638 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 10 



green foliage lor the eye to rest upon, is conceded 

 by all who have beheld it. But its greatest ex- 

 cellence consists in its vast superioriry lor the silk 

 culture. Adherence to brevity forbids me here to 

 enumerate and enlarge upon these advantages. 

 Two on] y I will here mention. The one that it 

 abridges the labor of gathcrinix the leaves lor the 

 silk worms at least ten told, by reason of its leaf be- 

 ing more than that proportion larger than the Ital- 

 ian mulberry, formerly considered besi for ihe silk 

 culture. The other is its rapidity 0/ growth, as well 

 as ease of propagation. Three or lour years are 

 necessary lor the Italian nujlberry to grow before 

 using the leaves to advanfH<re. But the nnilti- 

 caulis can be used even the first season of growth, 

 by leaving a lew of the upper leaves only. But 

 its great facility of propagation, and its especial 

 adaptation to our climate, are the facts I would 

 particularly advert to no-v. And to do this, I 

 will state my uwn experiments with this plant. 

 These experunents relate only to the propaga- 

 tion and growth of the trees; for I have not yet en- 

 tered upon the silk culture, nor will I, till the press- 

 ing demand for the trees ceases, which will proba- 

 bly be some years yet, notwitlistanding they are 

 propagated with the ease and rapidity to exceed 

 every thing in the vegetable kmgdom with which 

 1 am acquainted. 



As a proof of" which, I will state, that last spring 

 I cut a number of the branches into pieces about an 

 inch long, with single buds on each, and drilled 

 them as I would corn — drills three feet apart and 

 about a foot in the drill. With the simple trouble 

 of keeping the ground clean and loose, they grew 

 five, six, and more feet high, and sold in common 

 with some others, raised from cuttings of greater 

 length, for twenty and twenty-five dollars per 

 hundred. 



The cultivation of this tree yields at present 

 more profit than any other appropriation of ground 

 by honest industry, some gold mines not except- 

 ed, for the profit is great from the surface without 

 any deep digging. I have made for two years in 

 succession a hundred dollars off of less than a 

 half quarter of an acre. 



tablishments in the union last summer to ascertain 

 by personal investigation the profits of the silk 

 culture. lie returned so thoroughly convinced of 

 its advantages, that he engaged hands for the silk 

 business, and commenced preparing buildings, and 

 the like forthwith to begin (he culture next spring. 

 He visited me a short time since to see my estab- 

 lishment, ana '.c procure trees for himself and a 

 friend to propagate from, (his own of former growth 

 he last concluded to devote to the silk business 

 the coming sea;;on.) On seeing my imrscries of 

 the morus multicauiis, (my first trees being sixteen 

 and eighteen feet high, and the younger ones of 

 corresponding growth,) he assured me that they 

 far surpassed any he had seen elsewhere. 



I will conclude. Mr. Editor, with a declaration 

 that may appear as visionary to some as if I had 

 expressed a hope four years ago, that a small tree 

 of a dollcirh, would, ere long, realize a thousand — 

 the declaration is this; that, such is my confidence 

 from experiment, in North Carolina soil and cli- 

 mate in regard to the vine and silk culture, that, 

 from the (brmer, with native grapes, such as the 

 scuppernong and Haliliix, and my '' American 

 system" of vine culture, I calculate to clear annu- 

 ally a thousand dollars peracre; and from the latter 

 or silk business. Jive hundred; and at the same by 

 combining the two employments, aflbrd through- 

 out the year, lucrative labor, for widows and chil- 

 dren, and superannuated persons, many of whom 

 are now, for the want of such employment, a bur- 

 den to the community. 



In haste, yours, and with all due respect, 



Sidney Wei.ler. 

 Brinkleyville, N. C, November 30, 1837. 



Extracts from fLoudon's) Gardener's Magazine, of December. 

 KYAIVIZTXG WOOD. 



A very important point which we have to no- 

 tice under this head, is the process of kyanizing, 

 or tanning, every kind of wood to be used lor gar- 

 den purposes, by immersing it in a solution of cor- 

 rosive sublimate. 



It is not easy to convince prac- 

 I delivered, for cash, lately at Gaston, trees car- I tical men of the value of this preparation; never 



ried by a single horse vehicle, and raised on much 

 lees than an acre, to the amount of two hundred 

 and seventy-five dollars. Four years ago, last 

 April, I procured from Baltimore a single plant of 

 the morus multicauiis about a i'ooi lonir. at the 

 price of a dollar, besides the cost of conveyance 

 with grape vines and other articles. From this 

 invested capital of a single dollar, [ have sold to 



theless it is placed beyond all doubt, both by the- 

 ory and experiment. We refer to what is stated 

 on the subject, in p. 365; and we may also direct 

 attention to several papers in the 'J^r chit eel ural 

 Magazine,'' for the present year, [1837,] and one 

 by Charles Walerton, esq., in his 'Essays on A'a- 

 tural History,'' just published. One caution we 

 think it necessar}' to give to those who intend 



the amount of about a thousand dollars, and have j making use of this process, which is to shape and 

 a stock now on hand worth, in the market, seve- 

 ral hundred dollars. I was the first I believe that 

 propagated this tree in North Carolinia. I have 

 ascertained that the plant grows several feet high- 

 er in a season, with us, than northerlv, say" in 

 the latitude of Baltimore; that here it endures the 

 severest winters without injury; whereas in north- 

 erly regions, it is much subject to having its top 

 part destroyed in winter. And it has been found 

 that plants procured here or from me, do better for 

 propagating from, than those procured from north- 

 ern nurseries. A gentleman in Virginia, who 

 purchased about tivo hundred dollars worth from 

 me a year ago, apprised me that those Irom me 

 did better than those he got from the north. This 

 gentleman visited most of the mulberry and silk es- 



fit the wood to be kyanized exactly for the purpose 

 for which it is intended, before submitting it to the 

 process. This will ajipear the more necessary, 

 when it is considered that the kyanizing, or tan- 

 ning process, penetrates only a few lines into the 

 surface of the wood: in close-grained wood, for 

 example, such as the beech, not more than a 

 quarter of an inch ; and in looser-grained woods, 

 such as common deal, very seldom more than 

 half an inch. IfJ therefore, a gardener were to 

 kyanize tallies for naming plants, or sticks for- 

 tying them up, before sharpening the ends to be: 

 inserted in the ground, and were to sharpen these 

 ends afterwards, the rot would commence below, 

 just as soon as if the process of kyanizing had 

 not been employed. We are particukirly anxious 



