No, 124.] 237 



duction of the insect and the food which nourishes it. The first feed 

 ing also I supply from thick sown nurseries of the minor sorts of trees> 

 as whites, Asiatics, (fcc, by plucking indiscriminately the first shoots 

 that start in the spring, reserving the larger trees and heavier foilage 

 for the advancing stages of the worm; advancing gradually through 

 all the stages from shoots of an inch to three or four feet, as the case 

 may be. I find the shoots as favorable to the small as the large worm, 

 and far less care and labor need be applied in the moulting than is ne- 

 cessary on leaves alone. Indeed I pay little regard to the moulting, ex- 

 cept to take that occasion to spread them, at the same time to afford 

 them by that means more air. 



A little now on the subject of my success, must close my commu- 

 nication. My first success on the principles above stated, was deci- 

 dedly favorable. The first crop, which was obtained in 1841, 

 between the planting of my corn and the commencement of my 

 haying, from some few ounces of eggs (I was not particular, as I am 

 not in the habit of weighing"), brought me, in reeled silk, together 

 with the bounty on cocoons and reeling, the sum of one hundred and 

 twenty dollars in cash, after making liberal provisions for eggs, by 

 applying at least two bushels of ray best cocoons to the purpose. 

 Now for the labor in the production of the crop and the silk, I can 

 give you but a general idea, which farmers, how^ever, like myself, if 

 such there be, made up of mixed professions, and broken constitu- 

 tions, can somewhat appreciate. But to be brief, having taken pos- 

 session of a farm of a hundred acres, with a wife and children, a 

 daughter of fourteen and son of twelve years, all of us rather slender 

 in physical power, and late in April, with no fuel for the season at 

 the door, we prepared the land for crops, with all the necessary 

 repairs of fences, &,c., with manuring, sowing, and planting some- 

 thing like ten acres of English grain, corn, potatoes, and mulberries, 

 and took care of the same mostly ourselves, wih the exception only 

 of some ten or twelve days' labor of a neighboring boy. Myself and 

 son made the cocoons, my wife and daughter picked, and cured, and 

 flossed them, with some help from an aged mother, who was on a visit 

 with us, and the assistance of two days' work at picking from a neigh- 

 boring woman. My daughter reeled them, as her first eff'ort on a 

 reel, &c., costing about six dollars. On a rough estimate, I consid- 

 ered my profits on the labor of the whole to be one hundred per cent. 

 My success last year was not as good, owing to late frosts in the 

 spring. This threw all my operations into the last of the season. 

 Then by very close cutting my trees, I injured them for this year. 

 This, together with another untimely frost, made me very late again 

 this year, and the results, as they generally are in late feeding, not 

 the best. Hereafter I will feed early, or not at all, 



P. S. — I must just add, that I have the confiiience to enlarge my 

 silk business, believing that once a year's tarly feeding and cropping, 

 will be found as profitable to the farmer as any other part of his busi- 

 ness, and not diminish the amount of his foliage from year to year. 



