250 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



FEB. 10 I 41. 



parties has led to much petty annoyance and ill 

 feeling between adjoining proprietors. The sub- 

 ject, although one apparently of a most trifling 

 character, has been a source of dissension anion" 

 the proprietors and jurists of the continent as well 

 as of England, and was thought worthy by the 

 great men who framed the Napoleon Code, of be- 

 ing settled by specific and minute enactment. In 

 the Digest of the Civil Law, it is in one place laid 

 down (lib. 47, 7, fi,) that "though a tree be nour- 

 ished by roots which strike into the land of a neigh- 

 bor, yet it shall still belong to him in whose ground 

 it was planted." And in another part of the same 

 digest (lib. 41, 1, 7, 13) it is said in substance, that 

 if a tree be planted in one man's land nnd derives 

 its nourishment from another's, it shall belong to 

 him from whose land it is nourished ; and if it is 

 only partly nourished in his land, it shall belong in 

 common to the prc.prirtor of the land on which it 

 was planted, and of the land by which it is partly 

 nourished. 



Some of the provisions of the Code Napoleon on 

 this subject are as follows : 



'' Art. 671. It is not allowable to plant trees of 

 lofty trunk, but at the distance prescribed by regu- 

 lations actually existing, or by constant and ac- 

 knowledged usages ; and in default of regulations 

 and usages, only at the distance of two metres from 

 the line which separates two estates in trees ol 

 lofly trunk, and at the distance of half a metre in 

 the case of other trees and quick hedges. 



"Art. G72. A neighbor may require trees and 

 hedges planted at a less distance, to be pulled up. 



"He whose property is overshadowed by the 

 branches of his neighbor's trees, may compel the 

 latter to cut off such branches. 



" If it be the roots which encroach on his estate, 

 he has a right to cut them therein himself." 



Yonr Committee repeat that neither the above 

 regulations, so far as they differ from our own law, 

 nor any other which hive occurred to them, ap- 

 pear to them at once so well adapted to secure the 

 rights of parties, and so free Irom the imputation of 

 harassing and arbitrary interference, as the rules 

 of common law now in force in relation to this 

 subject. They, therefoie, ■ recommend no legisla- 

 tion, and ask to be discharged from the further 

 consideration of the subject. 

 For the Committee, 



GEO. T. DAVIS. 



SILK CULTURE. 

 The following communication being entirely 

 free from the visionary and speculative character 

 belonging to many articles upon the subject, is 

 readily admitted to our columns. 



Mr Editor — Permit me through tlie medium 

 of your useful paper, to give a shore account of my 

 doings in the silk-growing business the past sea- 

 son. I shall omit for the present most of the de^ 

 tails which are usually given in statements of this 

 kind. 



My feeding commenced at the usual time in the 

 spring, with a small lot of the grey, or what are 

 called sulphur worms. The eggs were obtained 

 from Philadelphia, as my whole supply of this arti- 

 cle had failed, from being kept in too damp a place 

 during the winter. At the same time I set agoing 

 a smaller lot of small white or two crop wornis, fo°r 

 the purpose of getting eggs to go on with. From 

 these I obtained a full supply of egga for my sum- 



in or's work. The hatching, feeding and winding 

 all went on according to my wishes. 



My shelves were three times filled. First with 

 the greys, second with the early second hatchins 

 of the whites, and finally with a later company of 

 the same kind. 



I used the same bushes over and over again : for 

 nn this article most of my cocoons were wound. 

 They had been used for the same purpose in a for- 

 mer year, and now I have laid them by for future 

 use. 1 have tried various methods for winding, as 

 recommended by the writers on this subject, hut 

 still incline for the most part to the old bushing 

 system. 



iMy operations were on a small scale, but all 

 went on with entire success, producing between 

 thirty and forty busliels of good cocoon.s, besides 

 all which were used for making eggs as above de- 

 scribed, and enough for a much larger operation 

 another year. 



My trees are small, surrounding my cocoonery, 

 and the leaves were gathered with great facility 

 and little cost ; they are of almost all the varieties 

 now in use, as the White, Canton, Alpine, E.xpan. 

 sa, but mostly the Multicaulis; and on this latter 

 kind most ot my feeding was performed. 



All my silk culture was in connexion with farm- 

 ing operations, and my plans are laid for pursuing 

 tho business in the same way in future. 



Between 4 and 'MO bushels of turnips for stock 

 were raised with very little labor between the rows 

 of my trees, on between 3 and 4 acres, besides 

 large quantities which were fed out, tops and all, 

 as the crop was maturing. 



I have studied many rules for the management 

 of worms, and for conducting the whole of the silk 

 making business; and am fully satisfied that the 

 most important part of it is to feed the worms well 

 with loaves fresh and good, through the day, and 

 if convenient, in the night, with branches or with- 

 out them. It is quite immaterial to these voracious 

 feeders, in whtit form their food is dealt out to 

 them. Their progress, maturity and fullness of 

 growth are all essentially promoted by a full sup- 

 ply. Leaves, leaves, is their motto — not by weight 

 or measure, but as many as they can steadily con- 

 sume. 



IMy white mulberry leaves I use for my first 

 feeding; the trees are in a nursery of many thou- 

 sands, very close together, and instead of picking 

 the leaves, I take them off branches and all, and 

 in the same manner I have managed with a part of 

 my other trees, and for the future I intend to do so 

 with them all. This metliod makes more litter, it 

 is true, but the expedition with which the feeding 

 is carried on, and tlie more healthy position of the 

 worms on beds made in this way, much more than 

 compensates for any disadvantages which it may 

 mcur. 



I have done something in this business for a 

 number of years, but the past season was the first 

 of my experiment on leaves mostly of modern trees ; 

 and I consider I have fully tested their fitness as 

 the proper food for worms, and also the entire 

 adaptation of our country, climate and soil, for the 

 silk-growing business, and the practicability of its 

 successful pursuit. 



I am furthermore fully satisfied from the differ- 

 ence I have seen in my Chinese trees, which have 

 been planted a number of years in this part of the 

 country, that they are becoming assimilated to the 

 climate, and that in a few years they will take a 



rank among more hardy trees for general or per- 

 manent use. 



Yours, respectfully, ' 



DAVID BENEDICT. I 



Pawtuckel, R. /., Jan. V>7, 1841. 



For the N. E. Farmor. 



SIGN.S. 



Mr EnnoR— Farmers, from the nature of their 

 occupation, are constant observers of signs. To 

 them, changes in the weather is a matter of great 

 importance. Accordingly, they are from day to 

 day on the look-out to watch the various indica- 

 tions by which these changes are known, or sup- 

 posed to be known. Old and experienced farmers 

 frequently acquire great tact, if I may call it bo, 

 in predicting changes in the weather. It is a study 

 requiring much discrimination and careful obser- 

 vation of a scries of facts, — a study, which should 

 be begun with the farmer's life and end only when 

 his toils and his lile are ended. For this purpose, 

 a farmer should keep a regular note book, in which 

 his observations are recorded. In this way he will 

 soon learn that many of the signs which he has 

 been accustomed to regard as certain, are some of 

 them uncertain, and others entirely false and un- 

 worthy of confidence. He will be enabled to sep- 

 arate the wheat from the chaff, and to retain tlie 

 one and discard the other. 



But for the want of some such journal or memo- 

 rial, many farmers adopt all the prognostics tliey 

 happen to hear of, as sure and indubitable. They 

 are thus led to shape their course by th.-- most 

 fickle and silly rules. From the inultiludf- "signs 

 collected together, they generally find or.: ur more 

 by which to predict the state of the weather tomor- 

 row, and when tomorrow comes, they almost as 

 generally find their predictions falsified. It may 

 be said that this evil cures itself— that frequent 

 disappointment will cause the farmer to disregard 

 all signs. But it is not so : a favorite sign is 

 clung to, as if the reputation of its observer for 

 judgment and discernment, were hung upon iL 

 There is a passion, too, in many minds in this mat- 

 ter, just as there is in lotteries — a passion which 

 ill luck seems rather to strengthen than todiininisli. 



One great stimulant to this passion is the alma- 

 nac, a book which occupies the next place to the 

 bible, on every farmer's shelf Here the changes 

 of the moon are recorded, and their record is con- 

 sulted with anxious hopes and fears. What influ- 

 ence the changes of the moon has, if any, upon the 

 changes of the weather, I do not feel competent to 

 decide ; but I believe it is far less and far less cer- 

 tain than it is in general supposed to be. Then 

 there is the running account for each month, of the 

 probable state of the weather in that month, for 

 which the almanac is consulted. For instance, in 

 one month you will find it recorded, " About this 

 time — look out — for a storm — with cool nights," 

 &c. &c. The poor farmer reads the oracle and 

 looks out — the storm and the cool nights may come 

 and they may not come — but at all events, he 

 keeps looking out, through the year and through 

 the almanac. This is but an unprofitable business, 

 to say the least of it. 



The evil, however, does not stop here. Tho 

 habit of mind engendered by this trusting to vaguo 

 and ridiculous signs respecting the weather, indu- 

 ces or strengthens a tendency to rely upon signs 

 in other matters. The good old almanac must be 



