1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



125 



occurs the earliest editorial article on this subject, 

 It follows an account ofthe principal silk companies 

 which had then been started. The only omitted 

 portion merely presented some well-established 

 and striking facts in evidence of the fitness of the 

 native mulberry (morus rubra) for feeding silk- 

 worms. 



"The foretroing article shows at a glance that 

 the people of New England are about to make 

 silk-culture a large and important branch of their 

 rural economy. It is there no new and untried 

 speculation. The business has long been pur- 

 sued in Connecticut, and with results so satisfac- 

 tory as to induce these recent and far more expen- 

 sive investments tor the same object. If good 

 profits can be there made, in the cold and un- 

 friendly climate of New England, (where it is 

 yet a problem to be solved whether the best spe- 

 cies of mulberry can stand the winter's cold,) how 

 much more profitable would the business be in 

 Virginia, and the more southern states'? Our 

 cheaper slave-labor would also afford advantages; 

 and many aged or infirm hands could be profita- 

 bly employed in this business, who are now a 

 useless expense to their owners. Much land 

 that yields no net profit under usual crops, would 

 serve well for mulberry trees. 



"The opinion expressed above ofthe worth- 

 lessness o( the native (black or red) mulberry tree, 

 \morus rubral for yielding silk, is as general as it 

 is erroneous — and the error (though of use to nur- 

 sery-men,) is very injurious to the community, in 

 causing all efforts in silk-making to be postponed 

 until mulberry trees can be reared. Now, though 

 professing to know very little of silk-culture, we 

 will venture to assert that those who can succeed 

 well, by using leaves of the white mulberry, will 

 not fail, nor do a much worse business, with the 

 black. The black is doubtless somewhat inferior 

 to the white mulberry, as this is to the Chinese: but 

 the difference of products fi-om either two, would 

 not be so great as would be made by the differ- 

 ence of care and management of almost any two 

 new silk-growers." 



" But while we advise those who wish to rear 

 silk-worms to use the native mulberry trees, if they 

 are ready and convenient, we also recommend to 

 them the immediate planting of a better kind, and 

 especially of the new Chinese, (or morus multi- 

 culis,) for future use. If there is doubt whether 

 this valuable tree will thrive farther north, there 

 can be none here ; and as it furnishes undoubt- 

 edly the most abundant and nutiiiious food, and 

 as the silk business viust extend rapidly, every 

 acre of land now, or soon, planted with cuttings 

 of this tree, will be almost sure to yield a highly 

 profitable crop, either for sale or for use." 



In the same volume, p. 674, the following re- 

 marks introduced a long and elaborate estimate 

 from the Albany 'Silk-worm,' ofthe expenses and 

 profits of commencing and carrying on mulberry 

 and silk-culture. 



" We are not competent to decide on the cor- 

 rectness of the following estimates, which how- 

 wer rest upon the respectable authority of the 

 ^ditor of the journal from which they are copied. 

 But this we are prepared to maintain — that if such 



profits can be obtained near Albany, much greater 

 would reward similar efforts in Virginia, on ac- 

 count of our greater cheapness of land, cheapness 

 ofthe labor which young or infirm slaves, now an 

 expense, might supply — and still more, on account 

 of our longer summers and milder winters. 



"Most of our readers possibly — and certainly 

 most of the southern people who are not our rea- 

 ders — have no idea oi" the recent great and rapid 

 extension of silk culture in the comparatively un- 

 friendly northern states. Joint-stock companies 

 have been formed in almost every northern state, 

 and large capitals invested, to carry on the entire 

 business, from raising the mulberry trees, to the 

 manufacture ofthe products ofthe worms. Either 

 these people are mad, or we in Virginia, (espe- 

 cially of the middle region,) are in this respect, 

 more than usually blind to our own interest, 



"Three new periodical journals are specially 

 devoted to giving information on silk-culture — and 

 three new treatises or manuals have been publish- 

 ed, in addition to the several of somewhat older 

 date. These facts, even more than the formation 

 of joint-stock companies and the investment of 

 large capitals, prove that the public mind and in- 

 terest are awakened — that knowledge is every 

 where sought — and that truth must speedily be 

 found, and generally acted upon. VVould that 

 such a spirit of inquiry existed in Virginia, either 

 as to silk culture, or any thing else in which our 

 true mterests are concerned 1 " 



At page 734 of vol. iii, in some remarks in sup- 

 port of our previously expressed opinion that the 

 seeds of the morus multicaulis would not produce 

 the same kind, and in reply to Mr. Roberts, who 

 maintained the contrary, occur the following pas- 

 sage, which, as well as many others previous 

 and subsequent, exhibits proofs of early interest 

 felt for the propagation of this valuable tree, and 

 of good service offered to the public, in information 

 in regard to its propagation, which, if heeded, 

 would have prevented many impositions, losses, 

 ai.d disappointments, by purchasers relying on the 

 seeds, or pretended seeds. 



"VVe were the first to make known this Euro- 

 pean opinion, (in an article translated for the 

 Farmers' Register;") and deeming it both true and 

 important, we have frequently endeavored to im- 

 press on tliose who were about to raise mulberry 

 nurseries, not to trust to the seed of the morus 

 multicaulis. In this we certainly had no private 

 interest to serve, either direct or indirect ; to which 

 influence Mr. Roberts attributes the objections of 

 some persons to the use of" the seed. We have 

 presented before, and shall again, in the following 

 piece, opposing views, as freely as our own ; and 

 we should be highly gratified if our brother editor 

 and esteemed fellow-laborer in this cause, can 

 maintain his position — which would be the means 

 of introducing this valuable plant far more rapidly 

 and widely, than merely by the use of cuttings." 



The next editorial article (vol. iv, p. 126) will 

 be copied entire. In explanation of the failure of 

 the scheme there announced, and in regard to 

 which we were then so sanguine, it is proper to 

 slate that the execution was not even commenced. 



