FARMERS' REGISTER. 



39 



required to correspond with irentlemen interested 

 in the culture of siltc in Kiciimond, and request 

 ihem to Ibrin asocieiy and co operate with us in 

 pelilioiiing tlie le<iislalure to appoint a committee 

 lor the purpose of investigating the subject. 



Resolved umnimnusly, That Edmund Ruffin, 

 esq., editor ol the 'Farmers' Register,' and Gideon 

 B. Smith, esq., editor oi'the ' Journal ol'the Ame- 

 rican SilU Society,' be admitted honorary members 

 of this society for life. 



Resolved, That the editors of the Norfolk and 

 Portsmouth papers, of the Farmers' Register, and 

 of the Journal of the American Silk Society, be 

 requested to publish these proceedings. 



Resolved, That this meeting do now adjourn, 

 till the first Wednesday in February, 1840, to 

 meet at 11 o'clock A. "JM. at the Eagle Hotel in 

 Norfolk Borough. Geo. Jones, Pres't. 



Thos. G. CLiNTorf, Recording sec'nj. 



Corrected extract from the minutes of the Ruffin 

 Silk Society of Eastern Virginia. 



Teste, E. C. Robinson, C sec'ry. 



EDITORIAL REMARKS. 



A place is given above to the recent proceed- 

 ings of a society, the first established in Virginia, 

 ibr the promotion of silk-culture. In this respect 

 alone, its formation and early procedure would re- 

 quire some notice and comment. And in return 

 for the complimentary notice, and honors conferred 

 on us, by this new society, we will here offer, with 

 our thanks, to the members some advice — though 

 it be the kind of offering which is generally the 

 least desired, and least acceptable. 



To promote, extend, and establish silk-culture 

 in Virginia, as a common and profitable branch of 

 agricultural investment and domestic employment, 

 is a most noble and valuable object ; and, at the 

 same time, as we firmly believe, and have long 

 and often tried to enforce, is an object that is per- 

 fectly and cheaply attainable. And all that is 

 now wanting to reach this end, is light on the sub- 

 ject, to be furnished in carefully and accurately 

 conducted experiments ; and by practical rearings 

 of silk-worms on a scale of operation more or less 

 extensive, according to the previous practical 

 knowledge gained by the earlier experimenters. 

 It is in this manner that this society can most ef- 

 fectually and certainly forward the object in view, 

 and, to an amount a thousand-fold exceeding their 

 out-lay of money and labor, promote the agricul- 

 tural and general interests of Virginia. 



So far, the society has done well, and in the 

 measures proposed, it designs well. But this is 

 not enough. If the members merely comply with 

 the requirements of their constitution, the society 

 will remain in the rank of most of the agricultu- 

 ral societies which have been formed in Virginia, 

 and which have been, in the general, as useless in 

 fact, as, if properly operating, they ought to have 

 been profitable to their members and valuable to 



agriculture and to the country at large. The usu- 

 al acts of the li(e oi an agricultural society in Vir" 

 <rinia, is first to publish its organization and con- 

 stitution — nest to hear and to have published an 

 address on mere generalities, teaching nothing 

 practical, and worth nothing, unless perhaps mere- 

 ly as a literary composition— and next, and per- 

 haps speedily, the society ialls into a torpid slate 

 and then dies. It is only in the work performed, 

 {he practical information elicited and diffused, and 

 especially by the means of actual experiments, ac- 

 curately conducted and fully reported, that a society 

 can be greatly useful, or even maintain a respect- 

 able station, as a promoter of agriculture in gen- 

 eral, or of the one particular department of silk-cul- 

 turc. 



It is therefore, and because of the great interest 

 felt in the procedure of, and the hope of good 

 fruits from, this new silk society, that we earnestly 

 urge upon its members that, in addition to all yet 

 done and proposed to be done, they shall make it 

 essentially and truly a coorking society. Let the 

 society show good ivorks, in the industry designed 

 to be promoted, and they will dissipate all existing 

 doubts of value, and induce thousands of other in- 

 dividuals to follow their example. But if they 

 rely merely upon their faith, and upon preaching 

 it to the community, no matter how lively it may 

 be to thein-selves, it will be dead, as to effect on 

 the public. 



In accordance with this general view, we res- 

 pectfully recommend such operations as have been 

 hastily suggested to our mind since reading the 

 proceedings of the silk society. 



Fortunately for the object in view, the environs 

 of Norfolk and Portsmouth are now most abun- 

 dantly stocked with morus mullicaulis, and no 

 where can food for silk-worms be more cheaply 

 procured during the approaching season, whether 

 by those who are already proprietors of the trees, 

 or by purchase from Ihem of the leaves. Now, 

 besides the larger and more systematic operations 

 of the society, let every individual member of it 

 carefully conduct a rearing of silk-worms, (no 

 matter on how small a scale, if his situation for- 

 bids a larger.) and note and report the progress 

 and resuhs. Perhaps each one may object, to 

 such an attempt, either the unfitness of a town 

 location, the other more pressing demands of 

 business, the want of a proper house, or of the 

 very best arrangements and fixtures. It is true 

 that some one, and sometimes all of these objec- 

 tions, may apply to every individual; and it is 

 true enough that no resident in a town could con- 

 duct silk-culture so cheaply and profitably as in 

 the countr}'. Still, for such preliminary trials, 

 there are superior advantages to be found in 

 towns, and in the inie'Iigence and concert, and 



