lyssj. 



rAllMEfiS 



Uviii coit'on seed, in Mobile ; il-.e two quarts con-, 

 tained about 7000 seed. I piariled ilitMii, au'd not 

 n)ore liian about 4^0 came up. I calinot ffiye a 

 decisive opinion y6t wiih rcixard to this coiion ; 

 niy present irnpression however is, ihut it, is not 

 uiuch betiej tiuin tiie Baden corn. I received a 

 hand/iil oi coitou seed last ppri^ff lioni a Irjend, of 

 Earnwell district d|" jhis siute, which T ilimk he 

 toid me was called they J witT cotion -ih^re'.. hu- 

 1101 the okra" or. twin cofimv, hUt { thnili jf i^ the 

 Petii Gulf uujroved ; ant1 I hlwii heller ili'an any 

 cotton 1 liave seen ihis season.: i planted, aJl ilie 

 seed I irol, and they came up very well; it is now 

 tile best bowled cotton I have. I shall cull it iJarn- 

 well coUon. Your?, &c. 



JoH.v J. JMyeks. 



SUPERIOR ADVA\TAGK» OF THE OLD SOUTII- 

 KRX STATES FOR SII.K-CULTURi:. 



To llie Kdilor of tlie Farmers' fiegistdr. 



Jnd'ian Key, T. F. jJug. 7th, 1839. 

 By your editorial remarks on pak^e 355, i am 

 sorry to see that you seem to consider me an cppo- 

 ■nentiothe culture of silk in tiie United Siaies ; 

 ami .that, therelore, my views ought to be welcome 

 to till among j-our readers udio may disbelieve in 

 the. fimess of our comury (or silk-cuhure. You 



. will hence permit me to declare that J do heartily 

 believe in (he great fitness of our country for bona 

 fide siik culture ; that I do earnestly believe in the" 

 greatly superior fi-ness of ihatsectton of our coun- 

 try eoibraced in the old southern slates; but that 

 1 also do most solemnly believe in the immensclv 

 greater superiority of , Southern Florida both lor 

 the growtlt of the mn'iberry and the productipn of 



' silk. During my continuance in office at Campe- 

 che I wrote very little on the subject, either to the 

 United Slates ov for the United Slates, because J 

 saw that the topic was employing the pens and 

 purses of many abler and richer'^ writers. The 

 only passage in my official letters relating to the 

 Hiorus muiiicaulis, I believe is contaijiecr in my 

 communication to the secretary ofsiate, dateil the 

 23rd November, 1S34 ;* and (lie tacts and opinions 



* "But there is another plant and product of the 

 Eastlndips.vvhich can be much More profitably propa- 

 gated in onr tropical territojy than even in our warm- 

 est extra-tropical districts, tbat our colde.^t states are 

 actually siimijig against the now established policy of 

 the nation, and against the hdnre prosperity of their 

 own citizens, in continuing their war against nature, 

 to lorce tjio douiestication of the laanv-stemmed mul- 

 berry tree of Manilla, and of the tender silk-worm of 

 tequthern China, although not more fh.an one crop of 

 cocoons will be the average annual reward of theii- 

 mistaken Jubors. 



••Ill Guadaiuupe the French government sustains an 

 establL-^bment of 40,000 plants of the morus rnulticau- 

 ijs, and from experiments made in that island tlurin'^- 

 fliree successive years by Dr. Meunier of the Royal 

 JN'avy, and repeated in Cuba by Professor Sa"-ra of 

 the Royal Botanical Garden and Pattern PlanUition, 

 near Havanna, it is deinonstrated that ten successive 

 crops of cocoons'every j^ear may be obtained from the 

 perpetually untblding leaves of this valuable exotic in 

 tropical chmates, and consequently in Tropical Flori- 

 da. Let, then, Nev.^ En-land send to this productive 



urplus population now 



chmate only one-teutli of her .,..,..„„ ^,^^,^ ^., .,.,„ 



iinpiofitably employed in the production of cocoons, 

 and she will thus insure to the other nine-tenths, in 

 their wnitry home, a much more profitable emnloy- 

 mcnt ni the manufacture of silk alone " 



Jhusand then .ncirlentally introduced, I still consci- 

 entiously and brmly su.siain. Since my return to 

 my, native country, I iiave joy/blly observed the 

 progessol the propagation of the Manilla mul- 

 berry throughout the old sontfiern states, because 

 1 believe that the bona fide production of raw sill.- 

 in. those states will he more henefirial lo them, and 

 '0 thj? nation in genera), than the sanie amount of 

 i;aw jTi'at,mid':produced in ail the other exisiin<>- 

 Mates of-i|iv union ! But I'his belief is not founded 

 Pfi .the Jalse hypothesis that this rew branch of 

 rural industry will yield greater profits tlian an 

 ■equal lunouni pf labor and capital employed in the 

 culture of.corn or of cotton. Yet tWs belief -js 

 bastnl 0,1 the %ii,dispvted facts that this new in- 

 dustry Will occupy the poorest soils and the feeblest 

 person.s, which and who cannot be profiiably dedi- 

 catedMo the culture of any old staple of a<^ricul- 

 tme; and that raw silk can hence be raise^d at a 

 cheaper pru-e in the old southern states, than it 

 can be produced in the old northern states, in the 

 new western states, or even in the new s< nlh- 

 wt^stern states!! fn comparing the whole Uni- 

 ted States with the whole of Europe, or rhe old 

 southern states with the south of Europe, the only 

 indisputable supenonty which loe certainly possess 

 lor competition in the production of raw silk, con- 

 sists in the much greater cheapness of our poorest 

 soils, and consequently in the much greater cheap. 

 ?!ess of their produce in Ibod for silK-worms Ij 



Now in comparmg the old southern states willi 

 all the other states, it will be easily seen that you 

 have and will retain this great indispensable desi- 

 deratum o: durable superiori'y in the primary e'e- 

 ment ol cheapness of the raw material— o"f the 

 mulberry leaves. But in (he secondary element, 

 the cheapness and the command of laborers, you 

 have the same gre-dt relative superiority over all 

 the other states, in the conversion of this cheap 

 food into cheap cocoons! and consequently into 

 cheap reeled silk ! Now, sir, you admit that S4 a 

 year, per acre, of clear profit, if derived from all the 

 "poorest soils" in the old southern states "would 

 tie an immensely profiiable change from the pre- 

 sent state of things, both to the imlividual proprie- 

 mrs, and to public interests." And what was the 

 object of the counter estimates of my communica- 

 tion, except to show that at the loiv valuation of 95 

 cts per 100 lbs. of mulberry leaves, your poorest 

 sot s With common culture may commonlii yield the 

 value of 1-24 dol.ar. per acre? But, sii, for the 

 sake of the southern states themselves, 1 should 

 prefer a much lower valuation of the le.ives- and 

 I hope thai you yourself will soon demonstrate 

 that you can make ^4 net profit per acre per an- 

 num by selling, on the trees, their leaves at 12-t 

 cents per 100 lbs ! i. c. 3200 lbs. of leaves from an 

 acre ol the poorest soil. I need not aro-ue with 

 you that New England, or any norihem stlite, can- 

 not afford to raise and .'^ell the leaves of the Ma- 

 nilla mulben-y at even 25 cents per 100 lb. Nei- 

 ther need I enter into details of the impolicy of the 



t There is yet another ground of superiority of the 

 United States in general, and of the southern states in 

 particular, over Europe, still greater than the cheap- 

 ness of our lands. This is the dryness of cur climate; 

 a requisite for silk culture vvhicli cannot be as well 

 supplied in Europe, by al! tbat art and science have 

 effected.— Ed. F. It. 



