FARMERS' REGISTER, 



55 



upon difl'erent kinds of food, as Gen. Mason speaks 

 of, but for another important purpose. Milk buy- 

 ers in large towns, by this means, could so easily 

 detect and estimate the amount of water whicli 

 they buy vviih their milk, tluit their being so in- 

 formed would necessarily produce an entire change 

 in that branch of trade and manufacture, as it is 

 said now to exist. — Ep. F. R. 



PREMATURK FLOWERING OF FRUIT TREES 

 AND SHRUBS. 



From the Magazine of Horticulture. 



The season, as observed in this quarter, exhi- 

 bits some singular phenomena in the vegetable 

 kingdom. The severe storm of the 30th and 31st 

 August seemed to operate upon most of the plants 

 in our vicinity, like a frost, or a fire — curling, 

 blackening, withering, and killins the ibiiage, 

 which generally soon dropped oil', leaving the 

 hmbs and trunks in a great measure denuded. 

 This January nakedness was succeeded by a new 

 dress of leaves ; and at this momont many of the 

 fruit trees, as plums, &., the smaller ornamental 

 trees and garden shrubs, particularly the laburnum 

 and others of the acacia family, are actually 

 blossoming a second time. These re-duplications 

 are believed to be injurious to the future growth of 

 plants. — Nantucket Inquirer. 



[The same phenomena have occurred in many 

 other places. In Sandwich, Mass., and in other 

 tovvns on Cape Cod, the apple and pear trees have 

 flowered. A friend of ours, in Sandwich, informs 

 us that his apple trees have been almost covered 

 with bloom. At Nahant, fruit trees ol' all kinds 

 have flowered. At Newburyport the same thing 

 has occurred. Most of these premature blooms 

 have appeared in places near the sea-shore, or 

 where the eflects of the easterly siorm, the last 

 of August, were most (elt and are no doubt to be 

 attributed, in a degree, to the above cause, The 

 month of September was not so remarkable for 

 its warmth, as fo cause any such premature vege- 

 tation alone; but the storm, diMolialmg the trees, 

 and checking the flow of sap, threw them into a 

 elate of rest ; the ordinary weather of September 

 started them into new growth, and so rapidly after 

 the premature rest, that it operated like another 

 season, and brought forward the next year's blos- 

 soms. 



THE A, n, C, OF SIT.K-CULTURE. 



There will be hundreds of individuals in Virgin- 

 ia who will feed silk-worms during the next sea- 

 son, either on a large or small scale; still, there 

 will be a far greater number to whom it would be 

 fully as convenient, but who will be deterred by 

 different considerations from atlem[iling the ex- 

 periment. As we feel assured that every one 

 who will make a fair trial will be pleased with the 

 result, and that each small trial will induce more 

 extended operations, we are anxious to persuade 

 as many as possible to make experiments, no 

 matter on how limited a scale of operations. With 

 this view, we will offer a few suggestions, or 



small matters of advice to beginners, which may 

 possibly help to smooth away some supposed dif- 

 ficulties. There are no important difficulties, if 

 proper care be given. 



For a small beginning, and for success, it is not 

 mcessary to have the morus muliicaulis, nor even 

 the white mulberry, if Ihe experimenter has (and 

 who in the country has not?) enough leaves of 

 the native mulberry tree. It is true, that this is 

 inlijrior as food to the white mulberry, and that 

 again, as much inferior to the multicaulis. But 

 the worst of the three will serve well enough to 

 make a successful rearing. Therefore, the want 

 of the best, and by far the most proper and eco- 

 nomical kind of food for large operations, need not 

 prevent a beginning, and doing well, on even the 

 worst kind. 



For such small operations, it is not necessary to 

 have any shelves, hurdles, stove, or other of the 

 arran:|eraents suitable and requisite lor a regular 

 business. A common dining table will afl^ord 

 enough surface to feed 1000 worms on, to their 

 full growth ; and a table may be easily and effec- 

 tually secured from the invasion of rats and mice, 

 and ants and other insects, which very often destroy 

 the worms and the hopes of the experimenter. The 

 table is so secured by being placed a foot or two 

 flom any wall, and far enough from any place of 

 approach whence rats can leap down upon it, and 

 the legs of the table being set in tin-pans of wa- 

 j ter. Two such tables, connected by rough planks 

 i laid from one to the other, would afford a surface 

 I sufficient for 5000 worms, which would be enough 

 I for a first trial. Thus the second, and what is 

 deemed a great difficulty may be removed. 



\ But supposing that these and all previous ob- 

 stacles have been obviated by such or better 

 means, and the worms hatched tor a rearing, there 

 siill remains another difficulty which almost every 

 young culturist brings upon himself, and which 

 causes so much unnecessary trouble and loss of 

 worms, as to weary and disgust many a beginner, 

 before the commencement of the time when much 

 care or labor is really wanting. The young worms 

 are fed so lavishly, that nineteen-twentieths of the 

 food (if not much more,) remains unconsumed, 

 and forms a great accumulation of litter, which 

 soon needs removal. Again, to save trouble (as 

 it is thought,) Ihe leaves are usually given whole. 

 If the leaver are very young and tender, (as they 

 ought to be for very young worms,) they speedily 

 contract in drying, and each, as it curls up, en- 

 closes the worms which may be feeding on it. 

 The worms, being so superabundantly fed, have 

 no inducement lo move, until after being thus im- 

 prisoned, and llie leaf has become loo dry to be 

 longer fed on. To make this result the more sure 



