13S 



F A R M E R S ' R E G I S T E R 



[No. 3 



The iu) prove i] power looms for weaving silk ot'l 

 the most pt'ilect construction, are of American in- 1 

 vention. I'lie experiment iiiis since tjeen tried in I 

 Eiitjland but vvitii only partial success. I have | 

 Been Gray's power looms at ]Nantucl<et, for weav- 

 ing plain silks, which can weave pongees at the I 

 rate of 2^ inches in a minute, and of the most 

 perfect maiiufiicture. Ordinarily however, they 

 seldom come up to this speed. A woman can 

 lend two looms. The President of that com- J 

 pany (ihe Ailariiic Silk Company,) to whom the 

 public are greatly indebted titr his unwearied per- 

 Fcverance, has lately' assured me that ilieir suc- 

 cess in the manuliicture exceeds his most san- 

 guine expectations. 



Last summer. S. Y. S. Wilder, Esq., called on 

 me — a gentleman of great inieliigence and the 

 strictest veracity — who owns a very large farm in 

 a neighboring town, though principally he resides 

 ne a merchant in the city of New York. He ap- 

 peared anxions that the people should begin 

 aright. On his farm he is setting out the mul- 

 berr}' on the hills, and Imm his extensive obser- 

 vations and knowledge of the silk business, in 

 which he was constantly engaged during a resi- 

 dence of twenty-two years in France, he is confi- 

 dent that the hill< and uplands are best suited to 

 the mulberry. This confirms my previous state- 

 ments. He observes, to his certain knowledge, 

 that in low grounds and near ponds and meadows, 

 the leaves are liable to become spotted and mil- 

 dewed, and if iriven to the insects, are the sure 

 Eouices of disease. 



These low irrounds are moreover exposed to 

 the destructive frosts of winter, and [heat?] of 

 summer, and are better adapted to the growth of 

 the sugar beet. 



He relates an account of the growth, progress, 

 and profiis ol' an orchard of mulberry trees, set 

 out by a crape manufacturer, and a friend of his, 

 of Lyons, at Fontaine, about fifteen miles fi-om 

 Lyons, about the year 1807. He was invited by 

 his friend to visit this plantation at its formation at 

 that time. Here were 60 French acres, (about 75 

 iinglish acres) just set out with mulberry trees at 

 the rate of 200 trees to the French acre. Six 

 years atler, lie was invited by his friend to visit 

 this plantation again, and was then informed that 

 he had just sold the leaves on the whole planta- 

 tion for one franc for each tree, or about i5;2,000 

 for the whole, to the gatherers. These are ano- 

 ther class, who come, sometimes even from remote 

 BBCtions, with their whole families in wagons, and 

 well provided with the essential means of purchas- 

 ing the leaves on the trees, and with every ncedllil 

 requisite for making silk; shantees or sheds howe- 

 ver are usually provided by the owner, and spe- 

 cial provision is made in the contract, that the 

 leaves of the tip ends of the twigs shall always 

 be preserved to retain the sap and preserve the 

 vigor of the tree. About four years afterwards, 

 by invition, Mr. Wilder made another visit at this 

 plantation from Lyons to Fontaine. The crop 

 had at that precise time, just been sold on part of 

 the plantation at three francs per tree. About 

 seven years after, Mr. Wilder being again invited 

 by his friend to visist the same plantation at the 

 epoch of gathering the leaves, he found that the 

 whole crop, from 10,000 trees had been sold to the 

 gatherers, on the trees, for five francs per tree, or 

 about $10,000 for the whole. And this planta- 



tion bids iair to produce an equal or superior 

 amr u:it of loiiage lor a long series of years. 



It must be remarked liouever, that ihe [jnce of 

 leaves varies somewhat in ditli'rent years, and is 

 sovernod in some measure by ihe demand lor silk. 

 This amount of produce may be regarded as a 

 great estate to the li)rtuiiate possessor, in a coun- 

 try like France, where a man may live indepen- 

 dent and comliirtable on one hall' the income 

 which would he required in America or in Eng- 

 land. It is slated that many of the English go 

 to France, and especially to Paris, there to reside 

 on account of the cheapness and economy of 

 living. 



Mr. Wilder states it also as a lad, which long 

 experience bus proved in France, that more pas- 

 ture is produced beneath the shade of the mul- 

 berry trees, than in the open ground. All the rea- 

 son fbrtliis, which I can assign, is, that the roots 

 ofthe mulberry tree sirike downwards; otherplants 

 may therelbre, with reason, grow well beneath 

 its shade, especially those whose roots do not de- 

 scend deep; besides the tree serves during sum- 

 mer to protect the surliice Irom the scorching sun. 

 This mode of raising the mulberry tree is ex- 

 ceedingly simple, but evidently it is not that which 

 is most approved at this diiy, either in France, in 

 Turkey, in China, or in India. The system of 

 raisinu them in hedge-rows, seems now the most 

 of all approved. And even in Italy, at this day, 

 Bonalbux, the director of the Boyal Gardens at 

 Turin, and the celebrated writer on silk, whose 

 translated works are so well known with us, has 

 recommended hedge-rows, and has made exten- 

 sive experiments, and his authority I deem equally 

 high as that of the celebrated Dandolo, whose 

 disciple he was, and especially as his writings are 

 of a more recent and of a later date. 



John P. Cushing, Es(|. a gentleman who has 

 resided many years in China, has stated that the 

 most approved mode of cultivating the mulberry, as 

 practiced in many parts of that ancient and exten- 

 sive empire, consists in keepingthem low by annual 

 prunings, like plantations of raspberries. This 

 system has, at a late date, attracted the attention 

 of M. Eonafoux, and has been adopted in prac- 

 tice and highlv recommended by him. In an ar- 

 ticle which I find recorded in the Annales de I'ln- 

 stitut Royal Horticolede Fromonf, vol. iii. pp. 341 

 to 348 inclusive, this celebrated writer and mas- 

 ter of the art recommends the practice o! raising 

 mulberries in low plantations, and in close and 

 compact order, as in China, or as he terms it, in 

 prairies. The Chinese mulberry, morvs miilti- 

 caulis, or as he terms it, 3/. cvculata, had early 

 attracted his attention after its first introduction to 

 France, from the peculiar luxuriance of its growth 

 and produce, the extraordinary size of the leaves, 

 and the facility with which they are renewed, the 

 tiicilit}^ also, by which it is increased Irom layers 

 and tiom cuttings. He adds, "we can say with 

 assurance, that the mulberry ofthe Phillippines, 

 [of China] is not more sensible to the cold of our 

 countries, than the white mulberry." He then 

 proceeds to slate, that in the memorable winter 

 of 1830, which was one of unexamplt-d severity, 

 the branches were indeed destroyed at their sum- 

 mit, as were also those of the common species; 

 hut they failed not to re-establish their growth in a 



t short space of lime. 



I J\L Bonalbux speaking further of the merits of 



