1837] 



FARMERS' REGRISTE 



473 



The morus muIticaulisdifTers entirely from all oth- 

 ers in several respects. Its specific name points 

 out one ot' its peculiar characters, viz. muHicaulis. 

 While all others form single bodied trees, the nuil- 

 ticaulis continues acndinij^ up new stalks from the 

 crown of the root, and thus s};rowiuiif in clusters of 

 bushes like the lilac, hazle, &c. — lionce the name 

 multicaulis, many stalked. The leaves are not 

 only larirer than any other kind, but their Corni is 

 different ti'om all others. The leaf is invariably 

 bowled., so much so that it is impossible to spread 

 it out flat wiihoul tearini; ihe sides. This form is 

 not seen very conspiculously in the young seed- 

 linjl, but as soon as the plants get a foot or two 

 high and the leaves attain half their proper size, 

 it is very distinct. The leaves are so large that 

 they always hanir pendulous, when fidi grown, 

 and somewhat folded length-wise. These pecu- 

 liarities will enable any one to distinguish the true 

 tree from all others. 



Let me advise purchasers of multicaulis trees to 

 be cautious m receiving budded or grafted trees. 

 The J'' are worth nothin<r hut for cuttings, their 

 roots are of no use; while those on their own roots 

 have the advantage of the roots to furnish new 

 supplies of cuttings from year to year. Budded 

 and grafted trees also may be lost altogether by 

 the perishing of the tops in transportation; while 

 if the whole top of a tree on its own roots perish- 

 es, only the cuttings of one year will be lost, the 

 root will live and furnish abundance of cuttings 

 for another year. 



No other preparation of the ground is necessa- 

 ry than turning it over once to destroy grass and 

 weeds, and then keeping the ground clean during 

 their growth. The poorest ground need not be 

 manured, though it would be best if in tolerable 

 condition. Any ground that would produce ten 

 bushels of corn to the acre, will be good enough 

 for them. The fall season is the best time to ob- 

 tain the trees, and the spring the best to plant them 

 out. I would recommend them being obtained in 

 the fall and kept "laid by the heels" till April, and 

 then set in their proper places. The reason they 

 ought to be obtained in the fall is, that they may 

 be ready to set out at the proper season in the 

 spring; whereas, if not obtained till spring, various 

 accidents and delays may cause them to come too 

 late, and they may llius be lost or retarded in their 

 growth, so that the next winter may injure them. 

 Silkworms — A radical error of our countrymen 

 in commencing the culture of silk, is their begin- 

 ning at the wrong end. Almost all of them ob- 

 tain a supply of silkworm eggs first, and then go 

 in search of mulberry leaves to feed the young 

 worms with. Because the forest is full of the na- 

 tive mulberry, and the fields studded with white 

 mulberry trees, they think they can readily obtain 

 a sufficient supply of leaves for two or three hun- 

 dred thousand worms "to begin with;" and so they 

 can for the first two or three weeks, but during the 

 3d, 4th and 5th week, when the worms eat almost 

 their own weight of leaf every day, and when it 

 is absolutely necessary to the full accomplishment 

 of their object that they should have a full supply 

 of fresh leaves continually before them, the sup- 

 ply fails; the labor of gathering a suflicient quan- 

 tity from trees scattered through the woods and 

 almost inaccessible from their height, is found to 

 be insurmountable, and the worms are stinted in 

 their food, dwindle along 3 or 1 weeks more half- 



starved, and at last spin an imperfect cocoon that 

 is (.rood lor nothing. IVIany persons do worse than 

 this. When the worms enter their fourth stage 

 find consume a full quantity of leal, they are aban- 

 doned altogether iind starve to death. Millions 

 upon millions of these interesting insects have per- 

 ished in this way within my own knowledge. 

 Some years since I visited a person a few miles 

 'rom the city, who had been boasting of his large 

 number of worms a week or two previously. I 

 found them scattered over the floor, walls and ceil- 

 mg of the large room, wandering about in search 

 of food, and half famished. He said he found he 

 could not iiet leaves to ibad a tenth part of them, 

 and had abandoned them in despair. There must 

 have been a million at least. They all perished. 

 He never could have obtained leaves enough to 

 feed 50,000 worms fiom all the trees within his 

 reach. 



The proper way is to secure a convenient mul- 

 berry orchard. It should be as near the laborato- 

 ry as possible, and should be sufficiently extensive 

 to supply twice the number of worms you calcu- 

 late on keeping, as a security against accidents, 

 &c. After you have secured the mulberry trees 

 then obtain the silkworms. If you have no ex- 

 perience with them begin with ten thousand; and 

 the next year increase the number. Ten thousand 

 worms vvill be enough to learn you how to manau^e 

 a larger number, and they will fiirnish cocoons 

 enough for you to learn to reel silk with, and a 

 sufficient supply of eggs for another year. Use 

 all these cocoons to learn to reel with — don't try to 

 make the finer qualities of silk, but learn to reel 

 anything. The object is to "get the use of your 

 tools." Learn to catch the fibre and join it to the 

 thread expeditiously; adapt your sense of touch in 

 the fingers to the extremely fine fibre that you 

 may be able to feel it; enable yourself to under- 

 stand the proper temperature of the water for dis- 

 solving the gum of the cococns, that you may be 

 able to make the fibre run or unwind well. All 

 these little details, simple when understood, and 

 easily acquired, but absolutely necessary to a good 

 reeler, are to be learned only from practice — pa- 

 tient, persevering practice, unchecked by feelings 

 of interest or fear of losing cocoons. But a lew 

 weeks, even a few days, are sufficient for the ac- 

 complishment of the object. 



It is not my purpose now to give instructions in 

 the whole art of reeling, or managing silkworms; 

 that object has been fLilly accomplished in various 

 publications in the Farmer, in pamphlets, and 

 books. The present paper is merely intended to 

 supply deficiencies in other pufilicaiions, to call at- 

 tention to some prominent points, and to correct 

 certain errors. 



Let me urge attention to cleanliness in the la- 

 boratory, essential to the comfort and health of the 

 proprietor and his assistants, as well as to the suc- 

 cess of his business. Always keep a box or some 

 other vessel of chloride of lime in the room with 

 the worms. A jar with a pound or two of it 

 standing open, will keep the air in the room sweet, 

 and thus protect the worms from disease. If from 

 inattention your worms become affected vvith the 

 tripes,* lose not a moment in sprinkling the floor 



* The tripes is a disease amono; silk worms anala- 

 goiis to the plague in the human family. It is caused 

 by foul air, in the room, generally in damp weather. 



