1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



651 



from debt, but in comfortable circumstances, vvitli 

 money at'intereat, &c., ami this was wholly aitri- 

 butable to the profits ofihe silk business. 



As I have already intimated, the silk culture in 

 the district to which i have alluded was not pro- 

 secuted by corporations, or rich men, but by the 

 ordinary and small farmer, and was with them a 

 regular business. The trees, too, did not occufiy 

 any land worth mentioning, as they were planted 

 along the public roads by "the side of the fences, 

 and were thus both an ornament and a means of 

 profit, 



I think the only thing required in the production 

 of silk is to give the worms enouirh to eat, plenty 

 of fresh airland clean boards every week— the 

 worms will do the rest. 



Very respectfliUy yours, &c, 



E. Badgkr. 



ON THK "dISTEMPKR ' OF CATTM:.— OATS 

 SERVING TO ARREST THE PROGRESS OF 

 CHINCH-BUG. 



To the Editor of tlie Fanners' Register. 



Charlotte, October ISth, 1S39. 

 In the last number of your Register I am re- 

 quested by JNIr. W. I. Dupuy, and you join in the 

 request, to conununicate what knowledge I may 

 have in relation to the disease among cattle, com- 

 monly called "distemper," or " Carolina distem- 

 per." 1 comply with the request, but am sorry I 

 cannot give any valuable inlormation on the sub- 

 ject. I'^know of no preventive or cure. I have 

 lost many cattle by the disease, and used many 

 prescriptions lor its cure, without success. At one 

 time, many years ago, I thought I had discovered 

 a remedy, but subsequent experiments showed 

 that it was not to be relied on. 1 presume my 

 conversation about it has given rise to the appre- 

 hension that I am acquainted with a cure. At the 

 time reliirred to, 1 had lost in one summer nearly 

 half my cattle at one plantation by the disease, 

 when, by falling, one of them broke off a horn, 

 ■which the overseer discovered to be hollow. As 

 he knew that boring into the horns was the best 

 remedy fur the disease commonly called " hollow 

 horn," he had all the cattle gotten up, and bored 

 the horns of all, except a large unmanageable 

 bull. All were hollow, and none of the cattle died 

 that season after the operation, except the bull. 

 I then frequently spoke of the case, and advised 

 boring the horns as a remedy or preventive of the 

 disease. But subsequent trials both by myself and 

 others, have shown that it is not to be relied on, 

 though it has been thought sometimes efficacious. 

 The general opinion in this part of the country is, 

 that cathartics are the best remedy. But to pro- 

 duce an operation is the difficulty, as the contents 

 of the maw, upon opening it after the death of the 

 animal, are found to be perlijctiy dry. This diffi- 

 culty to efiect a passage has produced many pre- 

 scriptions, of the superior virtue of which 1 am 

 unable to judge. I have seen, not long since, and, 

 as well as I recollect, in some number of the Far- 

 mers' Register, a strong decoction of the twigs 

 and berries of the cedar tree highly recommended; 

 but know of no instance of its trial. 



Happily for this section of country, I believe 

 the disease is leaving, or has actually lell it. 1 



heard of but i'ew instances of it the two summers 

 preceding the last, and I have heard of not one 

 the last. For many years since my recollection 

 it was unknown amonir us; and the general belief 

 is that it came originally from Carolina, and hence 

 the name Carolina distemper. It has been a long 

 and destructive plague; but as it is not, if I may 

 use the term, indigenous, it is to be hoped it may 

 be a long time belbre it appears again. 



The greatest plague we now have to complain 

 of, is the chinch-bug. For several years past we 

 have sustained - great loss in our crops of wheat 

 and Indian corn Irom their depredations, and we 

 have cause to fear great mischief fi-om them the 

 next. It is, therefore, I use the occasion to com- 

 municate a statement of fiictsas related to me, and 

 of which 1 do not doubt, from which it would seem 

 that their ravages on Indian corn may be stayed 

 after leaving a wheat field. A gentleman sovyed 

 a narrow strip of land in oats, (not with the design 

 to protect his corn,) between a wheat and corn 

 field, and the oats retarded the progress ol'the bug 

 from the wheat to the corn so long, that although 

 there were countless numbers in the former, very 

 little injury was done to the corn. Now I account 

 lor the'little injury in this way. Those who have 

 paid attention to the subject know that there are, 

 as is the case with many other insects, throughout 

 the warm season, sucessive generations or crops 

 of the chinch-bug; and that in certain stages or 

 forms of existence they do little or no mischief; 

 and that they are in a state to do much injury to 

 the crop when they leave the wheat for the corn. 

 The strip of oats then arrests them, and serves to 

 nourish them until they have changed into another 

 form, when they do little or no mischief, and in the 

 mean time the corn is progressing and getting out of 

 the way of injury. In confirmation of the facts stated 

 and conclusions drawn, I will observe that I no- 

 ticed in my own fields, that the bug after commit- 

 ting great depredations on a wheat field did but 

 littfe injury, after it Avas cut, to an adjoining oat 

 field, having penetrated it no where, as far as 1 

 observed, more than fifteen or twenty steps, before 

 it was cut. If then a narrow intervening strip of 

 oats will stay the progress of the bug from the 

 wheat to the corn fietd, it will be well lor all those 

 who would otherwise have them necessarily ad- 

 joining, to interpose the narrow strip. Perhaps 

 one of fifteen or twenty steps would answer, and 

 do better if sowed late. We know that the corn 

 fields adjoining the wheat are much the most sub- 

 ject to be injured. W. M. Watkins. 



CORN CULTIVATED FOR THE STALK AND 

 LEAF, AND NOT FOR THE GRAIN. 



From tlie Soutiiurn Agriculturist. 



Savannah. March Uth, 1839. 

 31r. Editor,— The high price of labor is pro- 

 ducing an important change in our system of agri- 

 culture. From our cotton plantations, the old trea- 

 dle gin is disappearing, and an improved roller 

 horse gin is supplying its place. Upon rice plan- 

 tations, the thrashing machine, impelled by steam 

 or animal power, is gradually expelling that rem- 

 nant of barbarism, the flail stock. Although the 

 high price of labor is matter of regret, its tendency 

 is To make us belter agriculturists. It calls for a 



