54 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 1 



i( the weather will admit, turn over your ground 

 that is trenched, in order to mellow it, and pul- 

 verize it. Whatever will prevent delay and en- 

 able you to begin spading in February, should be 

 done this month. 



From the Silk Grower. 

 A STATEMKKT OF PRACTICAL, SILK BUSINESS. 



To the Committee on Silk, Jlmerican Institute: 



Gentlemen — The vast importance of the silk 

 culture to our country, and the eagerness of the 

 public to obtam information respecting it, make it 

 the duty of every one engaged in producing a 

 "silk crop," to lurnish his quota of knowledge, 

 that thus a mass of practical information may be 

 collected, from which we may go forward with 

 confidence, and gather in the rich harvest which 

 is before us. 



With these views, and in compliance with the 

 solicitation of my fellow-citizens, I give you the 

 result of my experience during the past summer. 

 I would first premise, that in making a trial of the 

 eilk culture, it was my desire to adopt a mode 

 which could be followed by our agriculturisis at 

 large, rather than to show the greale.-?t possible 

 quantity of silk that could be produced from a giv- 

 en portion of land. Such an experiment, made 

 under peculiar advantages of soil and culture, 

 yielding a large product, might be viewed with 

 admiration; but the means being beyond the reach 

 of the mass of our citizens, the same results could 

 not be attained. 



The field from which the experiment was made, 

 was situated in East Hartford — the soil, of a light, 

 sandy nature, of a quality termed in that quarter, 

 good corn-land. It was ploughed about the middle 

 of May, and harrowed and furrowed in the usual 

 manner. The roots and trees (moras mullicau- 

 lis) were now laid down and covered from two lo 

 four inches, the tops having a slight upward incli- 

 nation; they were placed about twelve inches 

 apart in the row, the rows three and a half feet 

 apart, having been previously moderately manured. 



After the field was planted, a section compris- 

 ing one eighth of an acre was marked oti', to be 

 subjected to a more particular experiment. It was 

 stocked with 780 roots and trees, all of one year's 

 growth, having had their tops partially or wholly 

 killed by the severity of the past season. One- 

 third were two feet high, one-third one loot, stripped 

 of their limbs, and the remainder were roots with- 

 out tops. By the 1st of June the new shoots be- 

 gan to show themselves, and by the 1st of July 

 they numbered 4,800, and had attained the height 

 of twelve to eighteen inches. 



A family of 4,000 worms were now started, 

 which wound upon the 23d July, having con- 

 sumed 131 lbs. leaves. Three other lots, amount- 

 ing in all to 28,000, were now put out at inter- 

 vals of several days, in order to favor the increas- 

 ing growth of the leaves. 15y the 10th of Sept., 

 the last had finished their labors. Weight of 

 leaves consumed in Aug., 701 lbs. and in Sept. 

 332 lbs. 



Total weight of leaves gathered, . . l,164lbs. 

 Total number of worms fed, . . . 32 000 

 Producing nine bushels cocoons. 

 Yielding (so far as reeled) 1 lb. of silk perhushei. 



Weight of cocoons, 95 lbs 



Waste silk, and floss, lib. 



Twenty-seven thousand of the worms were of 

 the two-crop kind, requiring 4,000 to make a pound 

 of silk and consuming 144 lbs. of leaves. The 

 remaining 5,000 were the long-crop eix-weeka 

 worms, 2,500 of which produced a pound of silk, 

 and consumed 90 lbs. leaves. It was my inten- 

 tion to have fed the long-crop worms entirely, ag 

 they are known, to be much the most productive 

 of any other kind, but they could not be procured. 



Business now calling me away, the feeding 

 was discontinued, and the trees were immediately 

 removed from the ground, having attained an 

 average height of 4^ feet, well-rooted, and with 

 heavy limbs. 



The produce of the one-eighth of an acre, aa 

 above, it appears is 9 bushels cocoons or 9 lbs. silk; 

 being at the rate of 72 lbs. per acre, from the feed- 

 ing between the 1st July and the tenth Sept. It 

 is easy to see, that had the 1,164 lbs. leaves been 

 led to worms of the six-weeks kind, the yield would 

 have been 13 lbs. of silk, or nearly — and from the 

 rapidity with which the new leaves were develop- 

 ing when the trees were removed, it is presumed 

 that had they remained during September, enough 

 more might have been added, to have swelled the 

 product, so as to have made the crop at the rate 

 of 125 lbs. per acre. 



During the period of feeding, the safety and 

 even advantage to the tree of frequent defoliation 

 was fully proved. The trees from which this ex- 

 periment was made, were stripped of their leaves 

 lour different times, yet at no time were they in- 

 ferior to others that were untouched ; on the con- 

 trary, it was remarked, that where the leaves were 

 removed, the limbs shot forth with greater vigor — 

 care being taken to leave the tender leaves at the 

 ends of the branches. 



The very great advantage of this species of 

 mulberry over standard trees, was manifest; while 

 such trees are dilficult of success, and from the 

 small size of the leaves, requiring much labor to 

 gather any quantity, it was easy for a child to 

 take from the niorus multicaulis 15 to 20 lbs. in 

 an hour. 



The plan of retarding the hatching of the eggs 

 by keeping them in an ice-house, was found per- 

 fectly successful; the worms which wound the 

 finest cocoons were thus kept back until the 3d of 

 August. 



It may be useful to new beginners to know, that 

 the large six-weeks worm, either white or sulphur 

 colored, is altogether preferable to the two-crop; for 

 not only are they more productive of silk, but from 

 their superior length of thread, thereeler is able to 

 produce silk of better quality, and with less labor. 



The convenience of a shrub tree, where the 

 farmer wishes to change his crop, may be seen 

 li-om the fact, that with the use of a plough, the 

 trees on this section of land, 4,800 in number, were 

 turned out of the ground in 30 minutes. An hour 

 more was sufficient to curt them fi'om the field. 



Every one who lakes up the culture of silk, is 

 surprised at the ease and certainty with which it 

 is produced, and of this experiment it may be ob- 

 served, that none of the persons who took care of 

 the trees, gathered the leaves, or ied the worms, 

 had ever seen a tree or silk-worm before. 



I am not acquainted with the comparative me- 

 rits of the moras multicaulis, and other kinds of 

 the mulberry; but large as has been the estimate 

 of some cultivators, of the produce and value of 



