NO. 4 



THE FAKMERS CABINET. 



67 



and timber. Large pastures may be profita-' 

 ble with no other expense but to keep them ' 

 clear of hushes. But to run over 20 acres of 

 tillatre or mowing^ land for what, with good 

 cultivation may be obtained from 5, is the 

 extreme of bad husbandry. ] 



A large farm, without skill, capital, and, 

 industry, is a plague to its owner — like self-! 

 righteousness, the more you have of it, the 

 worse off you are. 



From ike Genesee Farmer. 



Stone avails. 



One of the most significant marks of farm- 

 ing improvement which greet the eye in most 

 parts of our country, is the rapidity with 

 which the half rotted basswood worm eaten 

 fences are giving way to stone walls. The 

 zeal shown in this matter may be regarded 

 as a token of good in two ways : — first, by 

 substituting durable fences for those that are 

 perishable, and thus enhancing the positive 

 ■value of farms; and secondly, by clearing! 

 fields from the loose stonps that incumbered 

 them, and thus rendering them much easier 

 to till, and more productive. The general 

 custom we perceive is, to lay the stones into 

 what is called half wall, or wall two and a 

 half or three feet high, then place a long pole 

 of some durable timber, such as chestnut or 

 black ash, properly supported on the wall, 

 then a stake, and a single rail completes the 

 fence. Some set posts in such a wall, and 

 put on boards above the stones to a sufficient 

 height. This makes a handsome fence, but 

 from some little experience with both kinds, 

 we think it less durable without repairs than 

 the other, as winds acting on the boards and 

 posts, rarely fails in a short time to loosen 

 them, by throwing down or displacing the 

 stones intended to confirm them. There are 

 but comparatively few farms on which good 

 flat stones can be found, either loose on the 

 surface or by quarrying, sufficient for the pur- 

 poses of fencing, consequently small round 

 ones are obliged to be worked to a great ex- 

 tent, rendering such walls more liable to be 

 thrown down by frost or accident than they 

 otherwise would be. — Where such flat stones 

 can be found, and in the lime stone districts 

 they principally abound, whole walls, tho- 

 roughly constructed, will in the end be found 

 far the cheapest fences that can be devised. 

 Experience has shown that where walls are 

 built of such stone as renders them liable to 

 injury from frosts, that those constructed 

 north and south stand longer than those built 

 east and west. The reason of this is plain. 

 If the whole wall is equally lifted by the frost 

 of the winter, that side which is thawed first 

 will settle first, and the balance of the wall 

 will thus be destroyed. The earliest thaw- 

 ing will of course take place on the south 

 side, and walls exposed to this action of sun 

 and frost most generally fall. Those walls 

 built north and south are exposed to an ac- 



tion more equal in its eflfiects, and usually are 

 )nore durable. To guard against the action 

 of frost as much as |)ossible, walls in all cases 

 : hould have a furrow run by their side, and 

 turned against the wall, that the winter may 

 as far as practicable, be kept from standing 

 under it, and thus unequally softening the 

 ground. In building walls, admitting the 

 possibility of an occasional failure, the farmer 

 has one great consolation ; the materials do 

 not rot — when once on the spot they remain 

 where they are wanted, and if they some- 

 times tumble down, they can be built up 

 aorain. G. 



Culture Ott Silk. 



Sir : The manufacture of Silk, and the cul- 

 tivation of the mulberry in the United States, 

 has become a subject of such great interest, 

 that the quiet of our village has been roused 

 by its influence, and several of us are now 

 making arrangements to plant orchards in the 

 spring. 



The business is new, and though your ex- 

 cellent paper would weem to contain all the 

 information required by those engaging in it, 

 yet there are some apparent contradictions 

 by your correspondents, upon matters which 

 we, who rely upon what we read to guide us 

 in the enterprise, are desirous to have recon- 

 ciled. Hoping therefore that you will re- 

 ceive this as a sufficient apology for intruding 

 upon your time and attention, and allow me 

 to propose the following queries. 



Some of your writers say the young trees 

 should not be stripped sooner than five years 

 from the time they were transplanted. Others, 

 that worms in sufficient numbers may be fed 

 from them the second year, that is, the next 

 year after transplanting, as 1 understand it, 

 to defray expenses, and that the third year's 

 crop will furnish silk enough to give a nett 

 profit of one hundred dollars per acre. 



1st. Which statement is the practical and 

 true one ? 



2d. How old from the seed, should the 

 plants be, before they may »/<05/ profitably be 

 transplanted ? 



3d. From an orchard planted in hedge 

 form, the plants 2 1-2 feet distant, and the 

 rows 12feetapart, how many worms may be 

 fed the second year supposingr the statement 

 to be correct, which advises this early leafing? 



4th. If I am not mistaken, M. D'Homer- 

 gue, in his book notes American cocoons, 

 without their chrysales, at 8 grains, which 

 would require 960 to the pound, whilst a 

 writer in your paper gives from 260 to 300 ! 



5th. You state three dollars per bushel, as 

 the price of cocoons — how are they measured? 

 three bushels may, without difficulty, be put 

 in and on one. 



Gth. Can cocoons by any care, be packed 

 for market without indenting vast numbers 

 of them, which is said to destroy their value? 



