vt>!.. XI «. NO. aa. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



205 



THE SILK CULTURE. 



The subjoined letter should have been given 

 on the same page with the other communications 

 on the same subject in last week's paper; but was 

 accidentally mislaid. It is valuable on several ac- 

 counts; particularly for what is said of the seed- 

 ling miilticaulis, of which a full account is given 

 in tlie Third Report of the Agriculture of Massa- 

 chusi-tts ; and an account, likewise, of the success 

 which atteniled the mode of destroying the chrysalis 

 by camphor. H. C. 



Harvard, Oct. 10, 1840. 



Dear Sib — I received your letter of the 17th 

 September: I also received your report on silk lasc 

 spring, from which I have obtained much viluable 

 information. 



I will now endeavor to answer some of the ques- 

 tions proposed in your letter. 



I hatciied about r-i.5,000 worms about the 10th 

 of June to feed on the white Uiulberry. I soon 

 became satisfied that I had more than I could feed 

 on the white mulberry, and I reduced the number 

 to about 100,000, which were healthy and did well 

 till they had nearly come to their growth, and a- 

 bout tlie tiuie that many of them began to wind, a 

 con."'iderab!e number appeared to burst open and 

 died. I have heard of many who have lost their 

 ■worms in the .same way. I do not know whether 

 it is a common disease or something new. I have 

 never been troubled in that way before : tho8e that 

 wound up made good cocf)ons, but not so heavy as 

 I had last year. I had 250 lbs of cocoons. About 

 the lEiiddle of July I brought up about 200,000 eggs 

 to hatcli for my second crop ; the egcs looked 

 well, but none of them would hatch: on e.xamining 

 the eggs with a glass, I found the worms in the 

 eggs nearly large enough to hatch, but dead. The 

 eggs were put in a large glass bottle and buried 

 in tite cellar to the neck of the bottle, witli a loose 

 stopiier to prevent insects from getting in. 1 was 

 unable to obtain any more eggs, as nearly all in 

 this vicinity were lost in the same way. I how- 

 ever obtained a small lot of worms, which I fed on 

 the seedling iiiulticaulis. They produced 26 lbs. 

 of good cocoons, making in all 270 pounds. I 

 liad fed sufficient to have produced as many more, 

 which I had no use for; consequently I have boon 

 unable to decide, as fully as I could wish, which 

 kind of mulberry to prefer. I think, however, that 

 the variety produced from the seed of the morus 

 multicaulis I prefer to any kind I have seen. Those 

 that stood in the ground last winler I cut the tops 

 off near the ground ; they started early in the sea- 

 son, and many of them are now over eight feet in 

 height. With this variety I can commence feed- 

 ing the second crop as soon as the tir.«t of July, 

 and I think there is but little risk in keeping the 

 eggs till that time. I have over an acre of these 

 trees which I intend to leave out and cut them oft' 

 in the same way. 



With respect to the number of pounds of raw 

 silk, I am unable at this time to stale, as we have 

 not reeled all the cocoons. I had them steamed to 

 destroy the chrysalis, but it was not effectually 

 done, and the moths began to come out in great 

 numbers, and we were obliged to steam them again, 

 which has caused them to reel badly. I put a 

 small part in a bo.x with camphor, as directed in 

 your report. It destroyed them effectually, and 

 the cocoons reeled well. Had I taken the same 

 course with them all, I think I should have had 

 fifty per cent, more silk. I had a reel made from 



the drawing in your report, which I think a good 

 one ; but we have been unable to use it on account 

 of the cocoons reeling to bad'y. We are making 

 sowing silk with lirooks'a machine. 



I am unable to say hovv in;'.ny pounds of leaves 

 it requires to make a pound of raw silk, or whiit is 

 the cost. Yours, respectfully, 



CALVIN HASKEL. 



Mr Henry Colman. 



For the N. E. Farmer. 



MR DENNIS AND mS ' PATENT' TROUGHS. 

 Ddnvers, Dec. 10, 18 10. 



Mr Euitor — My attention has just been called 

 to a communication of friend Dennis, of Portsmouth, 

 R. I., in reply to my note of Aug. 1, 1810, relating 

 to the use of leaden troughs filled with oil, for the 

 purpose of checking the progress and ravages of 

 the canker-worm. So far as the gentleman's ob- 

 ject in his communication was to enlighten the 

 community by strictures upon my remarks, he cer- 

 tainly is deserving commendation. I cheerfully 

 concede to him the same privilege that 1 claim for 

 myself, and do not expect what I submit to the pub- 

 lic to bo e.xempted from criticism ; and even hope 

 to derive benefit from such criticism. But so far 

 as he would be willing to continue to impose on 

 the Community by the exhibition of a pretended 

 invention that was not tiew, I leave for others to say 

 in what manner ho should be regarded. I certain- 

 ly shall rejoice when the purpose which he profes- 

 ses to have in view, is accomplished. Our orchards 

 are one of the most beautiful as well as the most 

 valuable appendages of our New England farms ; 

 and notwithstanding there is now a healthy action 

 abroad, in regard to the hitherto perverted uses of 

 their fruits, still the fruits themselves are valuable, 

 and new uses will be constantly occurring, so that 

 tlieii cultivation will always be desirable. But so 

 numerous are the impositions practised on the com- 

 munity by patents for trilles entirely unworthy of 

 notice ; and so ready are the people to be gulled 

 by patent inventions and patent medicines, that I 

 foel it to be a good service to the public, to caution 

 them against too readily assenting to che represen- 

 tations of those, who under the pretence of disin- 

 terested benevolence, have mainly their own sel- 

 lish ends in view. If I do not mistike, I think it 

 is easy to discover the point in which friend Den- 

 nis feels most agrieved by my remarks. If it be 

 true, as he avers, that the use of such troughs as 

 those to which I referred, prior to his application 

 for a patent, "docs not affect the validity of his pa- 

 tent for the circular lead troughs in the least de- 

 gree," then why is he troubled in this matter ? Why 

 turn aside from his busy employment (as he repre- 

 sents it) to combat that which can do him no harm? 

 It may be that friend Dennis's interest misleads his 

 judgment, and that an impartial jury, should the 

 matter be of sufficient consequence to be brought 

 to their notice, will view it in a different light. 



It is true that my note was written upon the im- 

 pulse of the moment, upon reading the notice of 

 the patent, it-c, and forwarded without a re-exami- 

 nation. It is true that my knowledge of " the 

 claims of the inventor" was limited and imperfect. 

 The only means of knowing that I had, was what 

 he had seen tit to publish. Judging of those, I do 

 not as yet perceive that my conclusions were erro- 

 neous. I frankly admit that I never have seen 

 frieud Dennis nor his invention : nor do I know 



any thing of it or liim, except what he himself says. 

 I would simply suggest to him, that before he again 

 presumes to reproach others for want of being well 

 informed on any particular subject, he should con- 

 sider how far he is himself justly chargeable with 

 their deficiency of information. If I do rightly un- 

 derstand him, he himself on a second perusal of 

 my letter, finds the language used to be such as to 

 afford no just ca lae of complaint. But then he 

 would intimate that something more was meant 

 than was expressed — that there was some design 

 in using "language very guarded." 1 can assure 

 the gentleman that I know of none such — that I 

 have no personal interest at all in this matter; — 

 that I am not, never was, and never wish to be, a 

 dealer in p(7(e?i/s of any kind ; nor have I much 

 confidence in nine tenths of those intruded upon 

 the public. And as I can truly say that "I have 

 no desire to interfere with any man's patent rights " 

 that are well founded, and bona fide obtained, for 

 subjects worthy of a patent and of his own inven- 

 tion; BO, I hold myself ready at all times to ex- 

 pose the false pretences of idle fellows, who seek 

 to live by their wits, without labor, when in fact, 

 ail they have arc borrowed and not their own. 



The first intimation that I had of friend Dennis 

 having called on me, was obtained from his publi- 

 cation before referred to. If he had been so civil 

 as to have left his name and purpose of calling, 

 perhaps I should have .saved him the trouble of ap. 

 pealing to the public. But it may be that public 

 notoriety is what he is seeking ; and if this he so, 

 I think he will obtain it. 



Respectfully, yours, &c., 



J. W. PROCTOR. 



Note Since writing the above, I have seen 



Col. Sutton, on whom Mr Dennis did call, (although 

 he did not make known to him his name or pur- 

 pose of calling,) and have also learned something 

 of his visit at Lynn, where troughs similar to hie 

 have been in use for years ; and am now strongly 

 inclined to believe, what I before only suspected, 

 that he is an impostor; and that his patent right 

 would not stand fire a moment. But whether it 

 will or not, I care not ; and should not now have 

 noticed his communication, had it not been for the 

 inuendoes therein contained. 



The Coldest Winters. — After diligent search, we 

 find that the coldest winters within the last century 

 were those of 1742 and 1780: in both these. Long 

 Island Sound was frozen over ; and in the latter 

 winter, cannon were taken on the ice from New 

 York city down to Staten Island. In the winters 

 of 1797, 1800, 1804, and in 1832, New York and 

 Bostim harbors were both, for several days, obstruct- 

 ed by large quantities of floating ice ; but in no 

 instance do we find mention made of the latter be- 

 ing obstructed, wlicn the former was not. We 

 knjw of no harbor north of the Potomac, which 

 has not suffered f.-om ice, during intensely cold 

 winters, excepting that of Portsmouth, N. H., which 

 is very deep and rapid. — U. S. Gnz. 



Chalk. — Professor Ehrenberg has made some 

 remarkable discoveries in the course of his various 

 experiments on chalk. He found that a cubic 

 inch possessed upwards of a million of microsco- 

 pical animalculse; consequently a pound weight 

 of chalk contains above ten millions of these ani- 

 malculee, which are invisible to the naked eye. — 

 Exchange paper. 



