104 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



square of (he number, instead of the number itself 

 of square feet, and is equal to 33,612 square feet, 

 or a surface of feeding shelves, of more than three- 

 quarters of an acre ! And yel, obvious as is this 

 error, it is faitlifully copied from the English trans- 

 lation, and has been as faithfully re-copied by 

 nearly all the subsequent American authors or 

 compilers. 



Clarke, the author of the latest American trea- 

 tise, (1839,) and the volume of greatest size and 

 most pretension of all, objects to Dandolo's spaces, 

 (or, as we say, those of Dandolo's translator,) 

 as being too small. But he is content however 

 to increase them merely by changing the frac- 

 tional parts, or the odd inches, to the next greater 

 whole number of feet. With this very slight ad- 

 dition, he constructs and presents a table of his 

 own, upon the same grounds, showing the "/ce< 

 square requisite on the shelves, for worms proceed- 

 ing from " one ounce of eggs and every interme- 

 diate quantity to 10 ounces. Thus, the worms 

 from 10 ounces, in their last age, as stated in this 

 carefully constructed table, require 1840 " feet 

 square ;" which would be equal to 77 acres of 

 surface of shelves 1 ! ! 



But after throwing out this greatest and most 

 glaring of errors, and supposing the square feet, 

 and not the feet square, to be understood by all, 

 (their words to the contrary notwithstanding,) 

 there still remains another great error in this esti- 

 mate, which can be very clearly shown to exist, 

 although, without reference to the original, we 

 cannot do more than infer the (rue sum. 



According to the ' Manual,' (which in this re- 

 spect copies literally (he English translation of the 

 French translation of Dandolo, and which is again 

 copied either precisely, or very nearly, in half a do- 

 zen American regular treatises,) the "spaces occu- 

 pied by worms in different ages''' are as follows : 

 "The worms proceeding from an ounce of eggs 

 should have a space. 



In the first age, of 7 feet 4 inches square — 

 " second 14 feet 8 inches square — 

 " third 34 feet 10 inches square — 



" fourth 82 feet 6 inches square — 



" fifih 183 feet 4 inches square." 



Now after making the change of these num- 

 bers of "feet square" to square feet, (all the cor- 

 rection that the authors can possibly claim,) the 

 spaces are still altogether erroneous, and much too 

 small ; and if these ofi-repeated rules have indeed 

 directed the practice of any young culturist, we 

 undertake to say that he either killed or greatly 

 injured his worms, by their being too much crowded 

 on the shelves. 



In Hrew^'ter's ' Journal of Science,' there is an 

 article by Murray, which is manifestly founded on 



Dandolo's work, and operations, and on Murray's 

 personal observation on silk-culture in Italy. (See 

 Brewster's EJinburgh Encyclopcedia, art. Silk.) 

 In this he states the spaces required at each dif- 

 ferent age, and no doubt he gave (he very spaces 

 prescribed by and learned from Dandolo. Now 

 these spaces are not stated by the foot, but by (he 

 Italian measure "braccio,^"' which Murray says is 

 "about 22 English inches." Thus he states the 

 spaces required by the worms from an ounce of 

 egtjs to be as follows : 



During the first age, 4 square braccia, 



" second age, 8 do. 



" third age, 19 do. 



" iburth age, 45 do. 



" fifth age, 100 do. 



The translator of Dandolo, i; is obvious, reduced 

 the lineal I'iraccio to feet, and so the squares of the 

 feet were substituted, for the squares of the equi- 

 valent in length, in the Italian denomination, 

 although the result is thereby made altogether 

 different. As (here has been so much misunder- 

 standing on this point, I will annex a figure which 

 may be clearly understood, even by all of Dan- 

 dolo's translators and copyists. It is manifest from 

 (hese figures that, though 4 braccia, in length, is 

 the same as 7 feet 4 inches, in length, that 4 

 square braccia is very nearly twice as much 

 space as 7 square feet and one-third.* 



Four braccia, lineal measure, equal to 7 feet and four inches. 



Seven ', sq're. ; feet \ and J | a | third. ] 



Seven feet and four inches square. 



* We take as correct Murray's value of the braceio, 

 because ho doubtless received it from Dandolo, and in 

 the locality where used, and also because 4 braccia in 



