674 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 11 



the remote parts of the two latter counties, as 

 well as to a portion of Goochland, it is not extra- 

 vagant to hope that this material may be conveyed 

 to those districts at such a cost as will render it a 

 profitable, as it would be an effi. :acious restorative 

 to the exhausted and steril soils to which ameli- 

 orating applications have of necessity hitherto 

 been denied. 



To other parts of the stale in a corresponding 

 position, perhaps similar benefits might he dis- 

 pensed, and thus most of that portion of the state 

 beyond the reach of the limestone which ra 

 little east of the South [ountain, would in 



time be brought under the benificent itiflue 

 the marls of the western limits of the ICocene for- 

 mation. 



ESTIMATE OF THE EXPENSES AKD PRO- 

 CEEDS OF A SILK GROWISG ESTABLISH- 

 MENT. 



[We are not competent to decide on the correctness of 

 the following estimates, which however rest upon the 

 respectable authority of the editor of the journal from 

 which they are copied. But this we are prepared to 

 maintain — that if such profits can be obtained near 

 Albany, much greater would reward similar efforts in 

 Virginia, on account of our greater cheapness of land, 

 cheapness of the labor which young or infirm slaves, 

 now an expense, might supply — and still more, on ac- 

 count of our longer summers, and milder win i 



Most of our readers possibly — and certainly most of 

 the southern people who are not our readers— have no 

 idea of the recent great and rapid extension of silk 

 culture in the comparatively unfriendly northern states. 

 Joint stock companies have been formed in almost 

 every northern state, and large capitals invested, to 

 carry on the entire business, from raising the mulberry 

 trees, to the manufacture of the products of the worms. 

 Either these people are mad, or we in Virginia, (espe- 

 cially of the middle region,) are in this respect, more 

 than usually blind to our own interest. 



Three new periodical journals are specially devoted 

 to giving information on silk culture — and, three new 

 treatises or manuals have been published, in addition to 

 the several of somewhat older date. These facts, even 

 more than the formation of joint stock companies and 

 the investment of large capitals, prove that the public 

 mind and interest are awakened— that knowledge is 

 every where sought— and that truth must speedily be 

 found, and generally acted upon. Would that such a 

 spirit of inquiry existed in Virginia, either as to silk- 

 culture, or any thing else in which our true interests 

 are concerned !] 



From the Albany Silk Worm. 



If there is a person in the world whose mind 

 has not been warped and biased by the influence 

 of hereditary prejudices and fashionable opinions; 

 should that person be asked what human brimr is 

 entnledto the highest veneration and esteem ofhis 

 fellow beings, he would answer, the person who 

 should devise the means to produce the |reater 

 quantity of the most palatable and nutritions food 

 lor his fellow creatures, at the least expense. 



Should he be farther asked, who is entitled to the 

 next rank in public esteem? His answer would be; 

 he, whose talents produces the same effect with 

 respect to clothing. In other words, the most ex- 

 alted rank belongs to the best agriculturist: and the 

 next, to him, whose inventive genius has effected, 

 the greatest improvement in the quantity and 

 quality of clothing at the least or a given price. 



How enviable then must be the situation of that 

 person, in whom is united both these titles, and. 

 whose employment is at the same time, as lucra- 

 tive, as healthful, and as pleasing as it is useiul to 

 mankind. 



Such an employment, with such advantages, 

 anil if well conducted, certainly and clearly entitled 

 to such honor and respect, is now fairly presented 

 to the people of the United States in the business 

 of cultivating silk; and experiments have fairly 

 shown that there is no deception in the offer, but 

 that it may be entered into without any hazard or 

 chance of failure. It embraces all the charms of 

 rural husbandry, with as little of the hard labor, 

 as is consistent with bodily health and vigor. Its 

 agricultural department is calculated to furnish 

 healthful and pleasant labor, and consequently, 

 food to the indigent without servile degradation, 

 and it furnishes the richest and most elegant clo- 

 thing that man or woman ever put on; and when 

 fairly introduced, under the advantages which this 

 country offers, its price will never be beyond the 

 reach of honest industry. And besides all this, 

 the profits it will yield will be equal to, or greater 

 than those of anv other branch of ngiiculture or 

 manufacture. Who then would not be a silk 

 "■rower, — especially when the means of engaging 

 in it, are within the reach of every cne possessed 

 of common mental and corporeal faculties, who 

 has credit sufficient to hire an acre of ground, and 

 that even of almost the poorest quality? 



The ultimate success and perfect adaptation oi 

 the Chinese mulberry to every part of this coun- 

 try, are now established by reports of experiments 

 which cannot be doubted, from every quarter. It 

 is now ascertained beyond the need of farther in- 

 vestigation, that it is as hardy to endure the win- 

 ter's frost as the white mulberry, or almost any 

 other fruit tree. It is ascertained that the best 

 "•round to appropriate to it, is such sandy or grav- 

 el'y and hilly ground as is of little value for most 

 other uses,- — that if seed cannot be obtained, it 

 may be propagated equally well from cuttings, or 

 pieces of twigs, or young branches, a few inches 

 lonff, with one end stuck into the ground. 



There is no industrious man in the United 

 States, with a family and in health who cannot 

 hire, if he cannot buy an acre of ground lor a nur- 

 sery; aud having bought it, he can by exchanging 

 work with some farmer, cause it, or a part of it to 

 be plonjghed. If he is unable to buy young Chinese 

 mulberry trees, and cannot procure the seed, 

 which may for a short time to come be rather diffi- 

 cult, he can easily, by a little energetic persever- 

 ance, procure two hundred cuttings, probably 

 without paying any thing, or at most but very lit- 

 tle. Let him commence with these, and at the 

 lowest calculation, which is perhaps more than 

 three quarters below the truth, they will produce 

 him a thousand the second year and may be mul- 

 tiplied, from year to year, not only in the same, but 

 in an increased ratio, as those first set out increase 

 in size. 



