516 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 9 



duction. But no eetimate can be made even of 

 the profits of labor in r.onse(]nence of our want of 

 experience. But that we shall ever realize the 

 great profits from ihis business that we are con- 

 tinually told we shall, seems improbable from the 

 very nature of things. Why, if such rrreat pro- 

 fits can be made from the cuhure of silk as glOOO 

 to S2000, from an acre of iironnd, and that too, 

 as we are told, with very little labor, and to the 

 extent of as many acres as we please, why, I ask, 

 are not France and Italy, nay all the south of Eu- 

 rope, where silk has been made for as^s, univer- 

 eally ensaged in the business? Why are they 

 continually purchasiner the raw silks of the east 

 lor their factories? Will any people import an 

 article for consumption that they can produce at 

 home at less cost? Labor is cheaper there than 

 here, and consequently one would suppose they 

 could make as much profit by the silk culture as 

 we can. It is true we have several important ad- 

 vantacjes over every other country. We have a 

 climate better adapted to it; our people are more 

 enterprising and industrious; we can use the mo- 

 rus multicaulis, (which they cannot, on account of 

 the difficulty of getting over ancient prejudices, 

 and of substituting it Ibr their already established 

 trees of other kinds.) But we have also our dis- 

 advantages, the principal of which is the cost of 

 labor. We cannot expect to do much more with 

 our advantages than to make them offset the dis- 

 advantage of the cost of our labor. Suppose, 

 however, we do realize double the profits that 

 they do; even then we shall not make any thing 

 like the profit we are told we shall. If the silk- 

 growers of Europe made any thing more than a 

 good living business of it, every body there would 

 immediately go into it; for there, as well as here, 

 and every where else, all very profitable profes- 

 sions, or trades, are sure to be immediately filled 

 with occupants, and thus overdone. Another 

 view. If the business was so very profitable, the 

 prices of the article would speedily be reduced by 

 competition, until it afllbrded a fair profit merely. 

 It is so in all other branches of trade — why not in 

 this? The French and Italians are surely as ca- 

 pable of estimating the value of things as we are. 

 If silk can be made for ibur dollars a pound, and 

 it costs six dollars to import it, we mav be sure 

 that it will be made, not purchased. These re- 

 marks are not made to discourage persons from 

 going into the culture of silk; but ratlier to pre- 

 vent disappointment in those who are led astray 

 by over sanguine estimates. I find myself placed 

 in a singular predicament. For many years past 

 I have been urging this business upon public at- 

 tention, and doing all I could to induce our people 

 to go into it; now, on the contrary, I feel called 

 upon to restrain the spirit I have heretofore spurred 

 to action. In this I anticipate that I shall be ac- 

 cused of inconsistency. But, if I am properly un- 

 derstood, no such fault will be discovered. Now, 

 as heretofore, I urge upon farmers every where to 

 introduce the business into their domestic affairs, 

 liet the people of the poor-land distrids of the 

 old states introduce it there. It will be as profita- 

 ble, if not more so, than the cotton crops, and 

 grain crops of other and more favored districts, 

 and will thus serve to equalize the productions of 

 all parts of our country. The old worn-out lands 

 of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, &c., can- 

 not by any possibility be put to a more profitable 



use. But neither in this nor in any other case 

 where it is made an exclusive business, must it be 

 expected that enormous profits are to be made. 

 It must be remembered, that grcoi prf)/i/s cannot 

 be made in any business tor any great length of 

 time, simply because every body will go into it, 

 overdo it, and thus reduce its profits to a mere 

 living rate. With these remarks 1 take leave of 

 the subject. Gideon B. Smith. 



From the American Farmer. 

 ON BUILDING AND FILLING ICE-IIOUSES. 



Latitude SQ'^' > 



October 15, 1823. $ 



Sir — I would not give one solid ounce of ex- 

 perience for a whole ton of theory. I have an ice- 

 house, the pit of which is 6^ feet, the earth thrown 

 out raised a good mound 2\ feet more, making 9 

 feet to the bottom, which is a tolerably dry sand. 

 It was for many years a pit with a pen inside, 

 made of flat pieces of mauled oak — the earth came 

 to the back of the logs. In the centre of the bot- 

 tom there was what was called a dry well — that is, 

 a round hole a foot deep, of which 1 have never per- 

 ceived the advantage. The same kind of mauled 

 pieces laid on the bottom, Ibrmed the floor — the 

 pen was about 11 Jeet square in the clear, with a 

 capacity of about one thousand cubic leet. A 

 thatcb of corn tops on poles, Ibrmed the roof and 

 cover, with a door ol entrance into the north end. 

 This house used to hold about fi-oni 30 to 35 com- 

 mon sized ox-cart-loads ; the ice pounded from the 

 size of a walnut to a brick. — It generally kept ice 

 till the middle of August, and then left us more 

 disagreably ofl, than if we had not enjoyed it at 

 all. It was near the poultry yard, and the b'ame 

 was laid on the poor hens, which, Ibnd of a cool 

 place to nest in midsummer, used to scratch holes in 

 the bottom of the thatch, and let in the raiii water. 

 This was often one cause of the loss of the ice, but 

 not the only one. The fact was too well estab- 

 lished, the ice seldom reached September — and I 

 became fully convinced that the principal reason of 

 the early loss was, that the mass of ice was too 

 small. The rats also plagued us very much in 

 the chief use of a country ice-house, the preser- 

 vation of fi-esh provision. 



I determined to endeavour to remedy all the 

 faults. With this view, the old work, now much 

 out of repair, was broken up — the pit enlarged 

 10 16 feet by 24. in which a 9 inch brick wall was 

 run up to 6 inches above the ground, and the 

 floor was paved two bricks thick — the pit was 

 then 14^ feet by 22|- feet in the clear; and 8| 

 feet deep to the surface of the earth. On the 

 pavement I laid four sills, on which I raised a 

 frame, 11 feet by 19 feet in the clear, with sleep- 

 ers 6 inches deep, resting on the pavement. The 

 top of the frame even with the brick work. — A 

 tight floor of good plank was laid, and the frame 

 planked up tight on the inside. 



This plank pen, or pit, is 11 feet by 19 in the 

 clear. There is of course, a space of about 20 

 inches all round, between the plank and the brick 

 work. 



The design in making the pit oblong, was to 

 take off 7 feet of one end, and appropriate it to 

 milk in the summer season — but having a cool 



