68 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



St'iit. 14, 1831. 



From tlio Lowell JiiuTnat. 



SILK MANUFACTURE. 



NO. III. 



America is destined to be a rii'li, silk growing 

 and silk munufactiirijig couiilry. lUit lier advance 

 towards tliat desiralde slate of things inust lie 

 gfradual and systematic. Every atlem|it to do lliat 

 at once, wliicli can only lie eflected in a course of 

 years, must ultimately fail ; vvliile |iatriotism and 

 eiiteriirise will lie iliscouraged by the enormous 

 expense and fruitless labor that will be incurred. 

 When we take a view of the nmncrous branches 

 of science and art of which the i-ilk business con- 

 sists, from the |)laniingtlie nmlberry tree to tlie pro- 

 duction of those elegant and delicate stnlTs, whiili 

 daily issue from European looms, it is natural to 

 nsk ourselves by which of those branches is a na- 

 tion to begin 1 



Tlie two great divisions of human labor, agri- 

 cultiu'e and manufactures, reijuire to becariied on 

 separately, and by diflVrent hands. A nursery of 

 mulberry trees and silk worms can never be profit- 

 ably attached to a manufacturing establishment. 

 To say nothing of the immense expense which this 

 complex business woidd occasion, it must be ev- 

 ident that the profits of the manufacturer shoidd 

 not be dependent on the success of the agricultu- 

 rist. Tlie risk woidd be too great; one bard win- 

 ter, oi;e bad crop of coi'oons would reduce to noth- 

 ing the earnings of the aiti.sl ; and he could not 

 with safety carry on his Inisjuess in such a perilous 

 situation. The raising of silk worms, therefore, 

 must be left entirely to the farmer, and llie me- 

 cliauic must apply himself to those branches, 

 which are within the proper line of his business. 



Manufactures are of slow growth, and in their 

 beginning, particularly, require great means and 

 powerful support. Heceut experience in the case 

 of cotton anil woolliu man:ifactures has sufficient- 

 ly proved the irnili of tins po.sition. 1 am there- 

 fore of opinion, that the iiroduce of the American 

 silk should be eniploytnl as an article o( foreign 

 commerce, bel'ore it is manufactured into stuffs in 

 this country. Great profits are to be derived I'rom 

 this branch ol' business, and when it shall have 

 arisen to a certain degree of strength and pros- 

 perity, manufactures will follow in its train. 



It was by this slow and gradual course of pro- 

 ceeding that the cotton business has risen in the Uni- 

 ted States 10 the degree of prosperity it has altiuned. 



For more than twenty years, cotton was pre- 

 pared and sold as a raw material, without any at- 

 tempt to convert it into manufactured stuffs. Dur- 

 ing that period the exportation of raw cotton pro- 

 duced immense prolit to this country. The busi- 

 ness at last was overdone, the profit diminished, 

 and domestic manuliictures were established. 



Thus instructed by experience, as well as con- 

 rinced by the reason of the thing, I would recom- 

 mend the same course to be pursued with reganl 

 to silk. — Nothing should be attempted at first 

 beyond preparing it in the form of a raw material. 



Mr D'Uomergue says, ' I have observed with 

 astonishment that although there is not the least 

 encouragement for the firmer and planter to attend 

 to tins production, nevertheless the mulberry tree 

 is cultivated, and silk worms are raised in all parts 

 of this country, from the north to the south, and 

 from the east to the west. I have examined the 

 cocoons and extracted silk from them, which 1 

 have found superior in quantity and quality to any 

 that I have ever seen ; therefore I think this part 



of the business may be left to itself. The main 

 object i« to find employment for the silk produced 

 by the American citizens, and to establish in soirie 

 central place a regular market for their cocoons. 

 Their industry stimulated by their interest «ill do 

 the rest. Planting . the mulberry trees, and rais- 

 ing silk worms, are not mechanical arts, like the 

 other branches of the silk business. Experience 

 and observation will soon make the American 

 farmer perfect in that business. When they find 

 that bad and imperfect cocooiis do not sell for so 

 high a price as the good ones, they will inquire 

 into the disparity, remedy the evil, and none but 

 good cocoons will be found. V. 



ORCHARD GRASS. &c. 

 The season for seeding orchard grass, tall 

 meadow oat grass, &c, is fast approaching, and 

 we have thought that the following hints might be 

 acceptable to those intending to cultivate these 

 grasses. Many persons have failed in producing 

 orchard grass after much trouble in obtaining seed 

 and preparing their ground, and generally the fault 

 is attributed to the seed. This may ^ometilnes be 

 the case ; but we apprehend the cause of failure may 

 as often be attributed to the manner of putting the 

 seed in the ground as to the seed. It is a very 

 liglit chaffy seed, or rather an extremely minute 

 seed, closely surrounded by a large chaffy husk ; 

 and therefore, if buried too deep, liable to rot in 

 the ground ; or, if too shallow, to remain dry on 

 the surface. In a conversation with Mr Robert 

 Sinclair on this subject, he suggested that it would 

 be well, in sowing orchar<l grass, to adopt the 

 English practice in preparing the seed, which is 

 to spread out the seed four or five inches deep on 

 a floor, and sprinkle it with water, stirring it occa- 

 sionally for 24 hours, so as to dampen it thoroughly 

 before sowing it. This mokes the seed heavier, 

 and it consequently falls into the crevices of tlic 

 earth better, and is not so liable to bo blown about 

 by wind bel'ore it is covered by the harrow. It also 

 vegetates sooner and better. We also think that 

 the cominon harrow is too coarse an implement 

 for any grass seed ; it is apt to bury much of it 

 entirely too deep, and at the same time to leave 

 some on the surface not covered at all. We have 

 seen at the north a sapling thickly set with small 

 branches and twigs used instead of a harrow ; 

 but think that a harrow with ilouble the usual 

 number of teeth, but these of only half the com- 

 mon size, would be much the best implement. 

 This would require the ground to be well prepar- 

 ed of course, but that ought to lie done under all 

 circumstances. The tall meadow oat grass is 

 gaining rapidly in public favor, and will doubtless 

 be generally adopted. It is peculiar for its very 

 early and very late and abundant supply of pasture, 

 and is considered the best grass to sow with lu- 

 cerne, 12 to 16 pounds of the latter to a bushel of 

 the former being the usual quantity to an acre. — 

 •American Farmer, 



HORTICULTURAL. 

 There are to be seen in the public garden kept 

 by Mr Smith, in this village, several plum trees of 

 different kinds, heavily laden with fruit, ufioii 

 which there does not appear any marks of the 

 curculio, although the plums in the neighboring 

 gardens have all been destroyed by them. This 

 garden has been kept open during the warm sea- 

 son, for several years past, as a place of public 

 resort, for eating ice cream, &c, and has been 



lighted up with open mouthed glass hiiiips diirin" 

 the lore part o( each evening. Tlie ground, as 

 usual in such places, is laid out into Wiilks and plats. 

 The plats are planted with ornanientiil slirnbbery 

 and flowering plants, amongst whiih stand the 

 plum trees referred to, and visitors are not allow- 

 ed to tread upon the plat. 



Query. Why these plums escaped the ravages 

 of these insects ? 



Was it because the lamps were many of them 

 placed in tiie plum trees, by which the trees be- 

 came partially covered with oil ? or because the 

 smoke of the lamps ascended into the tops and 

 affected the foliage, couununicating to it some dis- 

 agreeable property, which diiive the insects from 

 the trees ? or was it on account of the disposition 

 i)f insects to fly towards the light, during the night, 

 by which they have approached so near the blaze 

 of the lamps as to be destroyed by them .' The 

 latter supposition appears to us tlie most reason- 

 able. Knowing that most insects during the 

 routine of transformations assume the forms of 

 moths or millers, many of whicli are very trou- 

 blesome about randies during warm evenings; it 

 may be well to inquire whether the ciirculios do 

 not, at some [inrticular season, appearin that shapo 

 attended with the disposition to ajiproach fire 

 light ? If so, may not these destructive little crea- 

 tures be destroyed by jilacing a few lamps in a 

 plum orchard, during that particular season when 

 they appear. 



I am aware that the idea of lighting up our 

 fruit orchards with lamps, may disturb the gravi- 

 ty of some of our sidier readers, but should it be 

 found useful, and thereby become conimon, it 

 would be thought no more of, than it now is to 

 see the portly figure of a judge posted up in our 

 corn fields with presented arms. 



We think this accidental discovery of a few 

 plum trees, with their fruit entire in the midst of 

 a district where the crop of plums has been en- 

 tirely destroyed the presey season by the curcu- 

 lio, promise much towards discovering an anti- 

 dote ; and any observations (»U|k: subject will be 

 thankfully received, and laitnlRfore the public. 

 Ge.iiesee Fanner. 



OKRA. 



Tfliis is one of the most excellent of our gar- 

 deij vegetables, and yet it is almost entirely neg- 

 lected in Baltimore. In Louisiana, and, indeed, 

 in all southern stales, a dinner is scarcely consid- 

 ered complete without it, in some shape or other. 

 Among the poor of the south it is considered one 

 of their greatest blessings. It is considered not 

 only delicious but very nutritive and wholesome. 

 It is tnostly used in soups, and, combined with 

 tomatoes and the usual condiments, in a dish called 

 Gombo. a recipe for making wbieli will be found 

 in the American Farmer, volume 12, page 39, from 

 the pen of our excellent housewife correspondent 

 'Cousin Tabitha.' We hope our citizens will 

 give Okra a trial — for it is equally with tomatoes 

 and egg iilauts worthy of their favor. We saw 

 t selling in our market, (or rather offered, for we 

 saw no one buying it,) at two cents a dozen a few 

 dfiys since — were it not of such easy cultivation 

 and so very productive, the time would soon come 

 when it would readily cotnmand six times the 

 price. 



Since the above was prepared, the Southern 

 Agriculturist for August, has come to hand, with 



