34 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



silk-worms' eggs, agree as to the necessiiy of 

 keeping them as dry as possible. This may be 

 done by putting them into boxes or bottles and 

 packiniT these away in larger boxes or barrels, 

 ilie sides and intervals being tilled wiih dry mate- 

 rials, sucii as shavinjTs, charcoal, &c. Some per- 

 sons think it indispensable that the bottles or 

 boxes containing the eggs siiould be perlectly 

 sealed belbre iht^y are dejiosited. Among these 

 we may mention Loiseleur Deslongchamps, who 

 in France, was the first to introduce the plan of 

 preserving silk-worms' eggs in ice-houses; each 

 box or bottle should contain but u small quantity 

 of eggs, leaving the largest space occu[)ied with 

 air. 



SILK GROWING IN 1839. KXPERIMKNT OF MR. 

 AARON CLAPP, OF HARTFORD, CON. 



From tlie Morns' Silk Fanner. 



1 planted, the second week in May, a lot ofmo- 

 rus multicaulis mulberry trees on one acre and a 

 quarter ot good land, being rich loamy soil, by lay- 

 ing down the roots and trees without beinu: cut, 

 buryinir them about two inches deep. This I con- 

 sider the best moile for planting multicaulis trees. 

 The rows were three feet apart. I did not put 

 any manure on the land, and the land being rath- 

 er wet and also it beinjj a wet season, only about 

 halt" as inany trees as I had expected were pro- 

 duced ; those trees that did come up grew and did 

 verv well. 



I then fitted up an old building which had been 

 used lor a store house, by putting up ladders or 

 shelves, the boards being about 18 inches apart 

 one above another. The house was 18 leet wide 

 by 25 feet in length, and two stories high. 



The second week in June I had a small crop of 

 silk worms hatch, of the six weelis kind, which 

 consumed from my trees 1.5U0 lbs. of leaves; and 

 the first and third weeks in August I had a large 

 number of the mamn)oth white hatch, and had 

 flatterinsr success with them. 



The silk worms required attendance about sev- 

 en weeks; the first three weeks 1 employed two 

 persons, one to pii'k leaves and the other to feed 

 the worms ; the iourth and fifth weeks I employed 

 four persons, two to pick the leaves and two to 

 feed the worms ; the sixth week two persons were 

 sufficient, and the seventh week it required only 

 one person. 



I raised fifty bushels of excellent cocoons, and 

 what I reeled produced one pound of silk to the 

 bushel, which is pronounced by good judges to 

 the better than the imported, and equally as good 

 silk as any made fi'om any other species of mul- 

 berry tree in our country. There was a larger 

 quantity of foliage remaining on the lot than we 

 had picked, and allowing that 100 lbs. of silk can 

 be made (i-om 1;^ acre of ground, and at ^6 a 

 pound which is now the price of it, it would 

 amount to $600. Now there is no other species 

 of m'llherry tree that will produce the quantity of 

 foliage from the same piece of ground, and there 

 is no c,rop of any tiling that will produce such a 

 p ofii, and in so ^horl a space of time. Even a 

 whole farm of 200 acres of land will not produce 

 more than $600 annually, of ordinary crops. 



Allowing that fifty pounds can be obtained from 



one acre and a quarter of land, and in so short a 

 space of time, it will be seen that the silk busi- 

 ness can and will be made very profitable. I also 

 weighed the leaves, and found that eighty pounds 

 of multicaulis leaves will produce a pound of reeled 

 silk. 



The following will fully prove that the stale- 

 meni which I have given is not extravagant. 



Cc'ipt. James Marsh of Hartibrd, raised this 

 season one and a half bushel of cocoons from two 

 square rods of ground, equal lo 107-^ bushels to 

 the acre, and at ^5 the bushel would amount to 

 8537 50. 



S. B. Goodwin,, of VVethersfield, gathered this 

 season 3,575 pounds of multicaulis leaves from one- 

 fourth of an acre of ground, equal to 14,300 pounds 

 of leaves lo an acre ; and allowing that eighty 

 pounds of leaves will make one pound of silk, it 

 would produce 178 pounds and 12 ounces, and 

 at S6 a pound would amount to S 1,068. 



Dr. Holt, of Glastenbury, obtained 70 pounds 

 of multicaulis leaves at one time, picking fiom one 

 rod of ground, e(]ual to 11,200 pounds to the acre. 



Mr. Church, of Bethlem, froai five years expe- 

 rience in making silk from difi'erent species of mul- 

 berry, is fijlly satisfied that the multicaulis will 

 make equally as good if not su[)erior silk to any 

 other kind. Mr. Church further states he had re- 

 peeated obtained one pound of reeled silk from 

 8f lbs of cocoons, although it can cannot generally 

 be expected. 



Now, with a convenient cocoonery and addi- 

 tional help of" two individuals for two weeks, I 

 could raise a crop of one million of silk worms 

 with the same ease and in the same length of time 

 specified above. The building which I occupied 

 was very inconvenient, and also we were very 

 careful not to injure the trees when picking the 

 leaves. The leaves were all picked one at a time, and 

 some of the leaves were 12.^ inches wide and 13J 

 inches in length. Now when there is a sufficient 

 su[iply of multicaulis trees in the country, so that 

 there would be no sale for them, we should gath- 

 er the foliage by stripping off the branches and 

 the leaves together, and in this way might gath- 

 er the Ibliage lour or five times as last. 



Several individuals in this vicinity have made 

 silk this season from the moras multicaulis, with 

 good success, and the specimens of silk that have 

 recently been exhibited at the American Institute, 

 gives undoubted evidence that this species of mul- 

 berry tree makes equally as good silk as any other 

 kind. The moras multicaulis possesses very de- 

 cided advantages over all other kinds of mulberry. 



From the Mississippi Farmer, 



Near Jackson, October, 1839. 



Dear Sir: — Your favor relative to the cultiva- 

 tion of millet in this State, is received ; and I will 

 with pleasure furnish you with the result of my 

 experience : 



In the fall of 1838, T procured from a friend fn 

 Alabama, one peck of seed, and which I sowed 

 last spring as directed by him. 1 had previously 

 learnt in a trip through Kentucky and Tenessee,the 

 estimation in which it was held by stock-raisers 



