NO. 12. 



THE FARMERS CABINET. 



18.3 



init of donbt; they have been subjects of 

 accurate trial. 



It is believed, that the value of a bushel 

 of Iniii'in corn in straw and meal, will keep 

 a healthy horse in good condition for work 

 a week. An acre of Indian corn, which 

 yields sixty bushels, will bo ample for the 

 support of a horse through the year. Now 

 it is for the fnrmer to consider, whether it be 

 better to maintain his horse upon the produce 

 of half an acre of carrots, which can he cul- 

 tivated at an expense not greatly exceeding 

 the expense of half an acre of potatoes; or 

 upon half an acre of ruta baga, which can be 

 raised as a second crop at less expense than 

 potatoes; or upon the grain produce of an 

 acre of Indian corn; or, on the other hand, 

 upon the produce of six acres in hay and 

 grain, for six acres will hardly do more than 

 to yield nearly six tons of hay and seventy or 

 eighty bushels of oats. The same economy 

 might be as successfully introduced into the 

 feeding of our neat cattle. I have known a 

 yoke of oxen engaged in the labor of a farm, 

 to be kept three months in winter, in good 

 working condition, upon one bushel of Indian 

 meal and about twenty-five cents worth of 

 straw per week ; and my own team has never 

 been in better condition both for appearance 

 and labor, than when fed wholly upon a 

 liberal supply of ruta baga and the coarsest 

 fodder. But it has been ascertained by ac- 

 curate measurement, that an nnworked ox 

 put up on good old hay, consumed at the 

 rate of 33 lbs. per day, or 231 lbs. per week, 

 which is upwards of six tons per year of 

 2,000 lbs. per ton. There must then be a 

 great saving betwesn feeding in the way re- 

 ferred to, or upon English hay; and English 

 hay alone, in any qu:Antity without grain or 

 vegetables, is not sufficient for any hard 

 workinaf animal. 



G 3-8 pounds, the average height above 

 •rround was 6 1-4 feet. On measuring a 

 scjuare rood, where those trees stood, the 

 subscriber counted 81 trees, all five feet high 

 and upward. On separatiufj the leaves from 

 the above three trees, the produce was 2 1-2 

 lbs. for every three trees, as a portion of 

 them were of a smaller size than those 

 weighed, it will give to each square rood 

 (53 lbs., or per acre 10,080 pounds of leaves 

 the first season from cuttings — and a large 

 portion of these leaves were produced in time 

 I for raising the second crop of worms. The 

 I land on which this crop of trees was raised, 

 'is a mellow loam on a clay bottom, from 

 which, in 1835, it was estimated that 1 cut 

 two tons of hay to the acre, and was manured 

 last spring with about 22 horse cart loads of 

 barn yard manure to the acre. Planted in 

 rows 4 feet apart, and 9 inches in the row. 



Robert Sinclair. 



Interesting to §ilk. Raisers. 



The subscriber last spring jjlanted a small 

 field with the Morus multicaulis, or new 

 Chinese mulberry, raised from cuttings of 

 one bud each, say about three inches long, 

 and observing that the trees had grown much 

 larger than he expected, and had also thrown 

 out many side branches, and that the growth 

 was, in every particular, so much larger 

 than was anticipated, he thought a plain 

 statement of facts relative to them, and their 

 culture, rnitrht prove encouratrino- to silk 

 growers, and acceptable to the subscribers 

 of the Farmer and Gardener. He invited 

 his friend E. P. Roberts to ride over to the 

 nursery, to see and assist in weighing some 

 of said trees, which he did on the first inst., 

 and in his presence three trees were taken 

 up and weighe<l, the weight of which was 



Remarks by Ike Edilor of the Farmer and 

 Gardener, 



We were delighted at the luxuriant growth 

 of the Morus multicaulis plants mentioned in 

 the communication of friend Sinclair, as well 

 as with their ver)' great yield of foliage. It 

 has satisfied us that much of the objection 

 which has heretofore rested in the minds of 

 those who would reap ere they have sown, 

 against the mulberry culture, may be ob- 

 viated if the Morus multicaulis be selected 

 for the orchard. All the calculations in our 

 manual are based upon the supposition that 

 the mulberry trees should be four years old 

 j before they are picked, — and in all candor 

 we must confess that we are still of the 

 opinion, that they ought to grow that long 

 before they are deprived of their foliage ; for 

 we conceive that defoliation at an earlier pe- 

 riod would tend to shorten the life of the 

 plant. But those who are desirous of reaping 

 all themselves, and leaving nothing for pos- 

 terity, may, if they please, reap the fruits of 

 their labor in the mulberry culture, even 

 from the first year upwards, — and now let 

 us see what the product of an acre of ground 

 planted in Morus multicaulis trees one year 

 old, equal in quality with those of friend 

 Sinclair's, would yield. 



He fixes the quantity of leaves at 10,080 

 lbs. and as 1,000 lbs. will feed 20,000 silk 

 worms during their working season, so will 

 10,080 lbs. feed 201,600 worms, and as 

 3,000 worms will make a pound of silk, so 

 will the atrsrreorate number make 67 1-5 lbs. 

 of silk, which at $1 per pound will bring 

 $283 40 — the expense of attending an aero 

 in the silk culture, according to our compu- 

 tation, $150 20; this being taken from the 

 ^rojit amount leaves $129 20 a? the profits 



