402 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



covered by a light coat of eand, which had been j iiesi<:n, and now send you an account ofwhat we 

 blown up i'rom the beach : this protected the crop j have done up to iliis dny. 



from the Iroi^ts ; and very early in the spritiir, the 

 bIiooIs of lucerne would be Ibund penetrating it in 

 all directions, like asparagus plants, and in a ((3W 

 days they would spread the surlace like a carpet, 

 furnishing, in about the space of two weeks, ex- 

 cellent food for cattle of every descri[)tion, and upon 

 which hogs would fatten, fit for slaughter; it being 

 ren)arkable that these last, after masticalinii even 

 the woody stalks of the plant, would not eject any 

 portion of it, but swallow the whole. 



In my next, I may resume the subject of the 

 culiivation of this remarkable crop, and in the 

 meantime offer my best wishes (or the success of 

 your valuable work. YiK. 



May 2Sth, 1840. 



P. S. Any of our friends intending to enter into 

 the cultivation of lucerne, siiould imniedialely pre- 

 pare, by summer-fallowing the land, harrowing 

 after each ploujrhing, 10 encourage the weeds to 

 vegetate, destroying them by turning down, and 

 harrowing ibra Iresh crop immediately. 



SILK CULTURE OF THE EAHLY PART OF THIS 

 SEASON IIV BRUKSWICK COUNTY. 



To tlie Editor of tlie Fanners' Bejister. 



Lnwrenceville, July 3, 1840. 

 For some years I have been impressed with a 

 strong belief that the raising of siik worms might 

 be made a profitable employment in this slate, and 

 thai it would give to numerous persons, whose la- 

 bor now yields little or nothing, the means of com- 

 fortable support, if not a competent independence. 

 Afier the price of multicaulis trees fell down to 

 almost nothing last I'all, and many of n)y neigh- 

 bors could not dispose ol' what they had raised, I 

 determined to make a fair experiment of what 

 could be done in raising a crop of silk worms — 1 

 say a crop, by which I mean a summer's or a sea- 

 eon's work at that business. Not having trees 

 enough myself, all rhy neighbors, who did not in- 

 tend to feed worms themselves, promptly and libe- 

 rally put their trees at my disposal, so that I had 

 some 30,000 good trees of last year's growth to 

 feed from. Being determined to give the thing a 

 fair trial, I proposed to three ladies of our village, 

 namely, Mrs. Thomas S. Gholson, Mrs. Wm. B. 

 Wilkinson, and my sister, Miss Martha Hicks, if 

 they would, with their house servants, attend to 

 feeding, &c. that I would have an old dwelling 

 house in my yard (24 by 18, two stories high) 

 fitted up for worms, get every thing necessary, 

 and after reimbursing the outlay for the crop, they 

 should have all the profits. The ladies accepted 

 ihis proposition, and have progressed as 1 will 

 hereafter tell you. 1 intended to wait until we 

 had gone through the season, and then to have 

 given you a full detail of all we did, how we suc- 

 ceeded, and how we failed ; but as it has been 

 urged upon me that even the little experience we 

 have had might aseiet some young beginners like 

 ourselves, during ifie 



List siiminer [ requested BIr. Dwiglil Hunlinir- 

 ton. of Mansfield, Connecticut, to look oui lor the 

 best worms in that [)lace, and from ihem save me 

 some three or lour liundred ihousanrl eggs. Mr. 

 H. is well acquainted with the business, and has 

 been familiar wilh it lor 30 yearis. He put up 

 300,000 larire sulphur eggs, ami 70,000 lnr<re sul- 

 [)liur two-crop egir*, remarking, in his letter on 

 the stiliject, that ilie two-crop worms were the 

 lartresl he had ever seen. The egijs were kept by 

 him iiniil the coldest weaiher of last wintf^r, when 

 he brought them to N. York, and himself put them 

 aboard of a vessel (or Feiersburg, tnkinsr care to 

 slow them in a part of the vessel free from the influ- 

 ence of fire. As soon as the ice permitied, the 

 vessel arrived at Peiersburg, and my brother, Mr. 

 L. F. Hicks of your town, lost no time in forward- 

 ing them to me. I received them in February, 

 and immediately put them on ice, where they re- 

 mained until taken out for hatching. 



Being all of us entirely unacquainted with the 

 business, except so far as we could be inlbrnied 

 from books, we judged it prudent to begin wiih 

 what we considered a hnlf crop, and put out the 

 two-rrop es^Ts about the 20th April. They began 

 to hatch about the 12th day, and completed their 

 work in about 35 days. My friend, Mr. Huntinfr- 

 'on, over-esiimated the quantiiy of e<rss ; instead 

 of being 70,000, there are not more than 45,000. 

 We gathered 13| bushels cocoons from these 

 worms. About ten days after exposing the first 

 eggs, we exposed half of the large sulphur eggs, 

 which began to hatch on the 13ih day, and taking 

 the medium of the different dsvs' hatching, 1 will 

 say they all hatched on the 25th May ; these are 

 all now spun up, but F have not yet gathered thetn. 

 We think there are about 100,000 of these, and 

 we hope to get 30 bushels more of" cocoons. Fol- 

 lowing up the plan we had adopted about two 

 weeks after the last eggs were exposed, we put 

 out the residue of the large sulphur eggs, and they 

 began to hatch on the Sih day after exposure ; and 

 taking the medium as before, I will say that they 

 hatched on the 21st day of June. They are now 

 moulting the second time, and are about 120,000 

 in number. If they do as well as the others, we 

 hope to get some 30 bushels of cocoons from them. 

 We have now exposed a full crop of the eggs of 

 the two-crop worms, laid about five or six days 

 ago ; and if we do well, shall put out, according to 

 our plan as above stated, another crop of eggs, so 

 as to make five successive crops in the season. 



Alier stating what we have done as succinctly 

 as 1 can, I will now proceed to make some gene- 

 ral observations, which may not be unacceptable 

 to young beginners like myself In the first place, 

 too much importance, in my humble judgment, 

 cannot be ascribed to the eggs, the purity of the 

 stock from which they come, and thft. proper keep 

 of them. If either be neglected, nothing can pre- 

 vent the mischiels which will instantly result. Of 

 course none who begin this business will be so 

 imprudent as not to have leaves enough (or their 

 worms, without stint. If there should be such a 

 one, he must fail. With plenty of food, and good, 



present season, in their 

 praisewonhy efforts to establish this most impor- 

 tant branch ot industry ; an^ \vi(h the hope that j sound, well-kept eggs, it seems to me that, wilh 



it may have that effect, and if nothing better, that 

 it may cheer and encourage some desponding 

 friend of the cause, 1 have abandoned my original 



out casualties which no prudence can obviate, no 

 one ought to fail. 

 From first to last, through the dampest seasoa 



