494 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 8 



labor, will make more silk and do it with less 

 trouble and perplexity, than when the whole crop 

 of worms are of the same a<je and all spin at the 

 same time. When silkworms are young, they 

 are extremely small, and require but little room, 

 little food, and little attention. All the food they 

 consume, up to the time they are sixteen days old, 

 would not make more than one meal for them 

 when full grown; consequently when the whole 

 crop of worms are of the same age, there is at 

 first but little to do; but for a i'ew of the last days 

 they will eat voraciously, and must all be removed 

 and cleaned frequently, and all set to spinning at 

 the same time. So much to do at the same time 

 creates a hurry and perplexity which must event- 

 uate in a loss for want of time to do all that is re- 

 quired. * When the worms 

 are of different ages, the labor required is more 

 equalized. A part of them will constantly be of 

 the age to require considerable attention. But 

 this parcel will be so small, that the hands will 

 have spare time to attend to the younger parcels. 

 I have certain shelves allotted to each parcel du- 

 ring a certain age; and other shelves exclusively 

 for them to spin on. I begin with the fresh hatch- 

 ed worms, placed on the shelves allotted to worms 

 of that age. After their first moulting I pass 

 them to the shelf allotted to the next age, and 

 again supply the first shelf with fresh hitched 

 worms. In this manner 1 continue, through the 

 whole season, to bring young worms on the first 

 shelves, and pass them on until they reach the 

 spinning shelves, from which the cocoons are re- 

 moved, to make room fur the next succeeding par- 

 cel." 



"Last year I had silkworms constantly in feed- 

 ing from the 20th of April until after the 20th of 

 October." 



We are assured on first rate authority, on that 

 of Gideon B. Smith, Esq. nl' Baltimore, that Dr. 

 Millington is an eminently practical, scientific ag- 

 riculturist, and has made silk one of the principal 

 objects of his attention during several years. Mr. 

 Smith from his own experience, "bears testimony 

 to all Dr. Millingtan's remarks. And considers 

 his as the very best article which had yet appear- 

 ed." This was in January, 1829. Dr. Milling- 

 ton resides at St. Charles, in Missouri, about lati- 

 tude 38°. 



I am perfectly aware, that the excellent Dr. 

 Pascalis, at the time he published his work on 

 silk at New York in 1S29, endeavored to explode 

 the idea of attempting to raise numerous crops, or 

 even two successive crops of silk in a season. He 

 states some plausible reasons for his objections, 

 particularly the record of the failure of an attempt 

 near Lyons about 1820 — and also the failure of 

 the attempts at the Isle of Bourbon, situated be- 

 neath a fiery sun, and within the burning zone. 

 In the next year and in No. 2 of his valuable 

 work, "The Silk Culturist" for January, 1830, Dr. 

 Pascalis has recorded the successful introduction 

 of the silk culture to the north of France, a thing 

 which had been deemed at least, equally as pro- 

 blematical thirty years before. Also that Dr. 

 Deslongchamps had even succeeded in raising a 

 second crop of cocoons from the egrjs of the first. 

 Dr. Deslongchamps was one of a society of savans 

 at Paris who had performed many experiments to 

 prove that this branch of industry can be success- 

 fully carried on through all the northern depart- 



ments of France. He also had ascertained by ex- 

 periments at Paris, that the cocoons which were 

 produced by silkworms fed exclusively on the 

 Morus Multicaulis, were even rather heavier than 

 other cocoons. The more complete and effectual 

 conversion of Dr. Pascalis to the system, does not 

 appear so fully until afterwards, when speaking of 

 the Morus Multicaulis which he had received 

 from France, he says, "after the discovery of this 

 plant, a doubt no longer exists, that two crops of 

 silk may be produced in a single season." 



THE SUPERIOR ADVANTAGES IN WARM RE- 

 GIONS TO BE DERIVED FROM FLOODING 

 EANDS, BY DIVERTING THE WATERS OF 

 RIVERS. 



Translated for the Farmers' Register, fom the Jlnnales dc I' 'Ag- 

 riculture Francaue. 



[The following is part of a much longer article, on 

 the great superiority possessed by the cultivators of 

 southern regions, over the northern, in deriving benefit 

 from irrigation. We have here only given the general 

 statements and reasoning of the author, (M.Gasparin,) 

 which seem undeniable, and which will serve the pur- 

 pose of attracting attention to this subject, which is 

 no less novel than important in the hilly region of the 

 middle and southern states. We are the more willing 

 thus to limit the space here given to this subject, be- 

 cause so many of our pages have recently been occu- 

 pied by more practical details of irrigation, and more 

 particular and accurate estimates of the cost and pro- 

 fits, in moist and northern countries. Whatever advan- 

 tages are derived from this practice in the latter, are 

 certainly very far less than are to be obtained in warm 

 and dry countries. Upper Italy, one of the most pro- 

 ductive parts of the globe, owes its superior agricul- 

 ture entirely to irrigation — and even in Spain, one of 

 the worst cultivated countries in Europe, this practice 

 is pursued to great advantage, though almost no other 

 improved or scientific practice is any where there, in 

 use. 



The flooding spoken of by the French author, is very 

 different from the more perfect British methods of irri- 

 gation, described in our two last Nos. Instead of dis- 

 tributing, very equally, and using up a small supply of 

 water, and saturating the soil with it, the general plan 

 here spoken of, is to divert the courses of large streams, 

 and at proper times to pass a flood of water rapidly 

 over the neighboring sloping grounds, so as to imitate 

 the natural process and effects of a very heavy rain, of 

 short continuance. The artificial works for tins pur- 

 pose, on any one point of a river, would necessarily be 

 on a large and expensive scale, and would require the 

 concurrence of many proprietors, and even of legal 

 permission and aid: but the operation is comparatively 

 very simple, and would serve to benefit the farms of 

 many different persons, and perhaps form many miles 

 in extent, at a small cost for each.] 



The great question regarding machinery is not 

 completely settled by my former work; doubtless 

 the application of mechanical means has exalted 

 our species; the developement of this powerful 

 principle lends to dissipate those dangerous col- 



