1B38] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



759 



We will now conclude, by a wonl to our fellow- 

 laborers in the same pursuit, the silk culture ; the 

 field for our operations is immense and wide 

 enout^h (or us all. The object is a "Treat national 

 one, and forms part of the true /timrican system. 

 We approve of the ar<jumeiit recently advanced, 

 that every one who derives [)rofit from the cultiva- 

 tion of his trees, is bound todo more, and toexpend 

 a portion of earnings in a cocoonery, at least, if not 

 in a manufactory, ffe intend to do both, and we 

 wish none other butthat friendly and rational com- 

 petition which shall develope itself by presentinjj 

 the most plainly and satisfactorily to the Ameri- 

 can people, the ease and simplicity of every de- 

 partment of the silk culture. You have yourself 

 been a most efficient and valuable pioneer in the 

 cause, and no one is more willinfr to render you 

 homage therelbr than ourselves. Your paper has 

 diffused the most useful information far and wide, 

 and has awakened in enlightened Virijinia, that spi- 

 rit which was but latent, and which it required 

 only your pen to illume. Our friends Gideon B. 

 Smith, Dr. Norton, T. S. Pleasants, John Carter, 

 General Cocke, Luther J. Cox, E. P. Roberts, 

 Rev. D. V. McLean, the Messrs. Cheney, and 

 a host of others have thrown the whole weight of 

 their talents into the general cause, and what re- 

 sults may we not anticipate from their exertions, and 

 from the spirit which now pervades all classes? 

 Do Americans, when they undertake a great ob- 

 ject, allow themselves to be surpassed by any 

 other nation. Does our mighty country, embrac- 

 ing every variety of climate that all the silk coun- 

 tries of the world can boast, shrink from a compe- 

 tition calculated to develop her immense advan- 

 tages, and to render her independent of foreign 

 importations, which have in a single year drained 

 her of above twenty millions of dollars? We 

 answer firmly in the negative, and declare our 

 absolute conviction, that such are the advantages 

 of our climate, such the energy and industry of our 

 citizens, such their tact in the invention of suita- 

 ble machinery, and last, though not least, such 

 ihe advantages of the multicaulis tree over every 

 other variety in accomplishing that most impor- 

 tant point, the economy of labor, that within five 

 years our country will command the balance of 

 the silk trade in its favor, and become a great silk 

 exporting country. 



Yours, most respectfully. 



War. Pri\ce & Sons. 



LinncEan Gardens, Flushing, Nov. 17, 1838. 



P. S. We hope soon to have a paper on the 

 silk culture published here, and we are preparing 

 a lengthy article explanatory of the silk culture, 

 to be distributed gratis, in which we shall com- 

 ment also on ihe introduction and dissemination of 

 the morus multicaulis, and show the immense 

 numbers we have imported and propagated, in- 

 cluding 54,000 that were thrown into the New 

 York dock, in the winter ot" 1835—36, on account 

 of their being totally rotten lioni the voyage. 



To Uie Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



THK MARL INDICATOR. 



I beg leave to call your attention to a striking 

 diflerence between the drawing, in your Novem- 

 ber number, of the plant which you call ''7%e 



3forl Indicator,'''' and the decription of it by one of 

 your botanical friends. It seems that both he and 

 the artist who drew it had the plant itself before 

 then). One or the other, therefore, must have ex- 

 amined it too carelessly, or .«uch a mistake could 

 not possibly have happened. But the conse- 

 quence is, that those who never saw the plant are 

 no wiser now, than they were before your paper 

 came out. Again, your friend, Mr. Gideon B. 

 Smith, has made the matter rather worse, by de- 

 claring, (as you quote his letter,) that ^'the de- 

 scription of the plant and the drawi' g agree per- 

 fectly,''^ Sic. Now, what is the fact? Why, the 

 description says, it has ^Heaves opposite amplexi- 

 caul,'''' whereas, the drawing shows leaves con- 

 nected with the stalk or stem, in the common 

 wav, at a point. 



Probably, my good sir, I should never have 

 fotind out this blunder, but being no botanist my- 

 self, yet very desirous of knowing every thing 

 about this extraordinary plant which I could un- 

 derstand, I set to work, with a botanical dictionary, 

 to hunt out, as well as I could, Ihe meaning of all 

 the cramp, puzzling words which I found in your 

 friend's description. When I came to '^amplexi- 

 caul,^^ the dictionary thus explains: "having ihe 

 base surrounding or embracing the stalk;^'' but on 

 turning over to the drawing, I could make out no- 

 thing like it — unless, indeed, the words '•sur- 

 round''^ and "embrace'^ mean something very dif- 

 ferent in botany from what they do in common 

 parlance. In this annoying quandary I have 

 deemed it best to submit the matter to your ar- 

 bitrament, in the confident hope that you will beg 

 your botanical friends, in behalf of all who have 

 no knowledge of their trufy delightflil science, to 

 take a little more [)ains the next time they under- 

 take to indoctrinate such ignoramuses as your old 

 friend Commentator. 



[The error stated above really exists ; but it 

 was not made in the botanical description of the 

 plant, nor by the engraver, but by the artist who 

 designed and colored the picture. The very slight 

 difference (to the view, though important as a 

 botanical characteristic,) escaped his observation, 

 as it did in the engraving that of all other persons, 

 until subjected to the microscopic scrutiny of our 

 friend Commentator.] 



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 the annexed conditions of publication, for Vol. 

 VII ; and especially to the reduction of the cost of 

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 may choose to comply with the easy conditions an- 

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 or who shall pay in due time and the manner spe- 

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 a new subscriber, a second copy of the same 

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