110 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 2 



cily of New York has honored it with a place un- 

 der his head of " trade and commerce." The 

 fiict that estates and even forlunes have been 

 made the past year, not only by cultivaiing tlie 

 tree, but by merely buyinj; and seliinjj it, has be- 

 come too notorious to escape the observation of 

 the eagled-eyeil money-maker, and it is not a trait 

 of Jiis character to remain idle while his neigh- 

 bor is making his thousands and tens of thousands 

 of doilars, by simple stocking an acre of land with 

 the multicaulis. This cause, then, it appears, re- 

 mains, and consequently I cannot resist the con- 

 viction that the etitjct will continue. 



But, in reply to this, it may be said, that the 

 time vvill come when the country will be supplied, 

 and prices must lall to the intrinsic value of the 

 tree lijr making silk. True ; and so will the time 

 come when this world vvill be burned up, but where 

 is the farmer who will omit planting his corn and 

 potatoes next spring because that event is certain. 

 The very lact that the time will come when the 

 tree will fall in price, is a sufficient stimulus to 

 men of enterprise and industry to double their 

 diligence in acquiring a competency before it ar- 

 rives. That period, like all others in the future, 

 is hidden from us, and let us be admonished by its 

 uncertainty, that when it does come, it finds us in 

 a pecuniary point of view, ready. With respect 

 to this all-important time, about which so much 

 has been said, I know but little, having never per- 

 plexed myself about it. I consider my time bet- 

 ter spent in cuhivating mulberry trees, at prices 

 hkethe present, and thereby laying up something 

 against a rainy day, and endeavoring to persuade 

 my friends to do the same. It is, however, the 

 opinion of the best-informed on the subject, that 

 when that time arrives, I mean, when the coun- 

 try will be fully supplied, you and I shall be at 

 least ten years older than we now are. 



Thus much for an answer to the general inqui- 

 ry, lohat rvill the multicaulis be worth next autumn? 

 You will perceive, I have given no definite price, 

 nor do I intend to. I have given you a lew 

 facts and some arguments, and from them you must 

 draw your own conclusion. 1 will, however, say, 

 that I think you are within sale limits at the max- 

 imum price on which your calculations are based. 



I somewhat doubt your being able to procure 

 trees in the spring at the price you mention; but 

 should they cost you 75 cents and multiply ten- 

 fold, an investment of ,'§500 would give you 6,GG0 

 trees, which, at twenty-five cents, would amount 

 to -91)666, and leave you a profit of over S'lOOO, 

 besides being in the way of profiting by all 

 that they may advance above that price. I cer- 

 tainly am not disposed to hold out encouragement 

 which will ultimately prove liillacious; but I do 

 believe, if you adopt this course the coming sprinir, 

 the autumn will find you in circumstances more 

 favorable to a relinquishment of the labors of your 

 profession, the purchase of a flirm where you can 

 have the privileges of which you speak, and final- 

 ly, in the enjoyment of that "oiu/m cum digni- 

 tate,''^ which we all so ardently desire. Respect- 

 fully and truly yours, F. G. Comstock. 



THE BOHAN UPAS OF THE WEST, A HOAX. 



We have been informed by a correspondent re- 

 sidino-in the neighborhood of St. Charles, IV! o., lliiit 



the account published in the St. Louia ' Bulletin,' 

 of the enormous bohamtpas of the west, and cause 

 of the milk-sickness, was simply a specimen of 

 that choice kind of wit called hoaxing. Notwith- 

 standing the marvellous features which were so 

 manifest in the article, we had supposed that its 

 being first published in a respectable newspaper, 

 so near the alleged locality of the tree, was a suf- 

 ficient guaranty that there was something of truth 

 on which to be found the exaggerations of magni- 

 tude, &c. Therefore, like most other of our edi- 

 torial brethren, we were so far deceived as to re- 

 publish the article, without comment, Cpage 719 

 of vol. vi.) 



When any journal has thus, unwittingly, aided 

 to give currency to a lie, it is the duty of its con- 

 ductor, to state the detection. But more especial- 

 ly is this incumbent on the first publisher — and if 

 his exposure is not made (if in his power) of the 

 deceiver, as well as of the deception, then he is 

 equally guilty of the fraud on the public. — Ed. 

 Far. Reg. 



manuring with rotten logs and brush. 



To the Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



Clarksville, February \2th. 

 Upon the testimony of some of the most respec- 

 table and veritable gentleman of Halifax county, 

 Virginia, I shall proceed to give you an account of 

 the remarkable effects of a new and rare manure, 

 as exhibited by an experiment in that county, a 

 lew years since. The manure above alluded to, is 

 only rare as to the manner ol'its application, for in 

 old Virginia it very much aboundeth. The 

 experiment was as follows : A gentleman cut 

 down the pine growth which had covered a piece 

 of land, exhausted and turned out of cultivation 

 by his fiilher or grand-father. As is usual, he 

 suffered the logs and brush to lie upon the land 

 the first summer. In the fall and winter succeed- 

 ing, he commenced his preparations for a crop of 

 corn, by running two strokes with a large two- 

 horse plough in the same furrow, one turning to 

 the right, and one to the left. This trench thus 

 made, was filled with the logs and brush of the 

 pine trees next convenient to it, which cleared a 

 place for the second llirrow ; and so on, until this 

 log and brush material was all consumed. With 

 this preparation he passed over half the land. 

 The balance was simply flushed with the same 

 two-horse plough, and well manured from the 

 stable and farm- pen. The crop grown on the 

 beds, manured in the hill with pine logs and 

 brush, was not only the best corn of the two, but 

 was unusually rich in its growth, and heavy in its 

 production. The owner of the corn was induced, 

 from its remarkably luxuriant appearance, to pull 

 up one of the loirs, durin<j the £rnnving of the 

 crop, to see how it was that such viiror was im- 

 parted to it ; he found the couniloss number of lit- 

 tle thread-like roots, v/hich mainly contribute to the 

 supply of the vegetable, to have perlbraied the 

 waier-soaked and partly decayed trunks and limbs 

 of the pine trees, buried below. 



