674 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



THE NEAV THEORY.* 



From the Journal of the American Silk Society. 



Cambridge, E. S. Md., Sept. 28, 1840. 

 Gideon B. Smith — Dear Sir — In your 'Silk 

 Journal' of August last, j-ou maintain that the 

 Bilk-worm "requires exactly twelve months to 

 pass through the various stages of its existence ;" 

 "that, if hatched on May 1, 1840, the eggs pro- 

 duced must be hatched on May 1, 1841, or nearly 

 BO ;" and that otherwise, if hastened, or protract- 

 ed, disease and death must be the consequence to 

 the new progeny! — and you believe that analogy 

 will sustain the opinion. (1) 



This, indeed, is a grave and serious subject, out 

 of which grows a question of deep concern to the 

 country at large; and more especially to those 

 whose sanguine and ardent epirits may have led 

 them to embark heavily in the design of this new 

 enterprise ; buoyed as they were, by the new dis- 

 covery ot protraction, and multiplication of the 

 crops, at pleasure; which would, if established, 

 add seven-fold to the profits of their labor. 



" Silk-cullure," if nothing more than one crop 

 can be produced in the season, will be a poor bu- 

 siness; and nothing more than one crop will be 

 attained, if the above sentiment be correct ; the 

 difficulty of procuring stocks of eggs, of the pre- 

 cise age for every respective crop — and the fre- 

 quent impositions which will be practised by un- 

 principled vendors, will be quite insuperable; and 

 one crop only, as in Europe and Asia, will be the 

 whole practicable result. 



The difference which this counter discovery, or 

 new position will make, in our prospects of the 

 silif culture, below that of the many crops, is in- 

 calculable, and unquestionably fatal — if true ; the 

 cost — labor — and leaves will be nearly seven to 

 one greater, than if seven, the supposed practica- 

 ble number of crops under the previous discovery 

 could be accomplished — the same rooms — fix- 

 tures, and other accommodations must, in such 

 case, be made lor one million, as in the other lor 

 seven millions; the foliage to be supplied wholly 

 in the space of a kw weeks, will require uncount- 

 ably more trees than were as many months allow- 

 ed (or them to leaf and releaf for each and every 

 crop through the season ; the labor being all re- 



* In a previous number of the 'Farmers' Register,' 

 we presented the new theory of Dr. Gideon B. Smith 

 in regard to the retarding of the hatching of silk- 

 worms' eggs, as well as the remarks of one of our 

 most experienced and intelligent silk-culturists ap- 

 proving thereof in advance. We now add some ob- 

 jections as well as answers thereto, so that our readers 

 may have the best opportunity for hearing opinions, 

 both^?'0 and con, on this novel and interesting subject. 

 For our own part, we can only say, as yet, that we 

 he£irtily wish the new theory may be sound ; as the 

 knowledge of any certain and general causes of fail- 

 ure of eggs, and consequently of rearings of silk- 

 worms, will bring culturists so much nearer to the 

 certainty of success in rearing hereafter— a result 

 which we do not appreciate the less, nor less anxiously 

 desire to be produced, because the events of this year 

 have served greatly to lower our previous confident 

 hopes and expectations. — Ed. F. R. 



quired at one time, will be ver)' troublesome, and 

 costly to Maryland — and to all those spacious and 

 very suitable regions, south of the Potomac and 

 Ohio, where annual, and not daily labor is general- 

 ly employed; an immense number of laborers 

 must in this case, be reserved for about two 

 months' services — before and afterwards, through 

 the year, a cumbrous tax, not always to be dis- 

 posed olj at seasons when every trustworthy farm- 

 er has his supply, (2) 



Hence, an inquiry into the merits of the new 

 theory, and the grounds on which it rests, becomes 

 highly interesting. 



I grant, it is sirange the important discovery of 

 Mr. Carson, "that the hatcliing of silk-worm 

 eggs, may be a long time protracted without injury 

 to the progeny, had never been made in Europe 

 or Asia, where that culture had so long been a 

 prominent occupation" — yet, equally strange it is, 

 that many all-important discoveries and improve- 

 ments in the arts and sciences are daily develop- 

 ing, which had remained hidden to the eye and 

 mind of man from times unknown ; we must ap- 

 proach the subject, then, wilhoiat the prejudice of 

 interest or noveltj\ 



You adduce a casein analogy of the "swallow 

 martin" seeking a suitable climate, at a particular 

 season, as an instance in point — this case is not, in 

 my opinion, applicable ; instinct prompts the bird, 

 by the instrumentality of its feelings, to seek a 

 new domicll, as a dog would remove from an over- 

 heated fireside, to a cooler part of the room ; vo- 

 lition is here involved ; the eggs of the worm do 

 not come into action by instinct — by this motive 

 the worm may depositeihem — but they must await 

 the essential and unerring power of heat, for their 

 developement ; until this be applied, they are, 

 (oiher injuries excepted) — quasi new; a /act 

 well known in the New York establishments for 

 the purpose, where all sorts of eggs, without re- 

 gard to the dates of their deposite, are, if sound, 

 hatched, and produce good progenies. (3) 



The "American locust" — your other case of 

 analogy, 1 consider equally remote; very truly, it 

 may perform the septennial revolutions, from the 

 date of its eggs, having received the influence of 

 a sufficiency ol heat to bring them into life ; which, 

 when the parent has made its deposite at the ap- 

 proach of the vernal sun, will occur in regular or- 

 der — unless, by accident or design, this vivilying 

 cause be intercepted ; in which case the effect 

 will, of necessity, be retarded, and possibly to an- 

 other year, or more; and in proof of this occur- 

 rence, annually are seen many stragglers, not 

 moving in the natural and septennial cycle; and 

 it has not been shown in the case relied upon, 

 that these, or the product of the eggs of these 

 stragglers, would be diseased, or perish ; which, 

 as I understand, is the very gist of the question it 

 is adduced to settle ; and, iherefbre, it is not in 

 point. (4) 



In regard to the question at issue, entomology 

 is so little studied, that more light \s to be drawn 

 from the vegetable, than the animal world ; and it 

 would seem superfluous, with the most of your 

 readers, to premise the fact of the very great ana- 

 logy, in a physiological view, which oviparous in- 

 sects in general bear to plants, and particularly in 

 the production of their progeny, from seeds and 

 eggs; a subject clearly and scientifically treated 

 in Darwin's Phytologia — and elsewhere. 



