100 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Oct. 12, 1S3I. 



Silk and i!^ilk "^Worsiis. 



From tlig Lowell Juuinal. 



SILK MANUFACTURE. 



NO. VII. 



The few numbers on tijis subject were given to 

 tlie puljiic without tlje expectation of instruction, 

 but for ihe purpose of divertinj; the attention of 

 farmers and manufacturers to the subject. Every 

 new object of industry requires time and experi- 

 ence before it can be advanced to any considera- 

 ble degree of perfection. Tlic first planters of 

 cotton seed in the United States had as little ex- 

 pectation that within forty years it would become 

 the first staple in the country, as the planters of 

 mulberry seed now have that raw silk will become 

 the second staple. In the Northern and Middle 

 States the farmers have no great staples which 

 they can produce from their lands, although in 

 some favored sections large quantities of flour are 

 made ; therefore they have a deep interest in ad- 

 vancing any sjjecies of agricultural ijiiprovements, 

 which will give them a support for tlieir families 

 and a reasonablo profit. Every piudent man 

 will inquire how much the crop will cost and the 

 Bjnount of sales, before he begins to cultivate it, 

 and I will give him such information as I have. 



On the 12th of May last, I purchased in New 

 York one pound of white Italian JMulbcrry seed 

 for six dollars, and on the 20lh I planted it on 

 Ught loamy land, prepared in the same manner I 

 prepare it for wheat or barley. 1 planted it in 

 rows only 18 inches apart, and covered the first 

 fix ounces two inches deep, and almost every seed 

 perished in the ground ; but the remaining ten 

 ounces were covered only half an inch, and in 

 forty days they came up, and twenty thousand of 

 tljem are about eighteen inches higher and look 

 well. The whole expense of cultivation has been 

 five dollars. I do not reconmiend tins mode of 

 cultivation. They shoidd be ])lantcd early in 

 April, in rows of four feet apart, and covered only 

 olie forth of an inch deep ; for the purpose of free- 

 iug them from weeds by a cultivator. I am now 

 pi'eparing groimd for eighi pounds of seed, by 

 ploughing it often, and dressing it liberally with 

 leached ashes. The labor of producing the 

 Worms from the eggs, feeding them, gathering the 

 cocoons, and the other necessary attention, may 

 be performed in 60 days, by two women and two 

 diildren, for thirty thousand worms. This is the 

 ^lole expense. Can a farmer plant a more profit- 

 n1)le crop ? If he can find a market, he certainly 

 cannot. But unless we learn the nrt of reeling it 

 from the cocoons in greater perfection than it is 

 taught at present, it will never be purchased in a 

 foreign market. The attention of gentlemen of 

 capital has been turned to this subject, and we 

 have no reason to doubt that machinery will be 

 erected, and a good market found. The custom- 

 ary price for cocoons in France and Italy is 25 

 cents per pound ; in England the climate is too 

 colj and damp for them. About five thousand 

 poun<ls may be produced on an acre, which will 

 give the farmer 812-50. In this calculation a con- 

 siderable discount must be made for want of skill, 

 an unfavorable season, and various other acci- 

 dents. 



Onions. — Mr Eliab Byram of tliis place, has raised, the 

 past season, on a piece of land 90 feet by 59, eightyseven 

 bushels of onions. — Sagharbor Watchman. 



PROFESSIONAL ECCENTRICITY. 



A country farmer of iimnense weight came 

 from a distance to consult the late Dr Abernethy, 

 and having given an account of his daily meals, 

 which showed no small degree of addiction to an- 

 imal food, Mr Abernethy said ' Go away, Sir, I 

 won't attempt to prescribe for such a hog.' He 

 was particular in not being disturbed during meals ; 

 and a gentleman having called after dinner, he 

 went into the passage, put his hands upon the gen- 

 tleman's shoulders and turned him out of doors. 

 He would never permit his patients lo talk to him 

 much, and often not at all; and he desired them 

 to hold their tongues and listen to him, while he 

 gave a sort of clinical lecture upon the subject of 

 the constitution. A loquacious lady having called 

 to consult liim, he could not succeed in silencing 

 her without resorting to the following expedient : 

 — ' Put out your tongue, madam.' The lady com- 

 plied. 'Now keep it there till I have done talk- 

 ing.' Another lady brought her daughter to him 

 one day, but he refused to hear her or to pre- 

 scribe, advising her to make the girl take exercise. 

 When the guinea was put into his hand, he recall- 

 ed the mother and said, ' Here, take the shilling 

 back, and buy a skipping-rope for your daughter, 

 as you go along.' He kept his pills in a bag, and 

 used to dole them out to his patients, and doing so 

 to a lady who stepped out of a coronetted carriage 

 to consult him, she declared ihey made her sick, 

 and she could never take a pill. ' Not a pill ! 

 what a fool you nnist be,' was the courteous and 

 conciliatory reply to the Countess. When the late 

 Duke of York consulted him he stood whistlincr 

 with his hands in his pockets, and the Duke said, 

 ' I suppose you know who I am.' The uncourtly 

 reply was, ' suppose I do — what of that !' His 

 pithy advice was, ' Cut off the supplies, as the 

 Duke of Wellington did in his campaigns, and the 

 enemy will leave the citadel.' When he was con- 

 sulted for lameness following disea.se or .icciuonts, 

 he seldom either listened to the patient or mada 

 any inquiries, but would walk about the room im- 

 itating the gait peculiar to difierent injuries, for 

 the general instruction of the patient. 



A gentleman who could not succeed in making 

 Mr Abernethy listen to a narration of his c^t^)'. 

 and having had s violent altercation with him on 

 the subject, called next day, and a-i soozias he waii 

 admitted he locked the door and put the key in 

 his pocket, and took out a loaded pistol. The 

 professor, alarmeil, asked him if he meant to rob 

 or murder him. The patient, however, said ho 

 merely wished him to listen to his case, which he 

 had better submit to or ho would keep hpii a pris- 

 oner till ho chooC to relent. The patient and the 

 surgeon afterwards became most friendly towards 

 each other, although a great many oaths passed 

 before peace was established between them. — 

 London Metropolitan. 



Intejipekance. ' 

 The following statement is from Deacon Grant, 

 a highly useful and active Director in the house of 

 Correction, in Boston. He stated the distressing 

 fact, that the number of commitments there, fiom 

 its establishment in June, 1828, exceeded 4300, 

 being the annual average of over 500 ; .ind many 

 of them are women. And, said he, it is a notorious 

 truth, that but for intemperance, not one third of 

 those sent there, of both sexes, would have been 

 traasgressors of our laws. A very large proportion 

 of them were sentenced as 'common drunkards.' 



To illustrate the degrading influence of this vice, it 

 was stated, that there is now in the House of Cor- 

 rection, an individual, who, a short time since, was 

 an instructor in one of our public schools, employ- 

 ed in breaking stone, for Macadamizing the streets 

 of our city ! What a contrast ! There is also em- 

 ployed in the same way, a youth of 17, the only 

 hope of his mother, and she a widow, under sen- ' 

 tence for three years. When she first visited him ' 

 in his confinement, Mr Grant said he wjs present, | 

 So greatly was the mother agitated, that it almost 

 a[ipeared she would sink into the earth under her ' 

 affliction. How came they here .' I will, said Mr 

 Grant, tell you from their own lips, — they were 

 ruined at some one or more of our' licensed houses.* 

 And he then added to these facts, which he said are 

 stubborn things. ' This day, the father of a family 

 of many children, inquired of me to know if any 

 provision could be inaile to take care of her, who 

 was once all he coidd wish, but now, alas I rro 

 longer the kind mother, the faithful wife ! She had 

 fallen a viclitu to Intempsrance ! While he re- 

 lated his sufTorings, and spoke of his dear children, 

 the tears rolled down his chciks ; and he said no 

 tongue could tell, nor heart conceive, his sorrow !' 

 Such are the trophies of Intemperance. — ChriS' 

 iian ffatchman. 



A Preventative of fever. — ^Tlie best commentary 

 we can ofl'er on the murderous practice still too 

 general in sickly districts, of the iidiabitants using 

 ilaily their bitters, viz : spirituous tinctures and in- 

 fu."ion of vegetable bitter and astringent substances, 

 nith the hope of warding off fever, is for ns to lay 

 before our readers the following from n highly ro- 

 sjiectr.lde source. — The uutlior is speaking of the 

 malaria fever, in the country round Rom,' — disi- 

 ea.ses similar to our bilious rtmittent and intermit- 

 tent fevers. 



Pucinolti attributrs the severity of the Roman 

 fevers in in.'iny cases to the use of bark, spirits end 

 oihcintifnulajits, which are by some u.sed as ])re- 

 vent5;ive3 ; and h« relates the case of an old mar>, 

 wlio had come fi'oin Romagna cveiy second year, 

 to labor during the harvest, in the Campagna o 

 Home, who never f.ad the fever ; and his beverage 

 in tho morninrj and through the day, was cold water 

 wi'.h a little Umon juice. Tliis practice his fathe» 

 had adojited before him, with the same sncczBS ; 

 but his two sons, wdo woiiW use sp'rits (brandy,) 

 and even mixed with it at one time gun powdsr and 

 at another- time cayenne pfpper, both fell victims to 

 the fever. — Journal of Health, 



Alahama Hemp growers and Manufacturers. — ll 

 is said that some planters in the vicinity of IIimtB- 

 ville, (Alabama) are turning their attention to the 

 cultivation of Hemp, and the manufacture of Cot- 

 ton Bagging and Bale Rope. So far, their pros- 

 pects are said to be very encouraging, netting 

 them a much greater profit than the growing of 

 Cotton had heretofore done. 



The Garden of Fromont, six leagues from Paria I 

 according to Silliman's Journal, contains 130 acres, " 

 and more than six thousand species and varieties 

 of vegetables ; many of them still new in France. 

 Some of the green houses are 2000 feet in length, 

 with glazed roofs, possessing all varieties of expo- 

 sure. Many of the noble forest trees of the United 

 States have furnished contributions to the nursery 

 of this garden. 



