650 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 11 



duced, and the tendency to produce inferior plants 

 lessened. 



In the management ot land kept in pasture, 

 no manurin<r is required to maintain its fertility, 

 which will be increased and not diminished by the 

 effects of pasturing. Any species of manure, 

 however, will add to the productiveness of land in 

 grass; and when, from any peculiar cause, it is 

 thought expedient to manure land in grass, the 

 best kind of mannre is usually lime or composts of 

 earth and lime. These are simply spread upon 

 the surface, when vegetation has become inert 

 at the fall of the year, or before it has become 

 vigorous in spring. 



The surface of land kept in grass becomes un- 

 even from several causes. One of these is of 

 yearly occurrence, the labor of the mole. In 

 spring the mole-hills should be spread regularly 

 by the hoe or spade ; and, to prevent the animals 

 from becoming numerous, they are taken in traps. 

 Another creature, too, scarcely known in some 

 parts of the country, but very troublesome in oth- 

 ers, is the ant. The hills raised by the ant are 

 unsightly and hurtful, and there is great difficulty 

 in driving the little creatures from the habitation 

 which they have so carefully constructed. The 

 hills, tbrming little eminences like small hay-cocks, 

 will sometimes cover a large part of the surface. 

 The methods recommended for destroying the ants 

 are, raising the sods containing them by the spade, 

 and burning them in heaps ; or, just before winter, 

 dividing the ant hill with the spade, and laying 

 the contents upon the surface. 



The chief injury, however, which land when 

 left long in grass is apt to sustain, is the decay of 

 its herbage by the springing up of inferior plants. 

 The most common of these are the ??iwsci', mosses. 

 The mosses are altogether innutritions. They 

 occupy the place of the herbage plants, and thus 

 render the pasturage of less value. They are 

 most apt to grow where the soil is inferior and 

 moist. 



The best method of destroying this class of 

 plants is by draining and liming; and old grass- 

 land, when overgrown by these and other unpro- 

 ductive plants should be taken up and undergo a 

 course of tillage. 



When it is inconvenient to break up the land, 

 or when it is wished for any good reason to retain 

 it in grass, the improvement of the sward may be 

 attempted without tillage, although this will be 

 found to be more expensive and less effectual. 

 Rakes and harrows, with close-set teeth, may be 

 employed to pull up the mosses ; but this, which is 

 merely a palliaiive, leaving the cause of the pro- 

 duction of the plants unremoved, should be ac- 

 companied with draining, when necessary, and 

 the application of calcareous matter to the surface. 

 A somewhat more efficient mode of improvement 

 is, to pare off the surface with the spade to the 

 depth of a few inches, and then, after stirring with 

 the harrow the soil below, to replace the sod. The 

 productive powers of old turf will be renovated 

 by this process, and especially if any lime or cal- 

 careous manure is applied before the sod is replaced. 

 When land is kept in grass, weeds of various 

 kinds may tend to occupy the ground in place of 

 the more useful herbage. The smaller kinds of 

 these can only be eradicated by improving the 

 ground itself. The larger weeds, as thistles, 

 docks, ragweed, and others, should be pulled up or 



cut over when they come into flower, or before it. 

 The best instrument for the the latter purpose la 

 a little apade, carried in the hand, by which the 

 stem of the weed is cut at or below the surfiice. 

 The scythe, too, must be used, to cut down such 

 plants as tend to overshadow the ground ; and this 

 should always be done before they have ripened 

 their seeds. Whins, when old must be hoed up, 

 which is generally an unsatistactory operation ; but 

 young whins may frequently, when the weather 

 is moist, be pulled up by the hand. All suckers of 

 trees, too, should be pulled up as soon as they appear. 

 The very detail of these circumstances, how- 

 ever, shows the expediency of laking up old turf 

 for a course of tillage whenever it tends to 

 produce injurious plants. It is in this way only 

 that they can be thoroughly eradicated, and their 

 place supplied by better herbage. 



SILIC CULTURE IN CONNECTICUT. 



From tlie Silk Farmer. 

 The following letter, addressed to Col. Smith, 

 president ot the meeting [at the Franklin Insti- 

 tute] has been handed us for publication. We 

 think it possesses peculiar interest, and should be 

 attentively read by all. Mr. Badger is the pre- 

 sent proprietor of the Marshall House,Philadelphia. 



Philadelphia, Sept. 25, 1839. 

 To the President of the Silk Meeting: 



Sir — I spent about thirty years of my life in the 

 adjoining town to MansfieldjConneciicut--my fiirm 

 bemg partly in Mansfield. During these thirty 

 years a very considerable portion of the fiirmers 

 in Mansfield fed the silk-worm and made silk. 

 This was done by the good housewife and her 

 children. I was conversant with the business, 

 and never had an idea that there was any mystery 

 at all in it; the eggs, when exposed to the air, 

 hatched without any assistance; the children picked 

 the leaves, and the mother generally fed them ; 

 the worms ate of themselves, and wound their co- 

 coons. The wile usually reeled the silk whenever 

 leisure from other duties permitted, so that no ex- 

 pense accrued to the family. She not only reeled it, 

 but twisted and manufactured it into sewing silk. 

 And it is a fact, that (hose farmers engaged in the 

 silk business, made Irom it from one hundred to 

 six hundred dollars a year, while the whole of the 

 other produce of the larmdid not yield the half of 

 that sum. 'J'he consequence was, that the silk 

 growers were not only free fi'om debt, but they and 

 their daughters always had money at interest, and 

 the latter, when married, had always something 

 handsome as a wedding present for their husbands. 



With these people the worms were fed in the 

 farm houses, and all the expense incurred was for 

 a few hundred feet of boards. The work was all 

 done, let me repeat, in the fiimily and by the fam- 

 ily. The land in Mansfield is generally not well 

 adapted to cultivation, and a Pennsylvania far- 

 mer would be unwilling to take it as a giff and cul- 

 tivate it. Notwithstanding this, the inhabitants 

 of that town are as intelligent, industrious, and 

 moral, as those of any other district in the United 

 States, and I firmly believe, as a whole, more free 

 from debt. Indeed, I had an extensive acquain- 

 tance with the people of Mansfield, and I did not 

 know a single silk grower who was not only free 



