i839] 



F' A R M E R S • R E G i S 1^ E R 



433 



of Oclober. Its appearance in the fall and early 

 in ihe spring was beautiful ; but it quickly decliticd, 

 and i do not ihuik that I reaped twenty bushels. 

 On the contrary, a friend of mine eowed a lot of 

 four or five acres last year, which was seeded some 

 time in December, which is now the finest crop 

 ol' bearded wheat I ever saw, although it did not 

 come up until this spring- 



Upon inquiry I find that our neigliborhood fur- 

 nishes other insiances ol" ils successful culture 

 when sown late; when upon tlieold s}slem ol'early 

 sowinif an abundant croj) of disappointment was 

 the farmer's only return. I (eel confident, i\Jr. 

 Editor, that the above fact will be well known to 

 many llirmers, but atill there are many to whom it 

 will not bo, to whom it will be important, as al- 

 most every Ikrm has some land upon if, which 

 yields no other wheat crop worthy of the farmer's 

 attention. 



Whilst on this subject, f will suggest to your 

 subscribers the i)ropriety of a fiee interchange of 

 ideas on agricultural subjects. JMost farmers seem 

 to forget (hat there are constant additions to our 

 agricultural ranks of those whose previous occupa- 

 tions have debarred them liom that experience 

 which is necessary to insure success, and that this 

 deficiency can only be siipplied by the experience 

 of olliers, dissemmaled through our agricuhura! 

 journals. It is this which gives an importance to 

 many seeming unimportant liicis, as the relief 

 which many a novice has gained, when in trouble, 

 will abundantly attest. 



QuiNTus Bautow. 



N. B. For fear lliat som.e may be misled wiih 

 regard to the time of sowing (as December is 

 mentioned above) 1 must say ihat fl'om the 1st to 

 the lOtli of November is with us preli^rred. 



SILK-V/ORMS FED ON V/ET LEAVES. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



I have noticed for some past every thing written 

 on the subject of feeding and raising silk-worms, 

 that 1 could come across; and I believe the jirac- 

 tice ol' feeding worms on wet leaves has been uni- 

 versally condemned ; but in defiance of all the 

 Reasoning on the subject, and the condemnation of 

 wet food, I h-ave followed it, so far at least, with 

 great success. I have never raised a great many 

 worms it is true, but it may be supposed, whaf 

 would affect a large number ought to afl'ect a small 

 number. I will give you the manner in which 

 mine were led, and you can exercise your own 

 pleasure about believing what I slate, though il 

 necessary I can brinix ample testimony to establish 

 every word I say. I do not wish to be understood, 

 however, as recommending wet food as the best 

 for silk-worms ; but my opinion is, that wet leaves, 

 occasionally, when it cannot be avoided, does no 

 injury to them ; as, for instance, in the long season 

 in May, such as we had this year, my worms did 

 not sutler at all that I could observe, fi"om compar- 

 ing them with others, where a good deal of pains 

 had been taken. I gathered leaves for my worms 

 every day 'till I would have a sufficient quantity 

 left to pass over one or two days ; and as soon as 

 they were brought home, if in the morning they 

 ^vere sprinkled with v.-alcraudlaiJin iheshadfj ('for 

 Vol, VII— 55 



r have no cellar,) and if brought at evening they 

 were put out on the grass in the yard ibr the dew 

 to fall on them to keep them moist ; and with these 

 wet leaves the worms were led four times a day, 

 as much as they would consume ; and out of a lot 

 of 10,000 I am confident that f did not lose more 

 than fifty, save some that got injured by moving 

 them about ; for I had no fixtures at all for them 

 except seme boards. About 5000 of these worms, 

 however, had been half raised bclbre I got tliem ; 

 hut when they came to me they shared the same 

 fire with the others I had, of the same age, but 

 considerably larger, and spun something earlier. 

 Finding tliat Ihe worms appeared to eat more 

 greedily the moist leaves, I continued to moisten 

 them and keep them so, and I never saw worms 

 grow Ulster, or do better. 



Last year I raised sixty worms onl} ; and froiu 

 a few days alter hatchiiig, they did not ktldw 

 what a dry leaf was, and they did remarkably well. 

 In fiu'.i, the leaves, Ibr this small parcel, tor longer 

 preservation, were kept sunk in water, and merely 

 shaken well when about to be used. Of these 

 worms, only one was lost (l)eing killed by falling,) 

 and the other 59 spun good cocoons, and furnished 

 as many mollis. Of these 12 only were females ; 

 out of their protluct I had this year between 3000 

 and 4000 wornis. I did not pay as uiuch attcnlioit 

 to them as I did to the lot of 10000, in keeping 

 them as well thd and denned ; and out of this lot 

 I lost about 100, (that died,) but 1 do not think 

 more ; 1 do not attribute the loss of this 100 to the 

 wet food, but to the filthy state I let them get into; 

 they were not changed from the old hurdles or 

 cleaned offfbr nearly three weeks. Had the same 

 pains been taken with the lasl as with the firstiot. 

 It is my candid opinion not one would have bceri 

 lost from disease. The cocoons were firm and 

 good, (better than those exhibited here by Mr. 

 Gay as the best quality of northern cocoons,) but 

 were smaller than the others, orange-colored, 

 from the gray worms. These are whUe worms, 

 and the cocoons of pale straw color. I am now 

 feeding a few from the second hatching this year, 

 and t make it a point every lime they are led to 

 wet the leaves, this I do to lesl the thing thorough- 

 ly ; they are doing very well as yet, though they 

 are small, and they have not come lo the most criti- 

 cal period of their life ; if they do well, and you 

 lhi;ik it worthy of notice, I will let you know, 



if these remarks are worth your atteniion you 

 can use them as you please. 



Respectfully, 



A. L. Akcher. 



Petersburg, July, 1339, 



[Mr. Archer is mistaken in supposing that feed- 

 ing v/Ith wet leaves has been universally con- 

 demned — though the pi-aciice hae been tried by 

 but very few persons, and slill fewer have reported 

 favorably. Among these k\v, though not in the 

 Farmer's Register, is cur correspondent, T. S. 

 Pleasants, who this spring fed part of his first 

 hatching on wet leaves, (or experiment, and, like 

 Mr, Archer, found no ill effect therefrom. Rut 

 though not 'Universally, the practice has been very 

 generally and very strongly condemned, and cer- 

 laiiily by every author who h.as written direeiion? 



