62 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 1 



But by a ^'sufficient demand,'''' and euflicient pro- 

 fits for cultivation, we do not mean to affirm, what 

 is believed by many persons, that the present high 

 prices of plants will be sustained for the next 

 growing crop. Such expectation is ridiculous; 

 and il'it were possible that it could be realized, the 

 result would do much harm to general interests — 

 though they would be very favorable to the in- 

 terests of individual cultivators, and to lew more 

 than to our own. But if the prices next autumn 

 should be not less than one-fifth part of what the 

 cultivators pay for the stock to plant, they will, 

 with a fair average product, make great profits on 

 their investment and cultivation. Should the 

 prices be one-third of the present rates, planters 

 will make enormous profits; and still more those 

 who bought their stock for planting at much lower 

 than the present rates. And if there should be 

 (what seems now not impossible,) a general awa- 

 kening throughout the country to the advantages 

 and profits of silk-culture, then the whole stock of 

 plants in this country will not be sufficient to sup- 

 ply the demand of those who will desire to obtain 

 thera for jiropagation, even if without any view to 

 the selling of trees. Should this be the case, 

 each person will take many or ^aw, according as 

 the price may be low or high — thus insuring high 

 prices lor a very limited supply, or sutTicient de- 

 mand and remunerating prices for the largest sup- 

 ply. 



Tlie same money-price of these trees may be 

 very high, or abundantly low, to purchasers, ac- 

 cording to the object of purchase, or their in- 

 tended future use. If the great demand were 

 merely for speculation, as it was when first pro- 

 duced, we should consider any pr 'ice as too high for 

 planting, and that one-third of the present rates 

 would be enormous. On the other hand, if de- 

 signed to be put to proper and profitable use, 

 prices higher than the highest yet known can 

 well be afforded for small parcels, to put the pur- 

 chasers in stock. For it should be borne in mind, 

 that it is not the handfijl of little twigs for which 

 the buyer pays, perhaps, more than its weight in 

 silver — but lor the product which he expects to 

 obtain from that stock. So great is the facility 

 and certainty of extensive and rapid propagation 

 of the multicaulis, that S^OO worth of stock to 

 plant, at the highest prices, if taken the best 

 care of, would, in the course of two years, produce 

 from 60 to 100,000 trees; which, at proper dis- 

 tance, would be as large a mulberry plantation as 

 most cultivators would desire to have. Allow one 

 j^ear more, and a commencing stock of only $5 

 worth will do as much. The only question, then, 

 for the planter and the intended culturisi, will be, 

 whether the lime or the money may be of the 

 most value to him. But in either case, the com- 



bined cost, in time, labor, and money, will provide 

 a capital for silk-raising more cheaply than the 

 apple orchards were raised ibrmerly in lower Vir- 

 ginia, for making brandy, and which were then 

 considered as an indispensable appropriation of land 

 and capital on every farm. If a kind of apple tree 

 had then been introduced which was as easily 

 propagated as the multicaulis, and would furnish 

 a flill crop of apples in two years, then it would 

 have been clieaper for the intended brandy-maker 

 to buy a stock of those trees at 3 cents the bud, 

 rather than the ordinary grafted trees at the 

 usual low prices. It is the wonderful ease and 

 rapidity of propagation of the multicaulis, which 

 is bought, and which causes and justifies the 

 high price to those who design to profit by its 

 use, arid not merely by sales. For we repeat, that 

 without using, and availing of its intrinsic value, 

 and to sufficient extent, in the country generally, 

 that, at any price, the purchase of plants will be 

 too dear. But this frculty for reproduction, which 

 causes and justifies high prices, must as certainly 

 operate to reduce them speedily to almost nothing, 

 as articles of sale. We therefore have little con- 

 fidence in the not uncommon opinion that multi- 

 caulis plants will maintain profitable prices, or in- 

 deed be worth raising for sale at all, in general, 

 after the present year. 



The speculation in this country has spread to 

 France. Some American orders were supplied 

 there, and sales of plants imported thence have re- 

 cently been made in New York. But the ea- 

 gerness of the American purchasers soon ad- 

 vanced the prices in France 300 per cent, and 

 then the holders refused to sell, choosing to re- 

 serve all their slock for planting. But the whole 

 stock in France, and all Europe, if not in Asia, is 

 smaller than that in the U, States; and, therefore, 

 can but little afiect the market here by furnishing 

 supplies. But it is more likely that the fever of 

 speculation will be as flilly spread there, and, con- 

 sequently, not only very high prices be maintain- 

 ed, but that there will also be produced a better 

 knowledge and higher appreciation of the intrinsic 

 value of the morus multicaulis than has heretofore 

 existed in France. 



From the New England Farmer. 

 MULBERRY FEVER. 



[The following article presents views somewhat 

 differing from the foregoing. The writer's com- 

 pliment to the inventive talent of his countrymen 

 was not undeserved. We have not heard yet 

 whether the fabrication of silk-worms eggs, which 

 he anticipates, has been commenced; but, it ap- 

 pears from the 'Northampton Courier' that there 



