1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



413 



and on the first appeanince of ati inclination lo 

 spin, bonghs of onU, of nhont four feet in Icnii'th, 

 siri|)peil of liieir Iovspp leaves, and planicii, if I 

 may ?o express ii, in close ranks in the bed of nuil- 

 berry branches, Ironi a piiiniy lorest, in which the 

 insects esiablish themselves, and wherein they 

 [)iodiice their sill<. Every crevice of the apart- 

 ment is carefully stop|ied lo prevent the aiiini-sion 

 of air, and a fire of charcoal ashes is kept up con- 

 stantly ihrouiihout the day and night. 



Whether the mode of ieeding operates on the 

 color of the silk, I conid not asceriain, ihouirh it 

 struck me that tiie experiment would be worth try- 

 ing; but meanwhile it appears to be certain that it 

 greatly increases iis quantity, and diminie^hes the 

 labor of feeders. There is scarcely a house in the 

 neii^hborhood of Broussa, which does not contain 

 several apariments filled with silk worms, whose 

 produce is disposed of to tlie spinners, of whom 

 there are a considerable numlter in the city ; and 

 the far spreadini; nmlberry woods asume in the 

 lieiirht o( summer the appearance of stretches 

 of locnst-l)lighied lamiscape. every tree being left 

 a i)ranchless trunk, without a siiin of li)liage."' 



THE EDITOR TO HFS RKADICRS. 



The editor of the Farmers' Register is induced 

 agnin, (and stiil fruitlessly he fears,) to complain 

 of tlie general silence of most of those correspon- 

 dents and contributors who have hcrelnfore given 

 to this journal its greatest value — of the total si- 

 lence, and denial of such aid, by hundreds of other 

 subscribers and readers who could render as good 

 service — and of llie almost universal and still grow- 

 ing apathy and carelessness of the southern agri- 

 cultural community in regard to writing for the 

 public — the only means of sustaining the ififl'usion 

 of agricultural information — indeed the only means 

 existing of furthering agricultural improvement, 

 and sustaining agricultural interests. VViih such 

 aid as the present subscrilters to this publication 

 can well furnish in writing, there is no question 

 but its original matter, its store, and regular supply 

 especially, of agricultural facts and useful practical 

 inlbrmation, would make it as effii'ient for agricul- 

 tural improvement as its best fliends could hope 

 for, or as the most captious critics and f.iuli- finders 

 would insist upon. With but a small proportion of 

 such aid, compared to what tlie list of suhscrihors 

 might have funiislied, there has been elicited, and 

 made known through the pages of this work, a 

 mass of varied and important infurmation, which 

 has already proved of incalculable value to agri- 

 culture. But many qI' the most valuable contri- 

 butors have been removed by death — and most o( 

 the others have ceased to furnish the aid by which 

 they (brmerly sustained, through this publication, 

 the great cause oftfie improvement of southern 

 agriculture; and the few new contributors, though 

 the more welcome and prized because of the rare- 



ness of present assistance, do not, bj' their number, 

 fill ;lie space left void by their predecessors. If a 

 judgment is to be drawn from the continuance of 

 the names o!' former contributors on the subscrip- 

 tion list — from the general support given and con- 

 tinued by subscriptions — and by the absence, or at 

 lenst paucity, of complaints of want of interest 

 and value in the work — there would be no reason 

 to inler that the Farmer's Register hns lost any 

 thing of its cfaims to, or its hold upon, public favor 

 and support. J3ut, though such complaints have 

 not yet been made, by his readers, so far as he 

 knows, the editor does not hesitate to call attention 

 to this great and deplorable deficiency in the sources 

 of the greatest, if not the sole value of an airricut- 

 turai magazine. It is not in accordance with the 

 maxims of the trade that the proprietor of a publi- 

 cation should be the first to proclaim a falling ofl" 

 in the interest and value of its contents; still the 

 proprietor of this, does not hesitate to do so, even 

 at the risk of the declation affecting the pecuniary 

 and business value of the publication, ae much as 

 the deficiency complained of does in regard lo its 

 reading and instructing value. He repeats, what 

 has been so often before stated and urged, that it 

 is principally the writings of others, and especially 

 the facts presented by practical cultivators of the 

 soil, that have given value to this work ; and that 

 without such aid. and liberally bestowed, neither 

 this nor any other agricultural journal can be long 

 sustained, or deserve to be sustained. 



And why should this deficiency of communica- 

 tions exist 7 Every former contributor since his 

 long passed last communication surely has learned 

 some new facts, or by trial settled some disputed 

 points, the communication of vvhicli would be in- 

 teresting and useful to the agricultural community. 

 Hundreds of individuals on the list of subscribers 

 could be designated, and who prize the work, and 

 heartily wish well to its success, of whom there is 

 not one who could not add to the value of its con- 

 tents, not only from his stores of previously ac- 

 quired knowledge, hut from the new agricultural 

 fiicts and opinions learned in almost every month 

 of his continued operations. It is idle and ridicu- 

 lous to allege that there is any want of materials, 

 and good materials, for retrular, continued and in- 

 creasing comiTiunication and discussion, and valu- 

 alile instruction on agricultural subjects. The 

 field ciinnot possibly be exhausted — and the more 

 it is cultivated and gathered from, still the more 

 will be ofiered for new labors, and new gains. As 

 well might it be said that religious (so called) pe- 

 riodicals must fail, because all subjects of contro- 

 versy were exhausted — or that political and parti- 

 zan papers must want matter for publication, be- 

 cause the dirty game of party had been played 



