., ol 

 tho.>ie ol \\rn-' 771 iras muUicauiis, 3S4. I^aidi j oinul 

 gave two ounces of piik of ecjiial lieani\-; Imt in 

 win iiiiiT, natathreadofthoseledon thi'inulticaiilis 

 WiiS lirok m, which was not the case widi ilie olher. 

 These are hut a brief selection of ilie evidences in 

 fivor oi" the Chinese malherry; and wi.ai are 

 thiMii ajrain-:! it l A letter li-i.m a o-enileman in 

 Paris, wiio could have no (known) madve to mis- 

 represent, and concurrent opiniou of a iransien; 

 man (a refugee or exile) ti-om lialy. 



And what are the evidences inliivor of the for- 

 tunate rival of the morus muiticaidis ? Of its hiir- 

 diness, we have no pariicular evidence, to (rive it 

 the advantai^e over the other. It is a native of 

 Brussa, which is in latitude 40, and sixty miles 

 eouth Irom Constantinople, and in the neiirhbor- 

 hood of Mount Olyirjpus, vviiich, beinii TOGO feet 

 hiirh, has snow on its toj'. Uut tlie Andes, Vvdiiclr 

 are nearly three times as high, do not make win- 

 ter at their base. Mr. Rup-gies has ten or twelve 

 thousand trees growincr, which have not been in- 

 jured by the winter. There are several ixentlemen 

 who have many times that number ol" the iniilti- 

 caulis growing, as clear from injury. There were 

 eet last spring on the judge's f"arm, 100 of the Brussa 

 and 50 ol'the miilticaulis. The former were taken 

 fresh irom the ground, the latter came by the pack- 

 et from Boston, and of cour.se were exposed some 

 weeks. Both, lor aught I could see, were in equal- 

 ly good condition. Of the Brussa but one died, of 

 the other I believe none. The 7nuUlcaulis were 

 cut down in the fall within six inches of the around; 

 the Brussa left standing. Both appeiir to be still 

 equally alive, though the ground has frozen to an 

 unparalleled depth : 1000 cuttings of the imilti- 

 caiilis were set, and about 300 of the Brussa. The 

 tnulticaulis cuttini.fs had lain all winter, and the 

 Brussa were cut irom the branches. The weather 

 was extremely unfiivorable. Only about 300 of 

 the muiticaidis lived, and 3 of the Brussa. 1 have 

 yet discovered no diaracteristic marks between the 

 Bruesa and the white mulberry, except such as 



may have been made by location and by peculiar 

 treatment. 



Wiih all possible deference therefore to the 

 judge's superior talents, (^tliough I believe he has 

 not ha. I any more experience in the <2rowing of 

 silk than i have) I must beg leave to appeal from 

 Ins decision in this case to the future exfierience of 

 the [aililic ; ami I ctmfidenlly trust tliat his gener- 

 ous spirit will not It-el any displeasure at my p,er- 

 Ibnning what the sitiiaiion 1 am in imiicraii\ely 

 dmri III, Is of" me as a duty. I am confident that 

 01 is: ol the d lli-rcni -■pecies ot miiiiierrv will pro- 

 duce L''oo I sill< ; aa<l I was convinced, i revioiisiy 

 lo the in!i)riiiaiion received from Qfu. Tallmadue, 

 ibat the conmion black inulberry would produce a, 

 silk of a coarse sironir fibre, pndiably sii| eri.tr to 

 any other lor sewinp' siik. But sevviiiij silk fe hut 

 the smallest iiein in ilie immense business of silk 

 growing, and vviieilier ijoo.l or bad, our market will 

 soon be o'liitted with ii. We shall produce silk lor 

 all ilie various f;iirposes, and that ol" the finest fibre 

 will generally ci)trnnaiid ihe liiirhest price. I be- 

 lieve al-o that nearly every species of mnlberrv 

 W'll be limn. I indio'enous in ihis country; and if f 

 am iioi enabled lo show, in a sliort lime, that the 

 m')nis viuiticiulis is a na'ive of our tlms's, i shull 

 be much disappointed. — Ed. Silkwok.m. 



From tlie Auierican Farmer. 

 E^'TOMOLOGY. 

 To Ihe President oT thu AgriiMiltural Suciety al Annnpnlis. 



Cambridge, Md. March, 20, 1S19. 



Dear Sir. — I have long been imprrssed wiih 

 ihe o| inioii, that no liraiKdi ol' science, perhaps, 

 more deeply interesis the practical lainier, ihaii 

 E.it'))W>l'igy, and none is generally less leirarded, 

 Vhe. numerous class of insects diat blast the niiist 

 fiatteriiiLi' pros|)ects, aie sufiered yearly to repeat 

 their ravages, wiihout a serious efi'ort to obviaie 

 the evil, and the vast varieiies, so uselul, are 

 suffered to perish, li-om the want of knowledge 

 lo preserve them. To learn the natural history ; 

 to enquire into the habitudes of lilij; the charac- 

 ters, changes, and metamorphoses, of beings so 

 important, are objects not so frivolous as they 

 may appear to the ostentatious, but superficial ob- 

 server; it is the only mode raiional or practicable, 

 whereby the propagation of the one, and the 

 destruction of the other, may be accomplished. 



With these views, I have made repeated ex- 

 periments in EaUmwlosy ; and one of the first ob- 

 jects that attracted my attention, was the worm 

 that inhabiis the corn, usually called the grub- 

 worm. I had seen a paper on this subject, by 

 Richard Peters, Esq. in which he represents its 

 parent slate to be the '' scarabaus uo/ue/is." This 

 liicl I doubted, as Mr. Peters hiid not himself wit- 

 nessed the experiment reported by him, though he 

 believed the i'act, and proposed a remedy tbunded 

 upon it: I doubted it, because I had seen the scar- 

 abceus volveiis, in so small a state, as to be almost 

 invisible to the naked eye ; upon which the rea- 

 soning occurred, that the product of a crysalis so 

 large, as must necessarily be that of a grub-worm, 

 could not, by analogical inference, be as diminu- 

 tive as the scarabavs volvens is frequently seen 

 and known to be, and consequently, that Judge 

 Peters was deceived. To come at the fact, I car- 



