396 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



June 27, 1S32. 



Rural Economy 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE CULTIVATION 

 OF SILK. — No. 1. 

 Ml- J. D. Homergiie, in his letter to the Hon. 

 Andrew Stevenson, Speaker of the House of Rep- 

 resentatives in Congress, says : " In one acre of 

 land there are 43,5ti0 square feet, on which may 

 be planted 3000 mulberry trees, (from 4 to 3f feet 

 apart.) Tliese will yield, at tlie age of seyen years, 

 90,000 pounds of leaves ; 30 pounds to a tree ; 

 producing 7,500 pounds of cocoons. At 25 cents 

 per pound, these cocoons will sell for $1,875 ; at 

 40 cents, $3000 ; at 50 cents, $3,750." 



In Fessenden's New American Gardener, page 

 272, it is said, '-one ounce of seed will produce about 

 40,000 worms,who consume about 1000 lbs. of leaves 

 and produce from 80 to 100 pounds of cqcoons : 

 and 12 pounds of cocoons give about 1 pound of 

 silk." In the Franklin Journal, volume 2, pages 

 22, 94, and 139, Count Dondola says, " The quan- 

 tity of leaves actually consumed by 200,000 worms, 

 is, in the first age, 20 pounds ; second, 55 pounds ; 

 third, 215 pounds ; fourth, ()20 pounds ; fifth, 3,820 

 pounds; making in all, 4,731 pounds of leaves 

 and that where trees are convenient, two persons 

 will attend and feed 240,000 worms, until ten days 

 from spinning, when five or six active children are 

 necessary." It is also known, that four or five 

 • weeks, where the worms are well fed, completes 

 the time of feeding. The Massachusetts Journal, 

 of 1828, volume 10, No. 2, page 137, says, " A sin- 

 gle acre planted with the mulberry, will produce 

 from five to six hundred pounds of raw silk," but 

 the number of trees is not mentioned. 



According to the above calculations, 240,000 

 worms will consume GOOO pounds of leaves, re- 

 quiring the time and attention of two women for 

 five weeks, which, at $3 per week each, including 

 board, is $30; and si.x children, ten days each, at 

 $2 per week, is $17 ; making the cost 847 fi)r 

 6000 pounds of leaves. At that rate, 90,000 

 pounds of leaves, the produce of one acre, would 

 feed 3,000,000 worms, and the cost for feeding 

 them, $705, which, being deducted from $1,875, 

 the price of the produce, leaves $1,170 for the an 

 nual income of one acre of trees. Thus, by the 

 above calculations, differing but little in the amount, 

 it is seen that the income afforded by one acre, 

 after seven years, must be immense. This acre, 

 it is to be presumed, must be of the best quality 

 and the trees highly cultivated, to produce so 

 much. Mulberry trees will grow on poor land, 

 but the produce will be comparatively small. But 

 supposing Mr Homergue's calculations to be made 

 from the best kind of land, and that we ha^ much 

 poor rocky land ; let us call the product of leaves 

 only one ninth as much as is estimated above, we 

 have only three pounds of leaves from each tree, 

 and lest it may require more help to feed the 

 worms, we will say four women and twelve chil- 

 dren ; which will reduce the cocoons to 750 pounds 

 and the sales to $187 50, and the cost of feedin 

 will be $141, and there will then remain $46 50 

 for the annual income of one acre. 



All the uncertainty in these calculations, arises 

 from the tpiantily of leaves produced on an acre, 

 and that must vary according to the quality and 

 cultivation of the soil; all the rest can be ascer- 

 tained from actual experiment. But I und^'stand 

 it is the practice of some to let their trees on 

 shares : one fourth of the cocoons to those who 

 gather the leaves, one half to those who tend and 



feed the worms, and the other fourth to the owner in this situation, which in hot sumtner evenings 

 of the trees, which, if the trees produced 90,000 

 pounds of leaves, and the cocoons sold for $1,875, 

 would be for one half $937 50, and one fourth, 

 $468 75. But supposing the trees to produce one 

 tenth only of thisquantity, then one half would be 

 $93/5, and one fomth, $56 87^. This amounts 

 to about the same thing as calling the labor of gath- 

 ering the leaves and feeding the worms, double 

 what it is calculated in the Franklin Journal, at 

 the price of wages and board which I have calou- 

 lated. 



Now taking the smallest estimate of income, and' 

 in what way can a farmer, remote from a sea-port 

 town, acquire so much with so little capital and 

 labor, in about five weeks' time ? If any person 

 will point out any way, and prove it to the satis- 

 faction of the Legislature or Agricultural Society, 

 I think he would merit a great reward. But this 

 business may be particularly recommended to 

 "Overseers of the Poor" in every town, who have 

 a farm — and every town ought to have one — to 

 keep their paupers; for if one half their paupers 

 are able to gather leaves and feed worms five 

 weeks, this business would support all of them a 

 year, exclusive of the cost of an ovei*eer. Per- 

 mit me to suggest one consideration more — if all 

 the highways in country towns were oriianunted 

 with a row of mulberry trees, on each side, half a 

 a rod apart, each mile would contain 1380 trees, 

 the income of which, after seven years, would 

 probably pay for repairing all the highways and 

 the expenses of the public schools, if the inhabi- 

 tants would restrain their cattle and sheep from 

 going at large. There is another method of pro- 

 ducing silk from mulberry trees, one year after 

 transplanting them ; which is, to plant them in 

 rows, three feet by two apart, which would give 

 about 7000 loan acre ; and everyother year, with a 

 sharp instrument, to cut them oft' within three or 

 four inches of the ground, and feed them out or 

 cut them ofl' every year. But whether this method 

 will produce as much or more silk, than to omit 

 picking the leaves for seven years, 1 have not ob- 

 tained information sutlicient to decide. 



If any gentleman will point out the errors of the 

 above calculations and furnish to the jjidilic njore 

 rrect ones, he will much oblige a well wisher 

 to agriculture and domestic industi-y. 

 To be concluded next week. 



DAIRY. 



The following extracts from celebrated English 

 writers may be useful, although they relate to very 

 common processes, and which ought of course to 

 be well understood. 



" I take it that oftentimes in very hot weather, 

 the milk in a cow's udder, much agitated by driv- 

 ing or running about, is in a state not very far dif- 

 ferent from that carried on in a churn, which fre- 

 quently niakes the great difliculty in what is called 

 bringing the cheese, or fixing the curd in the tub or 

 pan ; I have often heard dairy-women say, that it 

 is sometimes very difiicult to make it come at all, 

 and instead of one hour, (the time very commonly 

 given by dairy-women, in bringing cheese,) that it 

 will frequently not come in three, four, or five 

 hours, and then in such an imperfect slate, as to 

 be scarce capable of being confined either in the 

 cheese-vat or press ; and when released from the 

 press, will heave or puff up, by splitting or joint- 

 ing, according as the nature or state of the curd 

 happens to be. Whenever people find their cows 



must often happen, especially where water is 

 scarce, or in grounds where there is very little 

 shade ; then it is, that making use of a little cold 

 spring water, before earning or rendling, is useful, 

 as that will make the riinnet take efltct and the 

 milk coagulate much sooner. It often happens, 

 in some dairies, that the work is quite at a stand ; 

 the dairy-women not knowing how to hasten the 

 coagulum, or coming of the cheese, thinks of put- 

 ting more runnet in to forward it ; but the nature 

 of runnet being such as will dissolve the curd 

 in part coagulated, if more be put in, disturbs the 

 whole and prevents its becoming curd at all, or in 

 a very imperfect state, remaining in the whey in 

 an undigested state that will neither turn to curd or 

 cream, and ^principal part of the richcstof the milk 

 is then cast away with the whey. Cold water, with 

 a litilesalt, as hereafter recommended, will in a great 

 measure prevent this difficulty. One great point 

 or thing to be observed, in first setting oft' or rend- 

 ling the milk, is carefully to observe the state of 

 the milk as to heat or cold ; the grand medium or 

 statt- it should be in when you put the runnet into 

 it, is what may be properly understood milk-warm f 

 if you find it to be warmer than that, it^s recom- 

 lueiided to jjut some fresh spring water i"'o 'ti '" 

 such quantity as will reduce it to a milk-warm 

 state ; a (juart, two, three, four, or more, according 

 to the quantity of milk to be so cooled ; many 

 peojije may think water will hurt the milk or im- 

 poverish the cheese, experience sho'jvs it will not, 

 Ixit is a means of the runnet more immediately 

 sulking or operating with the milk. I would re- 

 commend the use of a thermometer, to show the 

 degree of heat milk bears. I doubt not, one may 

 be constructed on a very easy plan that will cost a 

 very little money, and it will he well worth while 

 to be at a small charge to regulate a fault, of put- 

 milk together too hot, which is of more ill 

 consequence than people are aware of. 



Sometimes, if cheese be laid cool when first 

 le, or coming from the press is dried outwardly 

 by means of a harsh cool air, when at the same 

 time the inside of the cheese remains in a moist 

 state ; though the coat is hard and dry, when that 

 cheese is exposed to heat, either by lying near a 

 hot wall, or near tiles in hot weather, or by the 

 immediate heat of the sun, it will be drawn up 

 round, in the same manner and by the same cause 

 that a board is ma<le ronml or coffcri'd up by the 

 heat of the sun. Rank cheese very often heaves, 

 from the cause before given, that makts it rank. 

 Cheese is very apt to split or divide in the middle 

 by being salted within, especially when people 

 spread salt across the middle of the cheese when 

 the vat is about half filled, which curd, though in 

 a small degree separated by salt, never closes 

 or joins, and is much easier coft'ered up or 

 drawn round than other cheese; especially thin 

 cheese made in what we call Gloucester vats, be- 

 ing round or rising in the bottom, and the slider 

 or cheese-board that is laid over it, made convex 

 also, in order to make the cheese thinnest in the 

 middle, that it may dry quick for early sale. Then, 

 if salted within, and being laid soft on the shelf to 

 dry, as it bears only on the edge all around, it is 

 almost sure to split, and it is often seen ; scarce a 

 cheese in some dairies, of this form, but what do 

 split. Salting a little in the milk is greatly prefer- 

 able, for these dairies in particular." — Twandty. 



" It is a fact well established, that the season 

 has great influence on the quality of cheese, ei- 



