VOL,. XIV. NO. no. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



22^ 



laid clown as an axiom that those productions that 

 suit not tlie climate, soil and situation of a country, 

 cannot be advantageously produced in such coun- 

 ry. How stands the facts, then, with regard to 

 the growing- of silU ? In the first place, the mul- 

 berry tree, and rspccially that species known as 

 the Morus Mullicuulis, is ditTicult of raising in New 

 England. The favorite .VIorus Multicaulis will, 

 indeed, attain to a most prodigious growth in a sin- 

 gle year, but it will not stand our severe winters, 

 unless guarded in some such way as to make it al- 

 together too expensive to be undertake]] on any ex- 

 tended scale. The trees nuist either bo removed 

 to a cellar, or embedded in manure, and neither of 

 these operations have been tried for a series of 

 years so as to determine the question wheliier the 

 trees will survive or thrive through them all. 



In the next place, our summer season is so short 

 that even supposing the trees are living at the com- 

 mencement of it, they are so long in putting oi t 

 and bringing to maturity their leaves, that there is 

 no certainty of having food for the worms at the 

 time they need it. I know there is a favorite reme- 

 dy for this dilficulty, viz : by placing the eggs in 

 an ico-li(uise and thereby delaying the hatching of 

 them till the leaves are grown But it is no easy 

 matter to retard this process till the precise mo- 

 ment required — the ice begins to be consumed or 

 melted, and the little prisoners escape into life on- 

 ly to me';t a speedy death by starvation. Such I 

 have known to be the fact in many instances. 



In the third place, granting the wiu-ms hatched 

 out and with plenty of food, where are the hands 

 to supply them with that food — to take care of 

 them and manage the details of the cocoonery, till 

 the silk is ready to be reeled, and ready for the 

 market ? Have we the surplus populatien here to 

 attend to these matters with profit? Can we com- 

 pete with France or Italy in this respect? Have 

 we not a large demand already for female help for 

 our factories, (or binding shoes and other such em- 

 ployments, and especially for the kitchen and the 

 dairy, than cui be supplied ? 



But I will not go further at this time into the 

 consideration of a subject so important to the com- 

 munity, hoping, hiiwever, that what has been said 

 may have the effect to call forth an expression of 

 the views and experience of others upon it. While 

 wo should aim at improvement in our productions, 

 let us be careful lest we push our experiments on 

 too large a scale, and upcm the wrong track : let us 

 not leave the certain good we have, and i\y to that 

 wo know not of. A PLAIN FARMER. 



From the Albany CukiTaior. 



REARING CALVES ON FLAXSEED AND 

 HAY TEA. 



Messrs Eili tors— Permh me throuffh the medium 

 of your valuable periodical, to thank my tViend of 

 Washington, for his favors bestowed on me, the 

 which through your politeness I have received, and 

 in reply to his question as to my way of rearing 

 calves, I reply that I believe not one of the calves I 

 raised, ever received a drop of milk from the cow. 

 My cows were watched closely, and as soon, and 

 in fact in more than one case before they did stand, 

 they were carried in the pen i had prepared for 

 them ; their mouths were then filled with salt, (this 

 by the by was done at least once a day, until they 

 ■were turned in pasture.) In preparing the flax 

 seed, we put half a pint of seed to three quarts of 



water, and boiled it till it became a .jelly ; then 

 boiled water on hay, so that when the hay tea and 

 flax seed was mixed, it was but little thicker than 

 milk; this, when about blood warm, was put in a 

 trough, and it was hut a little time before this was 

 the only trouble we had with them. We every 

 day put fresh hay in their pen, and I have seen my 

 calves at 7 days old eating considerable o' the finest 

 of the timothy hay, and it was really amusing to 

 see the sprightlinrss of a calf at 4 and .^ days old, 

 that had never tasted milk, which is so contrary to 

 tlie common way of rearing them ; but it convinced 

 me of the saying of Sam Patch, that some things 

 can be done as well as others. I have never tried 

 this mode of raising pigs, but I intend to with some 

 of the first litter I have, and will let yon hear of 

 my success. I see only one obstacle in the way, 

 and that is to learn them to drink, for I think if 

 this method is adopted it must be done without the 

 pigs iiaving any milk. I think we must obey the 

 conmiand in fact and deed, to tiain it up in its in- 

 fancy in the way we would liave it go, if we ex- 

 pect success. E. S. WILLETT. 



From the same. 



USE OF BARILLA IN VIRGINIA. 



Editors of the Cultivator — Having seen in the 

 October No. of your valuable paper, an inquiry re- 

 specting the best mode of applying barilla, or leach- 

 ed ashes, to the soil, and having made several trials 

 of it, I deem it my duty to give the results of my 

 experiments in its use. I must premise by saying 

 that until I commenced the use of it, those who had 

 it to dispose of, were in the constant habit of selling 

 it to the captains of the northern vessels, us ballicst, 

 on their homeward voyages, at about seven cents 

 per bushel. My first trial of it was on a small lot 

 of ruta baga ; a part of the lot was highly manured 

 by my cows during the preceding winter, and the 

 balance with barilla, at the rate of about 100 bush- 

 els per acre ; the portion having the barrila was 

 decidedly the best. The next spring, I tried it on 

 my corn, by putting it in the hill before planting, 

 and chopping it well in, at the rate of about .50 

 bushels per acre ; but I found it too hot to be ap. 

 plied in this manner, although the corn was im- 

 proved by it. I can now plainly perceive the 

 benefit arising frotn its use, by the improvement 

 to the suc'ceeding crops. My third, and in my 

 opinion, most successful mode of using it, was by 

 scattering it on a heavy coat of weeds in the fall, 

 and ploughing it under immediately, the land be- 

 ing intended for corn the ensuing year. By the 

 side of this piece was another highly manured with 

 compost from my farm yard. I think the corn was 

 better on that part fiaving the leached ashes ; and 

 the succeeding crop of oafs and clover was greatly 

 superior. I have used it this fall on my ruta baga 

 at the rate of 100 bushels per aere. My crop is 

 only a moderate one, having been sown late, and 

 the fall being too dry for it. 



The dawn of a better day for agriculture is ap- 

 pearing to the view; and our southern farmers, 

 profiting by the examples of their northern breth- 

 ren, are beginning to turn their attention to the 

 improvement of the soil, the first grand desidera- 

 tum of which is the increase of manures. It is not. 

 as formerly, the object with Virginia farmers, to 

 see who can first procure a crop of broom straw 

 and pine from their land, but who can improve his 

 laud fastest. Several years ago, I remember to 



have heard gentlemen, who called themselves far- 

 mers, say they had no time to devote to making 

 manure ; and that they hardly had spare time to 

 haul out what was made in the orilinary way. This 

 reminds me of an anecdote told of a gentleman for- 

 merly a resident of King and Queen county, who 

 said he never made but one iroud crop of wheat, and 

 it nearly ruined him to gel it to market. 



Yours, truly, RICHARD HILL, Jn. 



DOCKING HORSES. 



We are sorry to perceive that the barbarous, 

 cruel, and injurious practice of docking and nick- 

 ing horses is again beginning»to be looked upon 



with favor, after some years of merited disuse 



We wish to enter a decided protest against the 

 system, as injurious to the horse and ofTensiV'? to 

 good taste. A handsome flowing mane and tail 

 constitute the most graceful and useful appendages 

 to this noble animal, and are essential both to his 

 strength and comfort. None but a narrow-minded, 

 ignorant man, would have in the first place ven- 

 tured on such a violation of vested rights ; and 

 none but blockheads or jockeys, destitute of the 

 better human feelings, could have perpetrated or 

 tolerated the innovation. We are not in the habit 

 of indulging in unkind feelings against our tellow 

 men, however useless or ridiculous their conduct 

 may be, but when wu have seen a docked horse 

 turned out to grass, and obliged, between every 

 mouthful of food, to employ at least as much time 

 in biting oflf flies, as he nses in eating, a loss of 

 time and labor, that a tail, in its natural state, 

 would have entirely prevented, we have almost 

 wished that the perpetrator of the outrage, in a 

 state of nudity and his hands tied, could be placed 

 in some of our swamps, for half an hour, in order 

 to realize the pleasure an unprotected animal must 

 experience when exposed to the assaults of mos- 

 quitoes, ox, horse and gad flies. 



It is impossible that a docked horse should be 

 as vigorous and strong as he would have been had 

 this operation never been performed. A division 

 of the stron? tendons and muscles that have their 

 termination in the tail, must of necessity inflict an 

 irreparable injury. A few years since, an English 

 gentleman had a fine hunting horse, that would 

 carry his rider over a five barred gate with ease ; 

 but the tail was not in fashion, it was not carried 

 to suit him, and he had him nicked ; the result was 

 that when he got well, he could scarcely carry him 

 over two bars. "Thus" said he, "I spoiled a good 

 hors(S and no wonder; for the operation weakened 

 his Ions, a result that might have been reasonably 

 expected from the severing of two such muscles." 



Race horses, we believe, are never docked or 

 nicked. Their muscular powers are all wanted, 

 and that too, where nature placed them. The lair 

 of the tail is cropped, as any one may see in the 

 fine prints that accompany the English sporting 

 journals; but the man wlio should undertake by 

 the use of the knife, and the division of the ten- 

 dons, to improve nature, would justly be deemed 

 insane. The same argument that prevents the 

 mutilation of the race horse, should prevent that of 

 the carriage or farm horse. The trifling inconve- 

 nience the tail occasions when in the harness, 

 should be tolerated for the sake of the greater 

 beauty of the animal. Let who will prefer jo.:key 

 horses, we shall consider those the best upon which 

 the axe or knife has never passed. — Maine Culti- 

 vator. 



