690 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 11 



leaving a single bud on each; these pieces I stick 

 into the hot bed three inches apart in a slanting 

 direction, the upper end inclining to the north, and 

 burying it so that the point of the bud is barely- 

 seen at the surface of the earth; sprinkle the bed 

 with a watering pot. and put on the glasses; keep 

 the bed properly moistened by watering every day, 

 and throw matting over the glass at night, and in 

 the middle of the day, to protect them from irost 

 and hot sun. By the middle of May, the plants 

 will be lour to six or eight inches high, and may 

 then be transplanted to the place they are to grow, 

 like cabbage plants, watering them once a day for 

 eight or ten days, if the weather is drj ; they will 

 be found to be well rooted, and will grow tour to 

 six feet the same season, and will ripen their wood 

 so that the ensuing winter will not injure them. 

 After the first year I have never seen any of ihem 

 lost by winter, except in some extra cases, and in 

 these cases the white mulberry has suffered, and 

 even the native mulberry, fully as much as the 

 Multicaulis. Last winter, a white mulberry tree, 

 seven or eight, years old, in the western part of 

 the city of Baltimore, was killed to the ground, 

 while my Morus multicaulis, not a quarter of a 

 mile i'rom it, and north of it too, and in a higher 

 situation, was not injured. 



In fine, sir, I am in no way interested now in 

 the business of raising mulberry trees or silk, so 

 that I can be influenced by no mercenary consid- 

 eration in giving my opinion as above, and there- 

 fore the more dependence may be placed on these 

 suggestions. The manner of propagating as 

 above described, is my own discovery, and has 

 been practiced by me ibr four years with- invaria- 

 ble success. I would earnestly recommend it to all 

 who are preparing for the silk business. I would 

 also mention, that in 1832 I had fruit on one of my 

 trees, which furnished good seed, from which I 

 raised several trees, which were exactly like the 

 parent tree. The seedling trees grew so slow, 

 however, and the seed bed was so troublesome to 

 keep clean of weeds, that were my trees to pro- 

 duce ever so much seed, I should never use it, 

 trees being so much easier raised as above from 

 cuttings. The Morus multicaulis is evidently as 

 distinct a species as is the alba, rubra, nigra, &c, 

 and its seed therefore produces its like, the late 

 publication in the eastern papers to the contrary 

 notwithstanding. I suspect the seed obtained from 

 China, and distributed in New England, was 

 more or less mixed with other kinds. The fruit 

 of Morus multicaulis is black, small, (less than 

 the white,) of a pleasant, acid taste; the juice 

 stains the hands first deep purple, and when ex- 

 posed to the air very black, requiring the acid o( 

 chloride to take it off; hence I infer that it will 

 make a handsome dye. 



Very respectfully yours, 



GIDEON JB. SMITH. 



ON THE USE OF MARL AS MANURE. 



BY M . PUVIS. 



Translated for the Farmers' Register, from the Annates de 

 l'agrieulture Francaise, of 1835. 



Introductory remarks. » 



The last received number of the Jlnnales del 'agricul- 

 ture Francaise has brought this Essay so nearly to its 





conclusion, that we have been enabled to form an opin- 

 ion of the work, and to decide on giving its translation 

 to the readers of the Farmers' Register. We have al- 

 so recently obtained from Paris the original Essai sur 

 la Marne of M. Puvis, a volume of 190 pages, pub- 

 lished in 1826. The later publication of 1835 (though 

 not so called) is a second edition, much abridged, and 

 entirely changed in its form, and still more so in lan- 

 guage; but is, on some heads, more full; and whenever 

 they differ, the latest work may be supposed to best 

 exhibit the author's present views, corrected by longer 

 investigation and experience. The older work also 

 embraces many points which the author again treated 

 in his essay on the use of lime, which was given in an 

 earlier part of this volume of the Farmers' Register, 

 and of which the following essay on marling, is a con- 

 tinuation. These considerations of course have induced 

 the choosing the latest work, although, there were some 

 other grounds for preferring the former for the labor of 

 translation, as it seems to have been more correctly 

 written and printed, and would have caused less diffi- 

 culty. M. Puvis is a voluminous writer, and, it seems, 

 a hasty and careless one, and many of his sentences 

 are so badly constructed, as to cause much difficulty to 

 decide on their meaning — and this is increased by the 

 general very faulty printing of the Jlnnales as it re- 

 gards punctuation, and the division and separation of 

 sentences. In this latter respect, we have been com- 

 pelled to make alterations in almost every sentence, to 

 prevent a general and most awkward departure from 

 every thing like English construction. But to the au- 

 thor's words, we have aimed to adhere as closely as 

 possible. The sentences which caused doubt in no 

 case, were important to the subject — and however de- 

 fective may be the translation in point of form and of 

 language, it is believed that the matter has been cor- 

 rectly given, and that the author's facts and reasoning 

 retain all their original force. Some passages of the 

 Essai sur la Marne, which give more full information, 

 will be placed among the notes to this translation; and the 

 entire chapter on the '-'Healthiness produced by marl," 

 will be given, either instead of the shorter and less sa-" 

 tisfactory portion of the later work on that important 

 part of the subject — or hereafter, as a separate article. 

 This substitution, and the omission of the author's pro- 

 cess for analyzing marl, (which is much less perfect 

 than several other modes described in the Farmers' Re- 

 gister, therefore would be of no value,) are the only 

 liberties which have been taken with the text. 

 Some additions, which seemed necessary to the sense, 

 are enclosed between brackets, so that if erroneous, the 

 author may not be made responsible. The marginal 

 notes throughout, are our own. The remarks which 

 wesubmittedas introductory to M. Puvis' essay, Onihe 

 use of Lime as Manure, (p. 359, vol. 3) are mostly ap- 

 plicable to this continuation — and the views there stated 

 will generally also limit and direct our comments 

 through the course of the following essay. But though 

 (as before) we shall refrain from expressing dissent 

 in every case of opposite opinions being entertained, 

 still there will be need for our marginal comments 

 being made more full. 

 The erroneous theoretical views of M. Puvis, as pre- 



