190 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



DECEIIBER 36, 1838. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DEC. 2G. 1832. 



WOTICE. 



A SPECIAL meeting of the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society, will be held on Saturday, Janua- 

 ry 5, 1833, by adjournment at the Hall of the 

 Society. R- L. EMMONS, Sec'nj. 



SILK. 



Wk are happy to respond the srntinients con- 

 tained in the following extracts fVoin a letter to 

 the editor of the New England Farmer, from Mr. 

 Wm. Kenrick, of Newton, Mass. 



Dear Sir, — I forward a circular received 

 from Westport, (near New Bedford,) from two 

 respectable persons of the Society of Friends. I 

 wish you could publish something to induce 

 people to forward petitions, naming the nature of 

 the bounties, which I suppose should br- similar 

 to those offered in Connecticut. Also, might it 

 not be well to offer some bounty for every silk 

 loom in actual operation. There is a silk weaver 

 at Newton, at work at his loom. I believe one 

 or more petitions will be got uj) here. Will you 

 urge tlic people to send them in from all quarters, 

 stating the bounties proposed, as named in llii.s 

 circular ? 



Dec. 21. 



CIRCULAR. 

 A Petition will be proposed to the Legislature 

 of this Commonwealth, at their next session, 

 praying for a bounty to encourage the growth of 

 the midberry tree, and the cidture of silkj if your 

 opinion coincides with ours that the bu^ness, if 

 rightly managed, will, in process of time, b« highly 

 beneficial to this Commonwealth, and tHe more 

 fully and extensively the business is commenced 

 the greater will be the facilities especially inougst 

 the middling and poorer classes of the indiktrious 

 part of the community. I 



We ask your assistance and co-opera«on in 

 petitioning the Legislature with us (and if it b con- 

 venient to attend before the committee thf may 

 he appointed to consider the subject) andlmake 

 such statements as your better judgmenHshall 

 dictate, or to communicate your ideas in M*iting 

 to them. I 



The State of Connecticut has taken theyead 

 and set ours an example by granting a s|iiall 

 bounty, and unless our Legislature do now gjaiit 

 some adequate encouragement Connecticut Will 

 induce some of our citizens to remove theit to 

 set up the business. We are aware that s( me 

 ra.iy object because Agricultural Societies giiut 

 some bounties, but that is a very partial thing to 

 encourage the business extensively; for but iw 

 can receive their bounties, and those generally of 

 the most wealthy: and notwithstanding we le- 

 lieve it might be made to produce a liandso lie 

 profit to all those who will engage in it extensive ly, 

 yet it necessarily requires labor, capital, and iu<)r- 

 mation in advance; land and trees must be po- 

 Tided, which the middling and poor classes l;el 

 not so well able to do and support tbeir fami ies 

 in the mean time. Therefore tbe aid of govern- 

 ment for a number of years to set the business a 

 going extensively is of the utmost importance. We 



would suggest the propriety and expediency of 

 the Legislature granting a bounty of one cent for 

 every white mulberry tree that any person or per- 

 sons shall cause to be transplanted for standard 

 trees where they will probably become thrifty, 

 and three cents for the morus multicaulis kind 

 transplanted as aforesaid in this Conmionwealth, 

 and four cents per pound for every pound of silk 

 cocoons raised in this Commonwealth, aiul fifty 

 cents per pound for every pound of reeled silk 

 reeled in this Commonwealth, and one dollar for 

 every silk reel on a new and improved plan, that 

 shall be used in this Coinmouwealth, ])ayable in 

 one year after performing the aforesaid conditions, 

 by the Treasurer of this Connnonwealth in such 

 way and manner as the Legislature shall direct, 



Finally, in this time of public excitement and 

 party animosities about government, or rather 

 men, and rivalship about almost every kind of 

 business, let us unite in this in which there can 

 be so little competition, for the more that each one 

 does the more he benefits his neighbor and the 

 public, and impoverishes none by raising mulber- 

 ry trees, and converting the leaves into silk, and 

 thereby ])romotiug health, wealth, industry, and 

 good morals, and ti new resource to add to the 

 revenue of the country, with as little risk as any 

 agricultural business. Please to be so acconuno- 

 dating as to introduce this subject to your neigli 

 horsand townsmen, and invite them to be i)etition- 

 ers with us. 



With respect, ABNER BROWNELL, 



JOHN MACOMBER. 



Ilcslport, .VotK 183-2. 



more: remarks and inquiries on silk &c. 



A LADY, who prohibits our makinsf her nouic 

 public, after some inquiries relative to obtaining 

 some of Mr. Derby's Durham short horn cows, 

 says, " I regularly seek for more information on 

 the silk culture, and wish much to obtain sucli 

 knowledge of the improved method of accommo- 

 dating the worms with mounting frames, instead 

 of the old fashioned custom of oak branches. I 

 began last summer the work of feeding the worms, 

 and, aided by Mr. Cobb's Manual, and the work 

 of Dr. Pascalis, produced twelve bushels of 

 ocoons. • But after obtaining the reel from .Mr. 

 Cobb, was not able to find any one here to reel it, 

 and have reason to fear have lost all the silk by 

 not having it reeled in proper season. 



" I am so well convinced of the value of the 

 mulberry tree that I have lately set out 3000 trees 

 of three and four years old — part at regular dis- 

 tances, and part thick in fences — ^being anxious to 

 improve the little spot of land about my hou.se 

 (22 acres) I have also set out 3600 of the best 

 orchard trees of gr.ifted fruit, and about two thou- 

 sand grape vines of the best sort for wine, with a 

 large portion of native or wild vines, to see what 

 may be done with land well stocked, well planted, 

 and well tilled. 



" The plate of the mounting frame for the silk 

 worms in Dr. Pascalis' book is not such as any 

 common carpenter can make them by. If in Phil- 

 adelphia, or elsewhere, you can obtain the best 

 mode of superseding the branches of trees, which 

 spoil the floss, and require much labor to pick. 



you will do tlie silk culturist an important ser- 

 vice ; and during the sea-son of leisure is the time 

 for preparing for the next summer. I visited 

 Mansfield, in July, when they were feeding the 

 worms, with the hope of seeing the best improve- 

 ments, but found the old way was still ))ractised. 

 I have no doubt that if there was an agent in this 

 city, [New Haven] for the purchase of cocoons, or 

 tlie silk reeled according to the improved reel, 

 many families among ilie industrious classes 

 would avail themselves of it. But during the last 

 Silk season I had many persons bring a few hun- 

 dred, or a few pounds of unreeled silk to me to try 

 to dispose of their labor, but I was unable to find a 

 liarket here for my own ; and for tliis cause, I 

 l^eard several say that they would never have 

 any thing more to do with silk. I am induced to 

 n»me this circumstance to you, sir, in hopes that 

 it may be in your iiower to remedy the evil and 

 promote the cause. There must be a maiket open 

 fijr all produce at the place, for small farmers can- 

 npt afford to send it to a distance. 



, " My natural love of rural occupations has in- 

 (Jiced me to build my cottage out of the city, 

 M^ere I prefer the hum of the bee to the rolling 

 of « heels, and to converse with dame nature at 

 e«rly dawn, when her school room opens to give 

 instruction to her children." 



% the Editor. We arc under great obligations 

 to the lady who favored us with the above re- 

 marks ; and should be happy if some fiiend to 

 .'Vmerican industry, who has a i)ractical as well as 

 theoretical acquaintance with the manufacture 

 of silk would oblige us with such directions as 

 might meet the wishes of oiu- correspondent. P. 

 S. Do Ponceau, Esq., of Philadelphia, in a letter 

 to Gen. Dearbor.n, published in the New Eng- 

 land Farmer, vol. i.x. pp. 57, 58, says, " I have 

 discovered that we have in this country, from 

 I'.ngland, France, Germany, and other places, 

 manufacturers of silk of almost every description. 

 W'e have silk throwsters, silk dyers, silk weavers, 

 silk manufacturers, all but good reelers, without 

 which the labor of the others must be at a stand. 

 These then are all waiting for employment, some 

 of them in very poor circumstances. All we 

 want is the art of reeling and eveiy thing else will 

 follow. As to mulberry trees and silkworms, let 

 but a good price be given for the cocoons, and 

 they will be produced as if by magic. Every thing, 

 as the silk brokers say, depends xipon good reeling.'" 



From the Genesee Parmer. 

 BREAD. 

 Most people are fond of bread mixed with milk, 

 but many inhabitants of villages and cities are not 

 able to procure it, not keeping cows, and the cost 

 of milk by the quart being often too expensive to 

 allow them the use of it. The following cheap 

 substitute for milk, renders the bread such a 

 perfect imitation, both in taste and tenderness, to 

 the milk-mixed, that the nicest connoisseur would 

 not detect the difference. The secret is simply 



