503 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Fcarch of excitement abroad. It was most grati- 

 iViiig lo observe llie comlbit displayed in the 

 whole economy oC the households of these small 

 cultivators, and the leepectability in which they 

 Jived. As far as I could learn, tliere was no ten- 

 dency to the subdivision of the email holdings : I 

 heard of none under five acres held by the class of 

 peasan: farmers, and six, seven, or eight acres is 

 the more common size. The provident habits of 

 these small farmers enable them to maintain a 

 high standard of comfort, and is necessarily op- 

 po'sed to such subdivision. Their marriages are not 

 contracted so early as in Ireland, and the conse- 

 quent struggle for subsistence among their off- 

 f pring does not exist. The proprietors of ihe soil 

 retain the free and unrestricted disposal of their 

 property, whether divided into smaller or larger 

 holdings. The common rent of land is about 20s. 

 an acre, and the usual rate of wages lor a day 

 laborer is a franc (or lOd.) a day. 



A small occupier, whose farm we examined 

 near Ghent, paid 225 francs per annum lor about 

 two bonniers, or six acres of land, with a comfort- 

 able house, stabling, and other offices attached, all 

 very good of their kind ; this makes the rent 

 (reckoning the franc at lOd.) equal to 91. 7s. 6d- 

 sterling per annum; and if we allow 31. 7s. 6d. for 

 the rent of the house, stabling, and other offices, 

 there will be &l., or 1?. per acre for the land, which 

 accords wiih the imibrmation we obtained at 

 Antwerp, Brussels, and other places, as to the 

 rent of land in the flat countr}', the soil of which is 

 generally of the same quality throughout. This 

 farmer had a wife and five children, and appeared 

 to live in much comfort. He owed little or nothing 

 he said, but he had no capital beyond that em- 

 ployed on his farm. We questioned him respect- 

 ing his resources in case of sickness. He replied 

 that if he were ill, and his illness were severe and 

 of leng duration, it would press heavily upon him, 

 because it would interrupt the whole farm work ; 

 and in order to provide for his family and to pay 

 the doctor, he feared he should be obliged to sell 

 part of hie stock. If hie wife and family were long 

 ill and he retained his strength, the doctor would 

 give him credit, and he should be able to pay him 

 by degrees in the course of a year or two. The 

 jhought of applying (or assistance in any quarter 

 appeared never to have entered his mind. We 

 suggested that the Bureau de Bienfaisance, or 

 charitable individuals, might aHbrd him aid in such 

 u ditRculty ; but, with evident marks of surprise 

 at the suggestion, he replied cheerfully that he 

 must lake care of himself If a sick club or benefit 

 eociety were established among these people, so 

 as to enable them by mutual assurance to provide 

 for the casualty of sickness, the chief source ol" 

 t-iitfering to their families would be obviated, and 

 there would be little left to wish for or amend in 

 their social condition. 



enormous sum was " the Osbaldeston," which has 

 hunted the old Berkeley county (Hertfordshire) 

 under the mastership of Harvey Combe, esq. ; the 

 Earl of Cardigan was one of the principal buyers- 



BXTKAORUINAllY SALK OF KOXIIOLNDS. 



The most remarkable sale of hounds ever 

 known, look place a few days ago at Hyde-park- 

 corner ; tfie lots were thirteen in number, making 

 157 hounds exclusive of whelps ; their produre 

 was 6,611 guineas, or upwards of one hundred 

 ■pounds per couple ! The pack which realised this 



WILD SILKWORMS OF ASSAM AND THEIR 

 rRODUC'TS. 



From the Penny Magazine. 



The warm climate and prodigious variety of in- 

 sects of the southern pans of Asia has recently 

 induced Europeans to examine such parts of that 

 quarter of the world as are open to them, with a 

 view to finding other caterpillars which produce 

 silk as well as (he con)mon silk- worm, and perhaps 

 also some kinds which may be able to feed them- 

 selves and spin their webs in a wild state, without 

 demanding the plantation of mulberry-trees, and 

 the unremitting attendence which that insect 

 requires. It has been long known that several 

 species of wild silk-worms exist in India, and mil- 

 lions of cocoons are annually collected in the 

 jungles of that country and brought lo the silk 

 factories of Calcutta : it is said that these insects 

 cannot be domesticated, because the moths take 

 flight as soon as they are produced ; but the expe- 

 riment has been tried, on a small scale, of keeping 

 them under a mosquito curtain, and found to an- 

 swer ; ii would seem, however, that in a country 

 where they are produced and maintained spon- 

 taneously in great abundance, there would be 

 little advantage in domesticating them, unless the 

 produce were greatly improved by cultivation, 

 which the experiment does not state. The only 

 attention now required is to gather the cocoons 

 when formed ; in addition to which, in some parts 

 of India, the natives remove the young worms fronj 

 the jungles, and transfer them to trees which 

 grow near their own dwellings, where they may- 

 be defended from the dangers to which they are 

 liable, and where the eocoons can be more easily 

 collected. 



The province of Assam, on the banks of the 

 Brahmaputra, which until the termination of the 

 Burmese war was nearly closed against Euro- 

 peans, is now an English dependency : its re- 

 sources have been investigated, and, among a 

 variety of hitherto unknown productions, nearly 

 a dozen species of eilk-worms have been found 

 there, some of which have been long cultivated by 

 the Assamese, and large quantities of the produce 

 exported to the neighboring countries. One of 

 these is the muga-worm, which feeds on a variety 

 of trees, and is never reared in ^the house. We 

 mav begin our account of the muga from the 

 hatching of the eggs, which are deposited by the 

 females on wisps of dry grass. These wisps the 

 natives expose to the sun for about ten days, when 

 a few worms begin to show themselves. They 

 are then hungup in a tree which has been selected 

 ! for the purpose, and as the young worms hatch 

 ' successively, they find their way one after another 

 to the leaves of the tree. To prevent them from 

 coming to the ground, fresh plantain leaves are 

 tied round the trunk of ihe tree, on the smooth 

 surfiice of which they are unable to crawl ; if any 

 worms fall off, they are carefully picked up and 

 replaced on the tree, round which the ground is 

 cleared of jungle that they may be more readily 



