138 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 3 



when the plants are 5 feet, or 5| feet high. One 

 year after grafting, transplant, that is, about April. 

 Graft three or four branches. 



Soil. — Good and humid sands, and sandy loams 

 are the best: warm, Ibrvvard, rich, and (riable : 

 roclty and stoney soils do well ; but all clays are 

 bad. On the lightest stoney lands, the trees come 

 into bearing much sooner than in the rich vale, 

 but these last vastly longer ; on the rich vale-land, 

 two hundred years are a common age for them. 



Planting. — In bad land plant at eighteen feet 

 square, in moderate at twenty-four, and in very 

 good at thirty-six ; and, after seven or eight years, 

 there can be no crops under them, if at these dis- 

 tances. There are two sorts of trees, the one 

 large standards; and the others dwarf ones, which 

 they call niurier nain ; an arpent contains, of 

 course, many more in number of these than of the 

 others ; and they yield, (or the first ten or fifteen 

 years, a larger produce, but afterwards the great- 

 er trees are more productive. The dwarfs are 

 best for being set in rows, for ploughing between ; 

 they are grafted at 1| feet high ; are never water- 

 ed. The price of trees 25 sous the hundred, at 

 the age of one or two years ; the great trees, at 

 four or five years, for grafting, 20 sovs each, at 

 present 15 sous each, and grafted. The operation 

 of planting is performed by digging a hole 6 (eet 

 square, and 2| or 3 feet deep ; and they commonly 

 lay dung upon the roots. 



Cultivation. — The attention with which they 

 manage the trees after planting, merits the highest 

 commendation — after they have been planted two 

 years, a trench is dug around each tree, about two 

 feet deep, which is left open all winter, and filled 

 up again in the spring; the year following, another 

 is dug, more removed from the tree, which is man- 

 aged in the same manner ; and so on, every year 

 a trench, till the whole land is stirred as far as the 

 roots extend. This appears to be a most excel- 

 lent system, and preferable to trenching the ground 

 at first ; as in that way much of it is consolidated 

 again, before the roots of ihe young trees reach it. 



No crops whatever to be sown on the land after 

 the trees are of a size to have their leaves gath- 

 ered ; as much is lost in leaves as is gained by such 

 crops. 



The trees should never be pruned at any other 

 season than March, and but once in two years ; 

 the wood pays the expense : they receive one dig- 

 ging per annum, at 6 livrcs, and a hoeing at 3 

 livres per arpent. 



There is anotheradmirable practice known here, 

 and used by all skilful cultivators, which is, that of 

 washing the stems of the treesevery year, in May, 

 for four or five years afler planting. Mons. L'Ab- 

 be Berenger always practises this with great suc- 

 cess. 



Produce. — For the benefit of the young trees 

 they ouglit not to be stripped for seven oT eio-ht 

 years after planting into the field; they will pay 

 well afterwards (or this forbearance ; but the prac- 

 tice is not common. I viewed a young plantation 

 of Mons. Blanchard, at present in the national as- 

 sembly, who is famous for his attention to his mul- 

 berries ; the trees were six, seven, and eight years 

 old, and none of them had ever been stripped, and 

 their appearance was very flourishing. Mons. 

 L'Abbe Berenger approves the practice, but has 

 not adhered to it ; his trees, however, are very 

 fine, and do not complain ; one plantation, of eight 



or ten years growth, that have constantly been 

 stripped, are, notwithstanding, very fine. There 

 arc (brty on 400 toises of land, that this year pro- 

 duced, each tree, 8 lb. of leaves. The beginning 

 of February he planted the land under them with 

 potatoes, which weredugin August, and produced 

 forty quintals; among these potatoes maize was 

 planted in April, in squares of five or six feet, and 

 the produce of that will be five or six quintals, at 

 8 livres the quintal. He shewed me another plan- 

 tation, of an arpent, of very fine and flourishing 

 dwarf frees, which yielded this year 8 lb. of leaves 

 each tree, and 300 lb. on the arpent. They are 

 ten years old ; no crops have ever been sown un- 

 der them. 



The produce of leaves may be estimated at 50 

 lb. from a tree of a toise square. The greatest 

 produce known is 10 quintals, from a tree of fifty 

 years old. At twenty years the medium is two 

 quintals. They increase till sixty years old, but 

 are in good perfection at twenty. 



TTie -Eggs. — A paper of nine inches by fifteen 

 inches, covered with small leaves, stuck full of 

 worms, gives one quintal of cocoons ; and this is 

 what they call one ounce of groins. But propor- 

 tions will not hold, for the produce is not increased 

 proportionably lo an increase of quantity. 



Hatching. — Retarding the hatching of the 

 worms with particular views, is, in many circum- 

 stances, impossible. When once the heat of the 

 atmosphere is come to a certain pitch, the hatch- 

 ing cannot be retarded by cellars. Mons. Faujaa 

 remarked, that in June, they would hatch in an 

 ice-house ; which shews that at a certain age they 

 will hatch in spite of cold. They never, however, 

 trust to the natural heat for hatching them, which 

 always does it too slowly; it is done with the as- 

 sistance of fire, and in the month of May. They 

 begin to hatch at 20 to 22 degrees (Reaumur) ; 

 but artificially it is done at 24 degrees. When the 

 eggs happen lo have been put in a cellar, at 10 

 degrees, their common temperature, they after- 

 wards hatch with difficulty, and never well ; al- 

 ways best when they have to undergo but a mo- 

 derate change. 



Feeding. — In this business all sorts of food, ex- 

 cept the mulberry-leali is rejected, at the first men- 

 tion, as the most ridiculous, impracticable, and im- 

 possible idea, that ever entered the head of a vi- 

 sionary; and never could be conceived but by those 

 only who amuse themselves with a lew worms, 

 without taking the trouble of calculating quantity, 

 expense, and quality of silk. 



For one ounce of grain, a room of 10 feet by 14 

 feet, and 12 feet high, is necessary ; but the larger 

 the better, and with windows only to the north. 

 There should be ten tables, or shelves, 6 feet long, 

 and A\ feet broad, one 18 inches above another; 

 the first expense of which 60 livres. 



Till the 18'.h of April, there is here no security 

 against frosts. Two years ago there were many 

 leaves before that day, and most people began 

 their operations ; the leaves were all cut off", and 

 (hey lost the year entirely, (or it is three weeks 

 before the leaves come again. Mons. L'Abbe 

 Berenger would not trust appearances ; did not 

 begin till after that day, and had as good a year 

 as at any other time. 



The expences are usually borne between the 

 parties, and amount to half the produce, not in- 

 cluding the keeping the utensils in repair. But if 



