414 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 7 



The plan of improvement which he would re- 

 commend exceeds greatly in extent and expense, 

 as has been already intimated, the improvement 

 contemplated by the act of the 2 1th Congress. It 

 is connected with a general system for the accom- 

 modation of the coasting trade oftlie Union in peace 

 and its proieclion during war. It has been ques- 

 tioned by the officer in charge of this duty, whe- 

 ther, on the one hand, his plans should be narrowed 

 down to the limited object which the legislature 

 was apparently contemplating at the time of the 

 passage of the act of 1824 ; or, on the other hand 

 whether he would be warranted in proposing his 

 plan, or whether the department would undertake 

 Its execution without legislative sanction — a project 

 so far exceeding in dimensions and cost the one 

 which the act referred to had indicated. 



Again, it was believed that the general interior 

 coastwise navigation should abandon the sounds, 

 and be carried inland, at least from the waters of 

 the Neuse to those of Cape Fear river, although 

 apparently the legislature deemed that it might 

 follow the line of sounds upon the coast from 

 Pamlico to the vicinity of the new inlet of Cape 

 Fear. At the same time the engineer was per- 

 suaded that Beaufort harbor was so in)portant to 

 commerce, that it deserved to he made the prin- 

 cipal inlet to the great sounds of North Carolina, 

 and that Core sound should be improved so as to 

 form an important branch of the general inland 

 communication. 



Upon so serious a subject it was to be questioned 

 whether the department would be warranted in 

 compromitting the legislature. It is yet a question 

 for the department how fiir the selection of either 

 gC these routes for immediate execution may com- 

 promit the ultimate execution of the other. 



The officer charged with the execution of the 

 surveys asks the orders of the department to au- 

 thorize his reporting on any detached portions 

 of the work. 



Should it be deemed expedient to open the chan- 

 nel of Core sound at as early a day as practicable, 

 in anticipation of the destruction of Ocracoke in- 

 let, or to provide against the contingency of war, 

 an increased appropriation ought to be asked for 

 so as to make the fund available for the current 

 year amount to forty or sixty thousand dollars. 



Very respectfully, &c. 



James Kearney, 

 Lt. Col. Top Engs. 



Lieut. Col. J. J. Abert, 



Chief Top. Bureau. 



from tlie American Silli-Grower. 

 IMPORTANT TO SILK-GROWERS. 



It gives us much pleasure to communicate to our 

 patrons and the silk-growing public, the result of 

 some experiments that we have made in the culti- 

 vation of the Chinese mulberry, considered by us 

 of the first consequence. We have heretofore re- 

 commended, and now earnestly repeat the advice 

 then given, that permanent plantations of mul- 

 berries should be managed according to the di- 

 rections given in the leadingarticle of our first num- 

 ber, viz.; to sever the trees near the ground late 

 in the fall, and ftied the worms with the foliage 

 which will spring from the stumps and roots left 



in the ground the next season. We have culti- 

 vated the tree in this way, and can assure our sub- 

 scribers, that it is attended with great conveniences- 

 and advantages, as it increases the quantity of 

 leaves, and liicilitates their gathering. We have 

 about 1000 roots which have been cultivated in this 

 manner, and they have prospered equal to our 

 wishes, and more than fulfilled every expectation. 

 The shoots are now five and six leet in height, 

 bearing numerous large leaves, and the whole 

 ground is nearly covered with their rich vegetation. 

 Six, eight, and ten sprouts generally proceed from 

 one stump, which will rise ten feet in height in one 

 summer. By the middle of June the leaves will 

 be large and sufficiently abundant to feed worms 

 to advantage, and one man may, by passing along 

 the rows with a sharp knife, cut off the sprouts 

 near the earth, throw them into a cart, and thus 

 collect food enouch to supply a million of worms. 

 In another month, there will be leaves sufficient 

 to feed another crop of worms, thus doubling the 

 profits of the business at a trifling increase of ex- 

 penditure. We are not theorising, but stating 

 what we have proved by our own experiments. 

 The large profits to be derived from the silk 

 culture, which have been promulgated by the press 

 will be fully realized. This mode of culture al- 

 most demolishes the whole expense of collecting 

 leaves, and increases the food for the worms 500 

 per cent, above what can be obtained from the cul- 

 tivation of the white mulberry. But lew of the 

 American people have engaged in silk operations, 

 and of these few, probably not one half of them 

 have known any thing of it until the five last years. 

 But small as their number is, they have effected 

 greater improvements in the business than all the 

 silk-growers of Europe have achieved in a century, 

 and if we do not supply England with raw silk 

 within 20 years, cheaper than she can obtain it else- 

 where, it will be because there will be no country 

 called America — no people denominated Yankees, 



From the Mining Journal. 

 SMOKE-BURNER. 



The following is a short description of Messrs. 

 Chanter and Gray's smoke-burner, which has 

 been publicly exhibited at their premises, in Earl 

 streef, Blackfriars, and inspected by their Royal 

 Highnesses the Dukes of Sussex and Cambridge ; 

 the former attended by several Fellows of the 

 Royal Society. It has also been inspected by 

 many engineers and gentlemen interested in the 

 progress of science, all of whom agreed in ad- 

 mitting the object of consuming the smoke to be 

 fully accomplished. It will, therefore, really be a 

 greatneglecton the part ofthe Legislature, if ma- 

 nufactories and gas-works are longer suffered to 

 darken the atmosphere of the metropolis with 

 coal smoke. As to the parties interested in loco- 

 motive engines, they must decide for themselves ; 

 but if the estimate be correct, that they can obtain 

 from coal a heat greater than they now obtain, 

 fron) coke, and at less than half the expense, it 

 may readily be supposed that they will soon avail 

 themselves of this patent. 



Description of the smoke-burner. — It would 

 be impossible to describe fully the nature of this 

 invention within the limits of a prospectus, but it 



