1839] 



F A R M E R S' REGISTER. 



127 



pose. Let lliis most siiiloble direction be given 

 (and in proper manner,) to these now wasted 

 means, and poor-houses might perhaps cease lo 

 be nuisances — expensive, not only of public mo- 

 ney, but of the labor and morals of the most des- 

 titute class of society." 



All these strong expressions preceded public 

 opinion or feeling in Virginia, and therefore were 

 neither profited by, nor perhaps scarcely noticed, by 

 our readers. But they certainly will suffice to 

 show that our recommendations of silk-cullure 

 were neither wanting nor "equivocal." Since 

 the recent mulberry mania has been raging, and 

 there has thence sprung up, (most fortunately, 

 though by most illegitimate deduction,) a more 

 general and a very strong disposition to enter upon 

 silk-culture, our own previous favorable opinions 

 have been more and more strengthened by the 

 acquisition of new facts; and these opinions have 

 been stated repeatedly, and at length, in sundry 

 articles in the sixth volume, and in the preceding 

 pages of the current volume. It is true that our 

 zeal, and estimates of profits, are still much in the 

 rear of the most sanguine — that we have insisted 

 that the dealing in mulbeiry plants is not silk- 

 cultare — and that, unless turned to silk-culture, 

 the mulberry speculation would be but a bub- 

 ble, not only worthless, but injurious to the coun- 

 try. We have also presented, fairly, selected ar- 

 ticles on both sides, as to the recent appreciation 

 of the morus multicaulis ; and moreover, we have 

 been backward in expressing our own increasing 

 estimation of the market value of these plants, (as 

 founded on the manifest growing movements to- 

 wards silk-culture,) because we were fearfiil of 

 being subjected to a charge directly the reverse 

 of that of our friend — that is of aiding to increase 

 the excitement for buying mulberry plants, because 

 our own private interest would have been greatly 

 benefited by increased demand. We know that 

 our friend has had no such private interest to in- 

 crease his fervor, or to impose a restraint upon his 

 words of advice to the public. If he had, we are 

 sure that he would have felt the weight of such 

 trammels. 



But however restrained, we claim that our ex- 

 pressions in recommending silk-culture proper, 

 have been numerous, strong, and any thing but 

 "equivocal ;" and we may claim as much in re- 

 gard to the necessary branch and the foundation of 

 silk-culture, the propagation of the morus multi- 

 caulis, the best mulberry tree for feeding. We 

 shall not quote, but merely refer to, these nume- 

 rous passages, which form no inconsiderable por- 

 tion of the editorial articles of the last and current 

 volumes.* And we ara now enabled to add to 



* There are so many of such passages, and entire 

 articles of great length, which have been published 



the full exposition of views given at page 60 of 

 this volume, that every day's information since 

 that publication, has served to show that silk-cul- 

 ture proper is about to be commenced in very 

 many parts of the country, and to such extent that 

 we now have no doubt but that trials sufficiently 

 numerous will be fairly made in this and in the 

 other states, to establish the business, and to insure 

 the increase of it to great extent by the next year. 

 This is all that is wanting to establish also the 

 certainty of the profits of rearing multicaulis plants 

 this year. The recent granting of very liberal 

 bounties by the legislature of Georgia, for all 

 silk made in that state, lor the next ten years, will 

 greatly forward this end, even if no similar measure 

 should be adopted in any of the other southern or 

 slave-holding states. A similar law has just 

 passed the lower house of the Ohio legislature. 

 Seven other, at least, of the middle and northern 

 states had offered bounties previously. 



In making the foregoing quotations and re- 

 ferences, in evidence of early and earnest support 

 of the suitableness of silk-culture for Virginia, we 

 have not gone beyond the pages of the Farmers' 

 Register, because we have no right to suppose tlie 

 opinions of its editor to be known elsewhere. 

 But we will add here, that a much more full and 

 elaborate argument, in support of this very object, 

 has recently been addressed to this community 

 from the same source, through a different form of 

 publication. The material part of that argument 

 will be presented in the next number of the Farm- 

 ers' Register; and if it does not serve to convince 

 the public of its soundness, it will, at least, leave 

 no doubt of the earnestness of the writer in the 

 maintenance of his proposition, that Virginia is 

 not only well suited to profit by silk-culture, but 

 better suited than any part of Europe. 



From the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 rOOD FOR SHEEP. CAUTION. 



£)ear Sir, — I have sometimes observed pofafoeg 

 recommended as food for sheep during winter. I 

 have no doubt they are highly nutritious, but they 

 should be used with caution, as I have found that 

 they are injurious to ewes before they have drop- 

 ped their lambs, as they cause such a flow of milk 



within a few months, that it would be superfluous to 

 quote any. We may refer generally to all the Nos. 

 issued since last July, and particularly to the following 

 editorial articles : On Mr. Hicks' experiment, page 

 379 ; on the peculiar fitness of Virginia, for silk-cul- 

 ture, 391, and 464, 5, intrinsic value of the morus mul- 

 ticaulis, 391, 464, 467, 493, 497, 500, 504 of Vol. VI, 

 and of Vol. VII, the full exposition of views presented 

 at page 60; and several others in the previous pages of 

 this number, which were printed before the message 

 of reproof was received. 



