1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



55 



the former, I believe its astonishing power oP re- 

 producing foliage, its tenacify of life, and the great 

 ease with which it is multiplied, have never been 

 overrated. A (riend informs me that a field of 

 roots, deprived of their tops last fall, remained in 

 the ground during winter, and that from the new 

 shoots, which started as early as any other vege- 

 tation, he was able to feed from one to two months 

 earlier than from others planted the follovving 

 May. From these collected facts, we may form 

 an idea of the quantity of leaves, and the conse- 

 quent weight of silk that may be obtained from 

 the morus multicaulis, when it shall liave attained 

 greater age, even in this latitude. 



I am not able to name the cost of raising silk; 

 but an intelligent culturist of my acquaintance, 

 from a proof of three successive years, rates it at 

 $2 per lb., exclusive of the cost of trees and the 

 tillage; respecting the latter, I am of opinion the 

 labor bestowed on a field of mulberry, need not be 

 more than on a field of Indian corn. 



It appears, therefore, that nearly all the labor of 

 raising silk, viz: plucking the leaves, feeding the 

 worms, and reeling it into sewings, may be per- 

 formed by the females of a family, and thus^ the 

 product be considered a clear gain, like that of any 

 other collateral branch of farming. The growing 

 of silk needs but to be looked into, to be appre- 

 ciated ; and if 100 pounds can be produced the 

 first year of planting, worth $5 the pound in raw 

 silk, or ^9, when in sewings, what other crop, 

 it may be asked, can be named coming near it for 

 profit? 



I will only add, gentlemen, that it is cheer- 

 ing to see the interest the Americau Institute has 

 taken in this all-important subject, and to express 

 the hope, that the coming exhibition, from our 

 silk-growers, and the increased patronage of the 

 institute, may give to it a fresh interest. 



Yours, respectllilly, 



J. Danfortii. 



Hartford, Con., Sept. mh, 1838. 



To the Committee on Silk, American Institute : 



Gentlemen — The accompanying sewing silk, 3^- 

 pounds, is offered (or exhibition at the coming fair; 

 and you may consider me a competitor for the 

 premium offered through the Institute in April. 

 This silk was produced from y'^-th of an acre of 

 land, being one half the section named in the 

 statement annexed. It should be remarked, ihat 

 the cocoons (4i^ bushels) from which it was pro- 

 duced, were sent some 40 miles to be reeled, and 

 consequently were much injured, so as to produce 

 less silk; and from haste in reeling, (to prevent all 

 the millers from eating out,) is inferior in quality to 

 what it would otherwise have been. Weight of 

 waste silk and floss, 1 lb. 



Yours respectfully, 



J. Danfortii. 



For the Fanners' Register. 

 SKINLESS OATS. 



JVardsfurk, Charlotte, Jan^y 16, 1839 

 About three years ago, you enclosed me twen- 

 ty grains of skinless oat seed; I drilled them care- 

 fully, and made a half bushel in the shuck. 1 

 sowed them, and ihey turned out well; liom 

 which 1 made a large stack last year, all of which 



I intend to sovv this spring. I am very much 

 pleased with the oats, notwithstanding they have 

 been repudiated by some writer in the Rrgister, 

 some tin)e ago. If I succeed well with this crop, 

 I will give you a particular account (or the Regis- 

 ter. I am satisfied now, they are a valuable oat. 

 But, as they have been condemned, I wish to 

 make a full trial of them. R. J. Gaines. 



[The success of the trial, so far, is, of hself, a 

 valuable report, and, therefore, is here given to 

 encourage other experiments. The more full fu- 

 ture account will be still more acceptable. — Ed. 

 Far. Reg.] 



PRINCEANA. — No. II. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



I find that my strictures on Mr. Prince's bom- 

 bastic advertisement, have drawn forth a pungent 

 rejoinder from him; pungent in language, but 

 tame and spiritless in argument. I wish to show 

 that he does not, and cannot successfully contro- 

 vert the position, that multicaulis trees of south- 

 ern growth are superior to his own, even with the 

 limitations and modifications with which he now 

 attempts to prop up his vain boasting. In fact, 

 Mr. Prince has almost shifted his ground. It will 

 be recollected that his challenge was directed 

 against the multicaulis trees of Maryland and Vir- 

 ginia; for they were the plants that he said had re- 

 ceived the encomiums which he thought so un- 

 merited. Mr. Prince now tells us that he does 

 not consider these as southern trees; it is only 

 those "of South Carolina and Georgia, and the 

 states south of them," that are of such inferior 

 value. The climate of Maryland and Virginia, is 

 now complimented as approximating so nearly to 

 that of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and ^'lushing, 

 as to enable us to raise trees almost as gjod as his 

 own; as even being "amongst the besL of their 

 kind." With this admission, I see no ur/*vent rea- 

 son for Mr. Prince's acting on the "defensive." 

 He should have known that discretion was the 

 belter part of valor; he might have looked before 

 he leaped. 



If I erred in supposing that Mr. Prince meant 

 to include all New England a«- being adapted to 

 produce raultica'-'Jis of "sufjerior growth," the 

 error j/gs certairJy a ve y natural one; (or we 

 aredistitvctk assurvJ t^ 'he advertisement as a 

 "truth '" Hs^at in B'^iJ^e Island and Connecticut, 

 "trees'of two and f i''ee years old are (bund to be 

 as hardv as an (PP^^ ''"ee." Now if they are, 

 under these K\i AJmstances, as hardy as an apple 

 tree in those stufi^i it is ofit-ring no violence to 

 Mr. Prince's arcument, to represent him as main- 

 taining that aftp'" reaching the above age, they 

 would flourish f^. extensively with the apple. In 

 passing through .h^it, term of probation, however, 

 they inight be reduced to the melancholy condi- 

 tion of the animal, which died just as he was 

 trained to live upon nothing. 



But Mr. Prince claims distinguished merit for 

 having acclimated the multicaulis; and he deserves 

 it, if he has succeeded as well as he pretends. In 

 the short space of some six or eight years he has 

 been able to accommodate the habits of this pro- 

 duction of a tropical climate to the rigors of a high 

 degree of latitude; to inliise strength into its con- 



