FARMERS' REGISTER. 



101 



cocoons. They will obtain several important ad- 

 vantages by it. They reduce the bull< of their 

 product from a very large, to a very small com- 

 pass—no small object to those wlio reside at a 

 distance Trom market. They also obtain the pro- 

 fit of reeling, which is nearly or quite equal to 

 that ol' producing the cocoons. Let no one tor a 

 moment indulge^the idea that they cannot learn 

 to reel silk. Any intelligent person can learn in 

 awcekortwo, to perlorm the operation, and in one 

 season, become sufficiently skilled, to produce the 

 finest and best quality of raw silk. All who 

 make the experiment of feeding worms, should 

 appoint some active, intelligent younir woman to 

 reel, and the first cocoons made in the season, 

 should be appropriated to her education as a 

 reeler. She will become sufficiently expert with 

 the cocoons of the first crop, to teach oihers with 

 those of the second ; and thus ihey will be able 

 to reel the whole, nearly as last as they are 

 produced. This can be done, and should be 

 done. Foreigners, we know, make a great noise 

 about the difficulty of reeling ; but we also know, 

 that hundreds of American lemales have learned 

 to reel in a lew weeks, and produced silk equal to 

 nny ever produced in Piedmont. Indeed, we 

 know of aged persons who have even made the 

 red, and learned to use it perlectly from the di- 

 rections given in this Journal. Their only sur- 

 prise »vas, alter a fair trial, that any one should 

 ever have invested the art with any difficulty. 

 The extreme fineness of the fibre, to an inexpe- 

 rienced eye, seems to be beyond the reach of the 

 sense of touch ; and its apparent delicacy to 

 the same observer, would seem to be incapa- 

 ble of withstanding the rapid winding ofi" re- 

 quired in reeling. The fibre is so fine, that it 

 can scarcely be seen, and so delicate, that it would 

 be supposed to break at the slightest touch. 

 Hence, every body on a first view supposes the 

 art of reeling so very difficult. And yet all these 

 difficulties vanish at the first lair trial ; and all that is 

 really necessary lor a beginner is resolution 

 TO BEGIN — let her take resolution to say "I will," 

 and she shall be a reeler. Reeling silk is much 

 more appropriate to (ijmales than to males. The 

 very delicacy of the fibre, and the lightness of the 

 operaiion, indicate that the more delicate fingers 

 of females should perform the operation. Let 

 every experimenter in raising worms, therefore, 

 also try the experiment of reeling, and in this 

 way will reelers be created all over the country, 

 and thus will a market for cocoons be established 

 in every part of the United States. 



The writer of this paper has already extended 

 it to a greater length than he intended, or perhaps 

 is advisable lor the object. But he desired to say 

 all that need be said on the subject, that the inex- 

 perienced reader, for whose use it is exclusively in- 

 tended, might be able to try an experiment with 

 all the advantage possible. Hence, many small 

 things have been spoken of— trifles light as air to 

 the practised eye — but none the less important to 

 a successful experiment. As before remarked, this 

 paper is iniended for small domestic practice, not lor 

 large systematic cocooneries. The latter will un- 

 doubtedly build and fit up cocooneries expressly Ibr 

 the purpose ; and for such, we have already pub- 

 lished full and detailed directions, G, 13, S. 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN FLAX. 



From tlic Albany Cultivator, 



We know of no plant which seems to better de- 

 serve an effort for its introduction into the class of 

 cultivated vegetation, than the one above named. 

 The common flax plant is an annual ; is exposed to 

 the depredation of many insects ; to get the full 

 amount of the crop it is necessary it should be pull- 

 ed, and yet with all these drawbacks, it is a valua- 

 ble crop, and indispensable Ibr many purposes. If 

 a plant possessing the same valuable qualities aa 

 the common flax, yet which would be perennial, 

 and could be cradled or mown at maturuy — (thua 

 giving an annual succession of crops Irom the same 

 root) — could be discovered and brought into use 

 among us, and particularlv in the fijrtile valleys 

 and prairies of the western states, the advantages 

 would certainly be very great. Such a plant is 

 the flax of the Rocky Mountains; and the indivi- 

 dual or the society that shall introduce it into cul- 

 tivation, should it answer present indications, will 

 be considered as benefiting the agriculture of the 

 country essentially. Of the various notices which 

 we have seen of this plant, we select the follow- 

 ing, as more particularly describing its appearance 

 and the extent of its growth in those regions. 



Mr. Parker, in his excellent narrative ol'his jour- 

 ney across the Rocky Mountains, from the Missis- 

 sippi to the Pacific, says, ''Flax is a spontaneous 

 production of this country. In every thing, except 

 that it is perennial, it resembles the flax that is 

 cultivated in the United States — the stalk, the 

 bowl, the seed, the blue flower, closed in the day 

 time and open in the evening and morning. The 

 Indians use it in making fishing nets. Fields of 

 this flax might be managed by the husbandman in 

 the same manner as meadows Ibr hay. It would 

 need to be mowed like grass ; for the roots are too 

 large, and run too deep in the earth, to be pulled as 

 ours is ; and an advantage that this would have, 

 is, that there would be a saving of ploughing and 

 sowing." This was on a branch of Lewis or 

 Snake river, of the Columbia. 



In a late journal of a passage across these 

 mountains by Mr, Oakley, of Illinois, under date 

 of the 21st of July, 1839, occurs the following : 

 " Encamped to-night in a beautiful valley, called 

 Bayou Selard, 28 miles li-om the head of the south 

 Ibrk of the Platte,- It is a level prairie, thirty miles 

 long and three wide, and was covered with a thick 

 growth of flax, which every year springs up spon- 

 taneously." 



Whether the Rocky Mountain flax will prove 

 to be as near the common flax as is supposed by 

 Mr. Parker, may be doubted ; but that it is unlike 

 and far superior, to the two or three kinds of native 

 wild flax that have before been discovered in the 

 United States, would also seem to be clear, xi 

 tract of 90 square miles of flax, such as Mr. Oakley 

 described, would be a sight in any country, and 

 would rival the grass covered prairies of Illinois. — 



LARGE SEEDLING GRAPE RxVISED BY VAN 

 MONS. 



A seedling grape vine, at Brussels, raised by 

 Van Mons, produces liuit as large as a green 

 gage plum, which, at the latest, ripens in the first 



