1335.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



471 



state of abject, sterility any other soil, in hall" the 

 time. The active exertions of a tew influential 

 and enterprising individuals in each county, es- 

 tablishing agricultural societies as is the case in 

 every county in the state of New York; exciting 

 a spirit tor extensive reading, of approved works 

 upon husbandry; encouraging a judicious rotation 

 of crops' upon every farm, however small, of the 

 three or four shift system; with the cultivation of 

 clover, as soon as the state of the soil will jusiily 

 it — recommending to all, the advantage of ab- 

 staining from grazing their fields — and above all, 

 by introducing the judicious use of lime, or marl, 

 in the way suggested in the Essay on Calcareous 

 Manures, would in a few years, effect an astonish- 

 ing change upon the appearance of our fields — 

 and by inspiring the industrious cultivators of the 

 soil, with the sure expectation of having their 

 care and their toil rewarded with plenty, for them- 

 selves and their children, would restrain at once 

 the emigration to the west, which is threatening 

 to depopulate the Atlantic sections of the penin- 

 sula. 



A late extensive tour through the northern set- 

 tlements of Philadelphia county, where lime is 

 universally used, and in immense quantities, and 

 with effects upon the productions of the earth, so 

 wonderful; has convinced the writer of this arti- 

 cle, that, nothing is wanting to the lands of the 

 Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia, with 

 the qualities of which he is well acquainted, 

 but the adoption of a similar course of improve- 

 ment and tillage, to render them equally fertile and 

 productive. In many situations here, marl can be 

 procured at a small expense; in all shell, or stone 

 lime, at a cost, inferior to that which is paid by 

 fanners remote from lime-stone quarries in many 

 parts of Pennsylvania. 



# # * # # 



T HOLMES. 



ON THE SCORZOSERA HISPA1VICA (VIPER'S 

 GRASS,) AS FOOD FOR SILKWORMS. 



By M. Poirel. — Published byorderof the Horticultu- 

 ral Society of Lille. 



Extract, translated for the Farmers' Register, from the Journal 

 'WJlgriculture, etc. des Pas-Bus. 



I have found in the Annates of the Horticultu- 

 ral Society of Paris, of November 1829, many as- 

 sertions which, for the interest of our department, 

 if seems to me to be necessary to be answered, in 

 order to prevent the injurious influence which they 

 might have on a subject of the first importance for 

 us in the north of France, that of feeding silk- 

 worms on the black-rooted scorzonera — (scorzon- 

 era hispanica, or garden viper's grass.) 



First in order, in the report of the proceedings 

 of the council of administration of the Society, I 

 have remarked the following passage: 



"The Count de Murinais, communicates a note rel- 

 ative to the success of raising silkworms fed on the 

 leavesof scorzon?ra, in the north of France, by an in- 

 habitant of Lille. After a discussion upon this com- 

 munication, in Which many members, icithout contest- 

 ing the fact, maintain the impossibility of obtaining 

 advantageous results from silkworms fed with scorzon- 

 era, the council sends the note to the committee of pub- 



lication, authorising it to add any observations that the 

 committee shall judge proper." 



They do not contest the possibility of raising 

 silkworms by feeding them exclusively on the 

 leaves of scorzonera, because indeed the evidence 

 cannot be refused; they only deny that it is possi- 

 ble to obtain by this means, satisfactory results. 

 Here, however, the evidence is not less strong, 

 since it is notorious that crops of silkworms, ted 

 on this substitute, were tested at Lille in 1S28 and 

 1829; that samples of the silk obtained were ex- 

 hibited at the Cabinet of Natural History of that 

 city, where every one could appreciate their beau- 

 ty, which was not below that of the finest silks of 

 the South of France. As to the quality, the mer- 

 chants of Lyons passed on it a sufficient eulogy, 

 in ofiering 24 francs the half kilogramme for a 

 considerable quantity, if it could have been fur- 

 nished. They would have offered one franc and 

 fifty centimes more, but for the imperfection of 

 the winding, occasioned by the want of suitable 

 reels. 



The value of the product being established, 

 there is nothing left to answer, but the reproaches 

 directed against scorzonera. I find them at page 

 291, in the report made in the name of a special 

 commission, by M. Loiseleur Deslongchamps, 

 upon a nursery of white mulberries formed by M. 

 Combet, at Fonteroy-sous-Bois. This is what 

 the reporter says: 



"In the laudable desire of seeing augmented the pro- 

 duct of our indigenous silks, some persons believing 

 preposterously that the principal difficulty existed only 

 m the impossibility of procuring enough nourishment 

 for the worms, have sought to find substitutes for the 

 mulberry. But these persons have not comprehended 

 that the substitutes, supposingthem to be found, would 

 hardly presc-nt the sam; advantages as the mulberry. 

 In eu'ect, those who have proposed the scorzonera, 

 have not seen that this plant, (supposing even that it 

 could produce a silk as good and as beautiful as that of 

 the mulberry, which it is difficult to believe,) would 

 furnish much less of leaves upon a given surface, than 

 the mulberry; that it is a biennial plant, and that every 

 two years it would be necessary to make new sowings, 

 and that the crop would be subject to many more casu- 

 alties than the mulberry, which when once planted, 

 may last a century or more." 



The persons who have proposed to raise silk- 

 worms in the north of France by means of the 

 black-rooted scorzonera, have not done so as light- 

 ly as the expressions of the report would induce 

 to be believed. These persons knew that the 

 mulberry is not hurt by the most rigorous of our 

 frosts, so long as, yielding to the influence of the 

 climate, it remains without vegetating. But they 

 also know as well, that the leaves, when once 

 opened, may be destroyed, even in the most south- 

 ern part of France, by late frosts. When this ac- 

 cident occurs in the midst of the rearing of the 

 silkworms, there is no resource but to lose them, 

 without being able to replace them when new 

 leaves come out — either because there w r ere no 

 more eggs, or because that the heat of the season 

 had hatched them spontaneously. It is then the 

 fear of an entire failure of the food of these in- 

 sects, and the hope of diminishing the expense of 

 their rearing, which have induced the seeking for 

 substitutes tor the mulberry. The matter in ques- 

 tion is no longer the possibility of finding a sub- 

 stitute — that is answered affirmatively and deci- 

 sively by the results above stated. Neither is it 



