[Senate 



he may possess but a few acres, need not apprehend want. Many, 

 whose thoughts are turned to the far west, would do well, before 

 they embark, to reflect on the facts which this report discloses. 



The report on Mr. Betts' farm shows the importance of good cul- 

 ture, in his bountiful crops. Two hundred and five and a half 

 bushels of corn in the ear, and seventy-seven bushels of oats per 

 acre, may be instanced as examples. 



The remarks on improving our live stock, should not be over- 

 looked. The difference in a breed of cows which give daily (on or- 

 dinary feed) twenty-eight quarts, or only one-fourth that quantity, 

 and that attributable to the breed, surely does not require comment 

 for a thinking farmer. 



The information afforded on the subject of silk, is practical and 

 timely. We believe our climate much more congenial to the silk 

 worm than the silk growing districts of Europe. Here, the worm 

 breaks forth spontaneously from the egg; there, artificial heat is re- 

 quired. We can dispense with much which foreign treatises on the 

 silk culture describe as essential. The Fifteenth Fair shows, from 

 its greatly increased contribution of silk, that the silk culture is pro- 

 gressing with a sure pace in our country. Every succeeding Fair, it 

 is confidently believed, will afford still stronger evidence of its pro- 

 gress. But in all new undertakings, though apparently simple, the 

 most cautious are liable to missteps. Directions are given, which 

 may avoid errors calculated to discourage and greatly retard the 

 progress of silk. The cultivator is recommended first to supply 

 himself with the best kind of eggs, and the proper reel. Eggs from 

 the Peanut variety of cocoons, and the Piedmontese reel, as improved 

 in America, are recommended as decidedly the best. The facts that 

 the cost of silk is two dollars per pound here, and that the thread 

 varies in value from two to six dollars per pound, according to the 

 skill and care in its preparation, should never be lost sight of. And 

 the further additional fact, that the first premium was gained by one 

 possessing but little experience, proves beyond question that native 

 ingenuity can accomplish all that is required for producing the arti- 

 cle fit for market. The superior advantage which the silk reelers of 

 Italy have over the reelers of Bengal, viz: one dollar and a half per 

 pound, they never can continue to maintain here, when American 

 skill has been fairly brought to bear upon it. 



