658 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



No. 9 



other side. I fed the whole on the multicaulis, 

 grown from roots and cuttinirs planted this spring. 

 During the whole time of feeding, the tempera- 

 ture ranged very high, being several days as high 

 as 93 degrees Fahrenheit, and seldom less than 

 72 degrees. 



When I commenced, ail the knowledge I had 

 on the whole subject was " book knowledge. "' I 

 had never seen a cocoonery, and never but once 

 had seen worms feeding. My colored man, who 

 had never seen worms, gathered the leaves and 

 fed the worms until within about two weeks of 

 winding, when I employed an aged man to assist 

 him. Having some leisure, 1 spent considerable 

 time in the cocoonery, determined to watch the 

 feeding with care. A premium of iglOO having 

 been offeredby the Monmouth Silk Manufacturing 

 Company, to the person who would raise the 

 greatest number of pounds of cocoons (i-om the 

 sixteenth of an acre, I measured the above quan- 

 tity of land, and planted it with roots set upright, 

 the rows eighteen inches apart, and the trees 

 eight inches apart in the rows. The 12,000 worms 

 above alluded to, I fed on the premium trees. 

 The drought continuing so severe, and fearing the 

 leaves on the premium trees would fail, on the 

 19th of July 1 took off about 5000, for which I 

 borrowed leaves to carry them through. From 

 this time it required 143 pounds of leaves. In 

 about twenty-six days the mammoth white began 

 to rise, and in about 31 days all, or nearly all, had 

 risen. On the 28th day a few of the sulphur be- 

 gan to wind, and by the 35th day, all had wound. 

 As a general rule we fed four times a day, never 

 at night. After the second week we changed the 

 hurdles every two or three days ; the room was 

 well ventilated, and always sweet and clean. Al- 

 though good attention was given to all the worms, 

 yet a little more attention was given by myself to 

 the premium worms. They were fed just as of- 

 ten as they consumed the leaves previously criven, 

 and the difference in the size of the cocoons was 

 obvious, the premium cocoons being very percep- 

 tibly the largest and most firm. The whole num- 

 ber of pounds of cocoons li-om the worms fed a-f 

 above, was 86 lbs. 9 oz. ; the whole number of 

 pounds fed on the premium trees was 38, or if an 

 allovvance is made for borrowed leaves, allowing 

 21 pounds of leaves to a pound of cocoons, the 

 number led on premium trees would be 31 pounds, 

 14 oz. Of the mammoth white it required 350 

 cocoons to make a pound ; of the premium sulphur 

 cocoons 290 to 300 ; 192 of the larsxest, after the 

 floss was taken off", made a pound ; of the sulphur 

 colored cocoons, not premium, it required about 

 325 to make a pound. The worms were virrorous 

 and healthy during the whole time of feedinu, I 

 I think remarkably so ; indeed 1 do not know that 

 I lost a single* worm by disease. Being a healthy 

 crop, I saved most of my cocoons for ejrgs. and I 

 have about four pounds of the finest egofs I have 

 ever seen. I stifled, probably, 25 lbs. "of cocoons 

 in order to make a specimen ofsewing silk. Au- 

 gust 4th I obtained a small paper of two crop 

 eggs from Wm. Imlay, Esq., of Allentown ; only 

 300 or 400 of ihem hatched, which I fed on my 

 premium trees. These were also healthy and vi- 

 gorous, but they did not wind under thirty days, 

 and'the cocoons were small. Owinir to the impos- 

 sibility of procuring eggs to hatch in successive 

 crops, I have only raised 31 lbs. 14 oz. from my 



l-16th of an acre, though my trees are smaller 

 than yours in Burlington. This, I believe, is nof 

 more than one-half the amount I could have fed 

 if I had been able to procure eggs and hatch them 

 as wanted. The trees do not appear now to have 

 lost any of their fbliage. Enough has been done, 

 however, to show that raising silk is profitable 

 even the first year, in the hands of the most inex- 

 perienced. I hope you will write an article on 

 this subject, and from what has been done, show 

 what can be done. From my experience, I am 

 perfectly satisfied there is no mystery or difficulty 

 in feeding the silk-worm. If the eggs are from a 

 healthy crop, and if the worms are kept clean and 

 well fed, success is certain, and from the acknow- 

 ledged enterprise of our people, I am perfectly sa- 

 tisfied the silk business will succeed, and at no 

 distant period will become a source of vast nation- 

 al and individual wealth. May your valuable 

 publication aid, as I have no doubt it will, in hast- 

 ening this, by inducing our intelligent farmers and 

 others to engage in the business. 



R. V. M'Lean. 

 Freehold, A". J., Sept. 20, 1838. 



CURIOUS EXTRACTS FROM THE ANCIENT LAWS 

 OP VIRGINIA. 



In a former part of this work, there were pre- 

 sented many passages of history, and especially 

 extracts from the older historians, in relation to the 

 general policy and economy, and agriculture, and 

 illustrative of the peculiar habits and condition of 

 the early settlers and inhabitants of the colony of 

 Virginia.* It is proposed here to offer extracts, 

 equally curious and interesting, from the old laws 

 of the colony, and spreading over a greater varietj' 

 of subjects than was permitted by the purpose of 

 the article referred to above. Though all the ex- 

 tracts which will now be offered are taken from a 

 single work, ' Henmg's Statutes at Large,' 

 which is accessible to every one, yet because it is 

 a law book, and a voluminous one, its contents are 

 scarcely known to general readers, and it is almost 

 sealed to ail others except the members of the 

 legal profession. For this reason, whatever is 

 curious and interesiing in these old statutes, will 

 also have, to most readers of the Farmers' Re- 

 gister, all the Ireshness and interest of novelty. 



The following introductory remarks and state- 

 ments of the compiler of the statutes, will best 

 serve as the beginning of these extracts : 



" In June, 1619, the first assembly ever held in 

 Virginia, was convened by sir George Yeardley, 

 then Governor, and met at James Tovvn ; which 

 was at that time, and for many years afterwardp", 

 called " James Citty." Some account of the acta 

 passed at this session, (taken from the Ancient 

 Records relating to Virginia,) is given in a note 

 prefixed to the acts of 1623-4 ; being those of the 

 earliest period now extant. 



See pp. 754 to 760, vol. IJI., Farmers' Register, 



