758 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



that since its editor has entered the arena, as a 

 vender of mulberry trees, we have had a suspicion 

 thai he did not maniCest quite as much of that ab- 

 solute disinieresiedness lor which he was former- 

 ly so (hstinj^uished. One mijiht suppose that 

 wiih his commendable spirit, he would lee! con- 

 tented at pressing (brwar(l so rapidly to the iroal, 

 and with being on the point of seizmir the golden 

 |)rize, without caring to cast any Parthian arrows 

 on his less worthy and less successful competitors, 

 who seem almost concealed by the obscurity of 

 their distance. Permit us, sir, in illustration, to 

 quote liom the advertisement in your "Country 

 Advertiser." in which you say as follows : "The 

 great superiority of the nmliicaulis plants and 

 cuttings, (relerring to those you advertise,*) in 

 iuxuriancy of growth and as stock to raise from, 

 is now universally acknowledged by the northern 

 dealers, and that ground of preference is stated in 

 their advertisements of southern plants for sale." 

 Now, sir, we will not adopt the words used in 

 your paper, and stale that this assertion "is gross- 

 ly and manifestly false," but we do appeal to the 

 silk culturisis of Burlington and Philadelphia, and 

 to other northern dealers generally, whether it is 

 not notorious that the southern trees offered lor sale 

 the last season, could not be sold for near the price 

 of northern trees, arising fi-om the great preference 

 given to trees of northern growth, and so far from 

 its being stated in the advertisement of southern 

 (rees "as a ground of preference," it would have 

 been a manifest injury, and we have never yet 

 seen any but southern advertisements that ven- 

 tured such an assertion. We wish not to under- i 

 value the trees grown in Vir<rinia, they are among 

 the best of their kind ; but it is yourself, who, from 

 erroneous conceptions, have become the aggressor, 

 in seeking to benefit your own sales, by depreciat- 

 inff, as you say in yonr advertisement, "the whole 

 crop raised north of Philadelphia ;" whereas, for 

 our part, we act only on the defensive, and seek 

 but to counteract your erroneous denunciations, 

 made in the double capacity of advertiser and 

 editor, and this we do without attacking any one, 

 and without entitling them Ruffiniania. In our 

 plantations, which the last season covered about 

 twenty acres, we did not use one southern tree or 

 cutting, and the southern plantations, we presume, 

 have all originated Irom the trees first imported, 

 propagated, and disseminated by us. Now, sir, as 

 to the wager and competition, which " Mr. An- 

 ti-pufl" might much better have accepted than to 

 have ingeniously eluded by an attack, we are 

 willing to meet him on what he declares to be the 

 worst position. We will take 2000 trees of one 



* None were advertised for sale, and therpfore the 

 writer's shaft is entirely misdirected. In the adver- 

 tisement in question, (which may be seen also on the 

 covers of the 7th and 8th Nos. of Far. Reo^. ) it was 

 merely proposed to cultivate buds or cuttin£;s on shares 

 for the owners — offering to return either 3 for 1 fur- 

 nished, certain, or two-thirds of the whole crop. 

 Either of these bargains Mr. Prince would do well to 

 make for his own cuttings with any careful cultivator 

 in lower Virginia ; and we suspect that thore would be 

 insuperable objections, with both parties, to such a 

 contract being made for cultivation in the Linncean 

 Gardens and Nurseries. — Ed. Far. Reg. 



year's growth, without any selection, from a parcel 

 grotvnin Connecticut, and which are now just as 

 they grew ; and he may take a similar number of 

 trees, of the same age, grown in your state by 

 him, by you, or any of your friends, he also taking 

 them as they grew, without selection ; and we will 

 agree to measure the average girth and height 

 of the main stalk or body, and the length and 

 number of buds on the branches, and the parcel 

 which possesses the superiority in a majority of 

 these points, shall be entitled to the benefits of our 

 proposition. This is a plain offer, and although we 

 may be unsuccessful, it will at least serve to show 

 that the valley of the Connecticut is not to be de- 

 spised, and that the writer in your paper is igno- 

 rant of the fact, that the average growth of the 

 morus multicaulis, in that valley, the present sea- 

 son, was equal to the growth in Maryland and 

 Virginia. You will perceive we spoke but of 

 Rhode Island and Connecticut in our notice, but 

 he equivocates and contrasts all New England 

 with Virginia, to give a semblance of what is not 

 the fact, that we had included it all in our asser- 

 tion. 



Having now gone through the actual business 

 part of our communication, we will make some 

 tew general remarks on the mulberry culture. It 

 is well known that climate is greatly ameliorated 

 when in proximity with the ocean, and our remarks 

 relative to Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Long 

 Island, were based upon this fiict. We did not at 

 all refer to the country in the inferior, and you will 

 perceive, therefore, that there is not so much dif- 

 ference in our views, as might al first be supposed. 

 The peach, which is a native of Persia, has made 

 growths here of 9 leet in a single season. Trees 

 of the morus multicaulis, planted in our grounds 

 after the lOih of June, attained in many instances 

 a height of 6^ to 7 feet, and although our trees 

 and cuttings were planted very late, and not com- 

 [)leied till the middle of June, we have raised 

 above 200,000 trees, measuring from 4 to 7 feet 

 in height, and there were several other plantations 

 in this vicinity in which the trees were 6 to 7 leet 

 in height. Trees, like mankind, become by de- 

 grees acclimated, and we, this summer, saw some 

 large morus multicaulis trees in the garden of 

 Mr. Besior of Suffield, Connecticut, which occu- 

 pied a high exposed position, and had been grow- 

 ing there for years, without the least injury, and 

 we witnessed the same fact at Mr. Kenrick's nur- 

 sery, near Boston. The more completely a tree 

 becomes hardened to climate, the more sure it is 

 to succeed. The Catalpa, Ailanthus, Pride of 

 India, &c., brought from the south, are prone to 

 continue their growth to a much later period than 

 the same kinds of trees of northern growth, 

 and consequently are injured by our frosts before 

 their wood is matured. But northern trees sent 

 to the south are sure to succeed, and to attain their 

 utmost development. The difference between the 

 climate of Maryland and Virginia, and of this 

 vicinity, is very trivial, and we reler more particu- 

 larly to South Carolina, Georgia, and the states 

 south of them in our preceding remarks. In those 

 states where the contrast of climate and seasons 

 is very great when compared with the north, the 

 multicaulis will of course attain a greater height 

 and development than in the more northern 

 states. This is a point on which I presume there 

 exists no actual difference of opinion. 



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