1839] 



F A R JM E R S ' REGISTER 



63 



are in market multicaulis cuttings manufiictured 

 from twigs of bass wood. — Ed. Far. Reg.] 



This new disease has become quite epidemic 

 and continues to rage violenlly. We cannot lor 

 our lives divine any especial reason, whj^ it should 

 have burst out all at once among us and so wide- 

 ly extend itself, excepting that all the diseases of 

 this character, (we mean those brought on by 

 ppeculation and avarice,) are highly contagious. 

 We trust it would not'be deemed disrespectful to 

 the faculty, if we suggested that possibly the 

 mulberry doctors have themselves had some hand 

 in creating and aggravating the disorder with a 

 view to their *****. It i? not for us to give any 

 ■words of caution. We have not the care of the 

 public health; but wc think it advisable for those, 

 who desire to keep well to keep out of the way of 

 contagion. The disorder has in some parts of the 

 country risen to a .«tate of raving madness, and 

 men, like insects round a fire in the woods of a 

 dark night, are seen dashing into the flames. We 

 have no doubt that the silk business is to be one 

 of the great interesis of the country, and one of 

 the most productive and profitable of agricultural 

 employments; but the mulberry tree business and 

 the raising of silk are not precisely the same. 

 One would think, however, irom present move- 

 ments, that every thing is to be accomplished the 

 next year; that the end of the world is to come 

 then; and that the "wedding garment" is to be 

 made of silk of man's own raising. When from 

 a single multicaulis tree perhaps a thousand or 

 more buds or cuttings can be taken in a single 

 season, each of which will in one season, wTih 

 good luck and good care, form a handsome tree, 

 certainly there need be no difficulty apprehended 

 in the projiagation ol" the plant. When a hun- 

 dred and sixty or two hundred or ibur hundred 

 dollars are demanded Ibr a pound of mulberry 

 seed not at all sure to come up,* which can be im- 

 ported for a twentieth part of that sum with equal 

 confidence of success, we cannot help asking our- 

 selves, where does the money come from, or 

 where has the shrewdness of our merchants and 

 sea-captains gone to? When half a dollar a 

 piece is asked and paid for trees which were 

 grown this season from seed sown last spring and 

 represented to be of equal or superior value for 

 feeding worms with any trees grown, and espe- 

 cially because it is stated that they will "stand our 

 climate," we are really very curious to know what 

 is to be the price next year of cabbage plants; and 

 whether we cannot aflTord to raise them upon a con- 

 siderable scale atsomewhere about /briy-nine cents 

 a plant. When silk-worm eggs, which were fbr- 

 formerly thought high at eight cents per thousand | 

 are now sold for twenty-five cents per hundred, and 

 fifty cents per hundred are even contemplated, we 

 are strongly inclined to believe, and we encourage 

 those who are too anxious to begin at once, to 

 wait patiently; that our Connecticut wooden-nut- 

 meg gentlemen before spring will have an ample 

 supply to meet any demand, dropped on the best 

 hot-pressed letter paper, and made out of the pur- 

 est yellow bees-wax. But the flame is kindled, 

 and the furnace glows with a white heat. Let 

 those, whose wings are not made of asbestos, try 

 the intensity of the flames if so they choose. 



H. C. 



• And which cannot produce the niullicaulism\i]hei- 

 ry, even if H should coia^ up,— Er. Far. Reg. 



To tlie Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



December, 1S3S. 



Dear Sir, — I enclose you my annual five dol- 

 lars, and return you many thanks for the much 

 and varied information which you have given me 

 in the last year. I should send you some commu- 

 nication for your valuable work ; but I forbear — lor 

 my fiicnds and neighbors have given me to un- 

 derstand that they think me possessed of a calca- 

 rious devil. Poor souls ! Could J exorcise myself, 

 and cause my devil to enter into them, as into the 

 swine of old, how great would be their profit! 



I have purchased since June 1st twenty thou- 

 sand bushels of oyster shells, and am now haul- 

 ing, burning, and spreading : my wheat field 

 shows that dear old Mother Earth endorses my 

 work, and I am in grief that I know not how to 

 make her gratelul acknowledgments in appropri- 

 ate terms. But I Iiave a notion that by laws pe- 

 culiar to herself she marks in characters not de- 

 struclable by time the deeds of her children. As- 

 sumint^ this, it is not easy to enter into my joys 

 when I spread upon her lap fields of golden corn, 

 or throw over her nakedness a rich green robe bor- 

 dered with gold. I halt my hobby for a moment 

 to ask if feelings like these can lead to destructive 

 ambition ? Happiness is the great object of every 

 being of mind ; and who is so happy as he who 

 receives the applause of his mother for virtuous or 

 benevolent deeds? And then, sir. are not the claims 

 of mother earih paramount ? Who feeds the hun- 

 gry? Who clothes the naked ? 'Tis she, dear old 

 soul, and it is my duty to make her shine as the 

 morning star. The selfish nature of man has 

 blinded him and turned his thoughts from his first 

 and greatest duty — his duty to the (buntain of all 

 good, Mother Earth. 1 wish you great prosperity, 

 Ibr in that, the whole human family will partici- 

 pate. Respectfully, your friend, &c. 



EFFECTS OF LIME AS MANURE. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



January, 1839. 



Your call upon the subscribers to the Refisler 

 is too just to be resisted or derided. Original 

 communications only can keep up an excited in- 

 terest in your valuable work; good as your selec- 

 tions are, they belong to agriculture generally, as 

 a science, and not to particular localities. You 

 will however, agree, that it is a dull and irksome 

 business to preach to unbelievers; as well mio-ht 

 1 go into my pasture and exhort my hotrs not to 

 destroy the means ol" their own welfitre and sub- 

 sistence, as to give you, for the culiivaiors of the 

 land, in general, any thing about improving hus- 

 bandry, if the course recommended involves any 

 thing like immediate expense. Some of my 

 neighbors have been induced to use clover and 

 plaster, but were warned of the sure result, if they 

 did not make their land dry. This did not suit 

 them; and the result was absolute (iiilure. Now, 

 sir, would you believe that this aave them occa- 

 sion lor believing that plaster did not suit their 

 land? >Vhy, sir, stable dung would fail under 

 the same circumstances. 



In the last three years I have purchased fortv 

 thousand bushels of oyster shells, and some lime- 



