1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



135 



Armstrong; 5. The Farmers Assistant, by John 

 Nicholson^ 6. Lorrain's Husbandry; 7. Essay on 

 Calcareous Manures, by E. Ruffin; and 8. The 

 Complete Farmer, by T. G-. Fessenden. These 

 are ail worthy a place in a farmers horary, as well 

 as the memoirs first named. Of Nos. 1 and 7, 

 new revised editions have lately been published at 

 J3os f oa and Richmond. Of the others, copies 

 are scarce, and the memoirs, we beli 've, cannot be 

 purchased. No. 4 is a work of merit, comprising 

 a great mass of interesting matter, detailed with 

 great conciseness and perspicuity^ No. 6 was 

 written by an excellent practical fanner, who 

 blended a great deal of useful reading and nice 

 observation with an extensive practice. The 

 writer was a self-taught philosopher, who scruti- 

 nized narrowly into cause and effect, and we. be- 

 lieve was a very successful farmer. The Essay 

 on Calcareous Manures, is an invaluable treasure, 

 to all who can avail themselves of lime and marl, 

 as sources of fertility. No. 8 is principally a judi- 

 cious compilation lrom the agricultural papers of 

 our country. A new edition is now in the press. 

 There are several American publications which 

 treat of the orchard and the garden, which it is 

 unnecessary to enumerate, as they may be found 

 in all our seed shops. 



Of foreign publications upon husbandry, we 

 should recommend the following, in the order we 

 name them: — Low's Elements of Practical Agri- 

 culture; Lawrence on Cattle; Davy's Agricultural 

 Chemistry; Sinclair's Code of Agriculture, and, 

 (last, only on account of its expense,) Loudon's 

 Encyclopaedia of Agriculture. The Farmers' 

 Series, published by the British Society for diffu- 

 sing useful knowledge, affords an excellent com- 

 pendium of British husbandry, though but par- 

 tially adapted to our country. 



But neither foreign nor American books ought 

 to supersede the agricultural perio Heals of the 

 day. These abound in communications from our 

 best farmers, and detail the improvements which 

 are continually developing in rural labor. We 

 venture to say, there is not a farmer in the Union, 

 of common intelligence and cnterprize, who is 

 ambitious to improve his condition, and who takes 

 an agricultural periodical, that is not more than re- 

 munerated for his subscription, by the useful infor- 

 mation which he acquires from it. They are ge- 

 nerally printed in a form to be easily preserved, 

 and they ought to be preserved. We subjoin a 

 list of such as are known to us, lor the benefit of 

 the readers of the Cultivator: — 



Published quarterly. — The New York Quarter- 

 ly Journal of Agriculture, at New York. 



Monthly. — Southern Agriculturist, at Charles- 

 ton, S. C; Farmers' Register, at Sbellbanks, Va.: 

 New York Farmer, New York: Cultivator, Alba- 

 ny; Tennessee Farmer, Tennessee; Fessenden's 

 Practical Farmer, Boston; Rural Library, a 

 monthly publication of 32 8vo. pages, New 

 York. 



Semi-monthly. — Farmer and Mechanic, Cincin- 

 nati, Ohio. 



^ Weekly. — Genesee Farmer, at Rochester; New 

 York Farmer, at New York; New England Far- 

 mer, at Boston; Maine Farmer, Winthrop, Me.; 

 Yankee Farmer, Cornish, Me.; Ohio Farmer, 

 Columbus, Ohio; Southern Planter, Columbus, 

 Georgia. 



Devoted to Horticulture particularly. — The 



American Gardener's Magazine, by Hovey & 

 Co., and Horticultural Register, by G. E. Barret, 

 both monthly 8vos., published at Boston. 



Devtedto Silk Culture. — The Silk Culturist, at 

 Hartford, Conn., and the Silk Worm, at Al- 

 bany. 



To Orchards and the Vine. — Coxe on fruit trees; 

 Thatcher's Orchardist; Prince's Pomologiral Ma- 

 nual; Kenrick"s New American Orchardist, and 

 Prince, Adlum, Loubat and Rafinesque on the 

 Vine. 



The Quarterly Journal of Agriculture and New 

 York Farmer are from the same press, as are the 

 New England Farmer and Practical Fanner. 

 The Rural Library is a re-publication of Ameri- 

 can works on husbandry and gardening. 



We can neither give the prices of all the books 

 we have enumerated, nor refer to the bookstores 

 at which they can be had. The periodicals may 

 be obtained, by addressing the editors of the re- 

 spective works. 



From Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 



ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY USE OF, AND TRADE 

 IN SILK, AMONG THE ROMANS, AXD FIRST 

 INTRODUCTION OF THE SILK WORM INTO 

 EUROPE. 



I need not explain that silk is originally spun 

 from the bowels of a caterpillar, and that it com- 

 poses the golden tomb from whence a worm emer- 

 ges in the form of a butterfly. Till 1 he reign of 

 Justinian, the silk worms who fed on the leaves of 

 the white mulberry tree, were confined to China; 

 those of the pine, the oak, and the ash, were com- 

 mon in the forests both of Asia and Europe; but 

 as their education is more difficult, and their pro- 

 duce more uncertain, they were generally neglect- 

 ed, except in the little island of Ceos, near the 

 coast of Attica. A thin gauze was procured 

 from their webs, and this Cean manufacture, the 

 invention of a woman, for female use, was long 

 admired both in the East and at Rome. What- 

 ever suspicions may be raised by the garments of 

 the Medes and Assyrians, Virgil is the most an- 

 cient writer, who expressly mentions the soft wool 

 which was combed from the trees of the Seres or 

 Chinese; and this natural error, less marvellous 

 than the. truth, was slowly corrected by the know- 

 ledge of a valuable insect, the first artificer of the 

 luxury of nations. That rare and elegant luxury 

 was censured in the reio;n of Tiberius, by the gra- 

 vest of the Romans; and Pliny, in affected, though 

 forcible lanijuacje, has condemned the thirst of 

 wain, which explored the last confines of theearlh, 

 for the pernicious purpose of exposing to the pub- 

 lic eye naked draperies and transparent matrons. 

 A dress which showed the turn of the limbs, and 

 color of the skin, might gratify vanity, or provoke 

 desire; the silks which had been closely woven in 

 China, were sometimes unravelled by the Phoeni- 

 cian women, and the precious materials were mul- 

 tiplied by a looser texture, and the intermixture of 

 linen threads. Two hundred years after the age 

 of Pliny, the use of pure or even mixed silks was 

 confined to the female sex, till the opulent citizens 

 of Rome and the provinces were insensibly famil- 

 iarized with the example of Elagabalus, the first 

 who, by this effeminate habit, had sullied the dig- 

 nity of an emperor and a man. Aurelian com- 

 plained, that a pound of silk was sold at Rome for 



