378 



F A U JM E R S' REGISTER. 



[No. 6 



as (he Red river. The Bondieu is now the river of 

 navigalion, currying iwo-tliirds of ihe water, and 

 threatens in a lijw years to throw a bar across tlie 

 Red river, and make Natchitoches only accessibie 

 in liigh stages of water. The steamers now go 

 to Shreeveport, 100 miles wiiliin the kite rait, in 

 stages of water that compel them to leave their 

 freight for Natchitoches four miles above the 

 town. Such have been the effects of the raft, and 

 some such as I have ventured to anticipate, will 

 be the eliectof its removal. The river, both above 

 and below the raft regiou, has but one stream, and 

 that a noble one; and it has been the object of the 

 engineer who directs the work, tc make it but 

 one through the raft. 



The modes of removal have been as various as 

 the differences in the situation of things. The ob- 

 ject has been to do more than to enable that pow- 

 erful agent, the current, to clear itself out; and so 

 formidable have been the obstacles, and so vari- 

 ous in their character, that it has required all the 

 skill of the engineer, with the aid of strong na- 

 tural talents, and the possession of a great share 

 £»f that uncommon quality, called common sense, 

 to overcome them. Such a man the govern- 

 ment has found in Capt. Shreeve. One of the 

 most usual modes of work has been to place 

 the laborers on the raft, who saw all key logs, or 

 fiucli as seemed most to confine others to their 

 places; and when so prepared for dismemberment 

 by their previous cuts, the cables are fixed to 

 them by iron wedges at their ends, driven into the 

 logs, and the steam is applied, and large masses 

 are pulled away. These logs are turned over to 

 other boats in the rear, that cut off the stump- 

 ends, and where the branches put out; and the 

 logs, so deprived of roots and branches, float on the 

 Burface without the danger of tangling or holding 

 on to each other, and are passed out by the cur- 

 rent, in times of high water, through the Missis- 

 sippi into the ocean. The snag-boat comes in the 

 rear, removing the snags or other logs too firmly 

 fixed for the first pull, and runs directly on the 

 snag, and where it does not break out, it is las- 

 tened to the chain and pulled out with ease.* 

 The power is, perhaps, the greatest now used in 

 America, and can in a few minutes uproot the very 

 largest trees, and drag them from their residence. 

 The diameter of the wire of the chain is 1;^ inches, 

 and each link weighs upwards of 15 pounds; ancl 

 the power is such that the tree must come, or 

 the chain will snap. It has been equal, so far, to 

 remove every thing to which it has been applied. 

 A cotton wood tree, 40 feet long, by 5 feet diame- 

 ter at the but, three or four feet under the mud, 

 has been one, if not the greatest, of the applica- 

 tions of its power that I have seen. 



The larger portion of the logs are used to fill up 

 all the material outlets of tlfe main stream, and 

 the old river, whenever a new one has been made 

 by a cut-off. There is no danger of their being 

 returned by high-water into the main river again, 

 as it is the uniform operation of the master stream 



to fill up the mouths of all its outlets whenever 

 the current in them is materially checked. 



Another usual mode of work is to cut all the 

 trees from islands and wearing points of the 

 banks, and remove the wood; and the stream so 

 aided will remove the earth. 



Another mode is to cut off, occasionally, large 

 bends in the river, whereby many miles of raft 

 have been saved the clearing by a cut of 100 

 yards. When the freshet enters these cuts or ca- 

 nals, the sides fall in, and dissolve like sugar; and 

 24 hours gives you a new river. These cut-offs 

 save labor, improve the navigation, by increasing 

 the current, and furnish a convenient depository 

 for drift-wood. These, with occasionally making 

 dams across large rivers, where you could not 

 otherwise materially check the current, consti- 

 tute the principal modes of applying labor. 



The operations of the first year cleared up- 

 wards of 100 miles of the raft, in consequence, as 

 I have said before, of the logs being very much 

 decayed, and to that distance, that is to Shreeve- 

 port, there has been for some years, and now is, 

 an excellent steamboat navigation. The difficul- 

 ties above that place have been very great indeed, 

 and have occupied all the time since, till JVJay 

 last, when they were removed, so as to give pas- 

 sage to steamboats 250 miles above the raft to 

 Fulton, FortTowson,&c. About hall'a dozen boats 

 have been plying regularly between New Orleans 

 and these places since that time. A steamboat, 

 with a ihw hands, will have to remain in the rait 

 for a year or two, to prevent the creation of new 

 obstructions from the banks fidling in, while the 

 stream is working out a sufficient passage for it- 

 self. When this is done, the river, like all others, 

 will take care of itself, and will furnish a safe and 

 convenient high road to market of the products 

 of what, from all I have seen, I would say, is the 

 finest cotton country in the United States. 



A Planter. 



* The snag-boat is a steamboat, the invention of 

 Capt. Slireeve, open at the bow down to the water's 

 edge, with two large vertical wheels on the same shaft, 

 over which an immense chain is passed, and this lever 

 operated on by the water wheel shaft. The snags are 

 run into this aperture at the bow, and so made fast 

 for the levers to act on. 



A FIRST TRIAL OF SILK CULTURE.(a) 



To tlie Editor of tlio Farmers' Register. 



Diamond Grove P. O. Brunswick, Va, 

 Aug. 11, 1838. 

 I promised to give you an account of an expe- 

 riment I made, last spring, in the culture of silk. 

 I shall not attempt it in detail, but merely give the 

 result. The eggs commenced hatching about the 

 1st of April ; and having then but little confidence 

 that the placing them on ice would retard the pro- 

 cess, and the cocoonery I was then building not 

 being ready for the reception ol' the worms, I was 

 forced to crowd 50 or 60,000 on two shelves for a 

 week ; instead of which every day's hatching 

 should have been kept separate and distinct. So 

 many diflerent ages having been mixed up toge- 

 ther, made the labor much greater about the time 

 of spinning.(6) If possible, all on a shelf should 

 spin at the same time. 1 determined, however, to 

 try an experiment of about 30,000 eggs, by put- 

 ting them in a tin box, and placing them directly 

 on the ice, which was done alter many had 

 hatched. They were kept on the ice ten days, 

 and then taken out, and in a fijw days they hatch- 

 ed out fully as well as the first. I supposed I fed 

 in all 90,000 worms, and not having a sufficiency 



