No. 7. 



Irnporlunt lo Silk Growers — Draining. 



227 



these meadows give birtii to as toon as we at- 

 tempt to reclaim tliein. Hence we look on 

 from year to year, and see our richest prairies 

 the home of the mud-tortoise, — the burrow 

 of the musk-rut and the mink — the haunt of 

 the mui-quitoe, and the terror of the iiiffhtly 

 wanderer, who starts at the gruni salutation 



' of the bull-froj^. 



These swamps arc tlie natural receptacle 

 of all the rich particles of earth that are 

 washed down from the surroundinjr highlands. 

 They also, in many cases, are made up of a 

 vegetable growth which forms a rich manure, 

 when properly decomposed, to be applied to 

 highlands. This vegetable growth in some 

 cases advances rapidly ; and ponds are now 

 becoming visibly less, in consequence of the 

 encroaching grass and weeds and bushes on 

 their margins. These vegetables grow up as 

 high as the surface of the water and then re- 



I main stationary for ages, till by their multi- 



1 plication and their spreading they fill the 

 chasm, once a pond of water. This accounts 

 for the perfect levelness of surface of very 

 extensive meadows. That these are made 

 lands — or recently made compared with other 

 portions of the creation, we have further evi- 

 dence from the logs and leaves that are very 

 frequently found buried many feet below the 

 surface. 



There are various modes of bringing these 

 lands under cultivation, and these will be 

 stated, together with the expense attending 

 them, with much accuracy in some of our 

 future numbers. We mean to be very par- 

 :icular in these statements, for we have made 

 ictual trial of the various modes and are still 

 pursuing the work of bringing such lands into 

 English grass. At present we will only say 



,:; generally that we have never attempted to sub- 

 luG any such lands without complete success, 

 ind a very profitable harvest, and that to de- 

 ermine which of several modes we should 

 idopt to subdue them we should examine into 



- he texture of the meadow and the facilities 

 or bringing on materials to help form the 

 oil. When we can pare and burn, we want 

 10 soil nor manure to be carried on. — Boston 



. '^vltivator. 



L fact of some Importance to Silk Growers* 



In the year 1835 or 6, f purchased a small 

 arcel of cocoons, which were kept throucfh 

 le summer and winter followinir, to the next 

 eason, about a year; T supposed the chrysalis 

 f each had been stifled, but to my astonish- 

 lent, from that very parcel, a miller came out 

 om one of the cocoons the next year. And 

 ow, the present year, 1H38, afler the fir-t 

 rop of worms in succession had spun their 

 Tcoons, a small number of eggs had been 

 ept in a tin pail, suspended in a well, so as 



to rest upon the water, at the side of the pump, 

 the top of the pail secured by a tin covi r and 

 a cloth saturated with bees-wax and tallow, 

 and thus kept, ao as to bring f )rward the worms 

 in parcels, as the foliage should increase, and 

 the shelves or hurdles he emptied to bring out 

 another parcel for hatching. Some of these 

 eggs were hatched and spun their cocoons in 

 September, bo few in number, however, that 

 they were left in the cocoonery until within 

 a few days, when it was discovered that the 

 millers were coming out even as late as the 

 10th of November, 1838, having remained in 

 the cocoonery about eight weeks before any 

 symptoms of the appearance of a miller, and 

 the cocoons having been removed to a place 

 where a fire is kept, have now a fresh cropof 

 fine looking a^g?. Some few days past the 

 weather has been severely cold. The above 

 method of keeping eggs has succeeded better, 

 even than when on cakes of ice, the latter 

 having failed to hatch late in the season. 



Further experiments are worth the trial, 

 not only to keep back the hatching of eggs, 

 but also the late production of the millers. — 

 If these two conditions can be effected, why 

 may not worms be fed even to the coming of 

 frost? In my next I may tell you how leaves 

 have been preserved to feed worms before the 

 frost has destroyed the foliage in the field. — 

 Yankee Farmer. 



For the Farmers' Cal)inet. 



]>rainin$f. 



Mr. Editor: — The subject of draining 

 lands partially overflown with water, particu- 

 larly when the .soil is rich in vegetable mould, 

 and not distant from good marktts, begins to 

 claim attention in this country. 



I have no doubt there are many districts 

 now lying waste, that by a proper system of 

 draining might be converted into luxuriant 

 meadows ; and I know of extensive swamps 

 that only want the opening of good water 

 courses, followed by the ordinary mode of cul- 

 tivation to reclaim them. 



I was particularly struck with the impor- 

 tance of this subject, by reading a treatise on 

 " Draining Ijand hy f^team Pnwfr,^^ in the 

 Transactions of the Society instituted nt Lon- 

 don for the encouragement of Arts, Manufac- 

 tures and Commerce. 



The Gold Isis Medal was vot»"d to Joseph 

 Glynn, Civil En^'ineer, for an essny on his 

 application of Steam Power to Drainin? Fens. 



From this essay I have extrnet"d the fol- 

 lowing items, as worthy the attention of the 

 American reader: — 



"The fen districts in the Bed''ord level 

 alone amount to nearly 300,000 acres, and 

 the whole of the fen and marsh lands in Eng- 

 land is perhaps not less than 800,000 acres. 



