234 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 4 



Years. 



1st 



2d 



3d 



41 h 



5th 



6th 



Trees. 



4800 

 4800 

 2400 

 2400 

 2400 

 2400 



Quantity oj 

 leaves each. 



8 ounces. 

 Impounds 

 3 do. 

 5 do. 

 7 do. 



N'o. ivorms. 



Quaniy of 

 silk. 



72,000 

 108,000 

 21(3,000 

 288,000 

 264,000 



none. 



30 lbs. 



45 do. 



90 do. 

 120 do. 

 210 do. 



If the rows of trees are set 8 feet 3 inches apart, 

 giving two rows to a rod, the quantity of leaves, 

 worms and silk will consequently be one third less. 

 All the difference in advanta<2;e will be, that by the 

 latter mode po.ssib]y a little labor may be saved by 

 collecting the leaves in a cart or wag-on drawn by 

 a horse, and in the former they will be taken in a 

 band cart or in baskets. 



Respecting the white mulberiy, the reports from 

 full grown trees average from Ibrty to sixty pounds 

 of silk, and this not till twenty years old. Who 

 then will depend on the white mulberry to feed 

 silkworms, and wait 20 years to obtain forty to six- 

 ty pounus of silk to an acre^ when the Chinese will 

 yield profit the second year, and 200 pounds or 

 over in six years. 



As there are several varieties of breeds of the 

 silkworm, it will be of importance in procuring the 

 eggs, to select and sort them, so as not to have two 

 kmds together; not only on account of having 

 them hatch and pass through their various changes 

 at the same time, but also to have the silk they 

 produce of uniform quality, as that produced by 

 ditterent parcels of worms often varies in color, in 

 fineness, and indeed in all its qualities. Respect- 

 ing the choice of any particular variety, it would 

 be impossible to give, in the present state of know- 

 ledge of the subject, any decided preference, pro- 

 vided they are kept separate. 



There is another |)artof the subject which has 

 yet to be decided by farther experience, and that 

 is the question whether it is best to confine the bu- 

 siness to one crop, or to extend it several in a sea- 

 son. There are some worms which complete their 

 whole course of operations in about four weeks, 

 and others which require six. But even with the 

 six- weeks worms there will be sufficient time du- 

 ring the summer in any part of the United States 

 to produce two crops. The only advice I shall 

 venture to give in this case, is the same I have 

 given in former cases, to proceed sparingly and 

 cautiously in all new operations. On thatground, 

 I should judge it most expedient to begin with one 

 crop at first, and when experience shall have ren- 

 dered the business familiar, the young silkgrowcr 

 will be enabled to make his own "calculations. 



TO PROMOTE THE EARLY REARING OF THE 

 AFFILE AND FEAR. 



John Williams planted seed in pots, in Novem- 

 ber, 1809, transplanted after midsummer in the 

 ibllowing year, into the open ground — transplant- 

 ed again in the autumn of 1811, six feet apart — 

 pruned away every winter the trifling lateral shoots, 

 leaving the larger laterals at their full length to 

 the bottom ol" the plants, and .c^ave a good expo- 

 sure to the sun. At the height of sTx feet the 

 branches ceased to [)roduce thorns. One yielded 

 fruit at four years old, and several at five and six 



years.— (/?epo/ ^r<s, 1819, p. 175.) Repeated 

 transplanting retards the growth of wood, and in- 

 duces premature maturity in the plant — it con- 

 verts,for wantof abundant nourishment, wood buds 

 into fruit buds. It is calculated to produce early 

 bearing, but not to produce stalely long lived trees. 

 Precocity in vegetables, as in animals, is rather 

 indicative of short life. Frequently transplanting 

 is often resorted to by the florist, in order to induce 

 plants to produce double flowers, or to produce an 

 abundance of flowers, and it is found highly effi- 

 cacious in the balsam, coxcomb, &c. It deranges 

 the natural organization of plants, and produces 

 monsters, a term aj>plied by botanists to double- 

 flowers. It is by a process like the one pursued 

 by Williams, that Knight so early obtains fruit 

 from seeds, the blossoms of which he fecundates 

 artificially, and it is to this that we are probably 

 indebted lor many ol' the fiue fruits that enricfi our 

 tables, and for many of the gay flowers that em- 

 bellish our ffardens. 



From the Farmer and Mecliaiiic. 

 VEGETABLE DYES. 



There is a species of lichen, growing on trees, 

 of a greenish color, which the country people 

 gather, under the name of moss, which dyes a 

 permanent orange color on wool. It may be 

 gathered by bushels from the oak trees, hanging 

 in bunches from the limbs. Lie or potash, we be- 

 lieve, is used to fix the color. The acrid herb 

 called smart weed, or biting knot grass, is said also 

 to dye a brilliant and unfading yellow. If these 

 dyes are unknown to chemists, we think they 

 ought not to be; and the scientific should not un- 

 der-value an important principle, which their 

 science may render five times more valuable, 

 merely because they owe the discovery of it to the 

 ignorant. 



RULE FOR 



DETERMINING THE 

 HAY. 



WEIGHT OF 



Hay in the field rick, says Low, weighs some- 

 what better than 112 lbs, the cubic yard; alter 

 being compressed in the stack, it weighs from 140 

 to 180 lbs., and when old, 200 lbs. 



From Paxtoii's London Horticultirral Register. 



ON THE TENDENCY OF PLANTS TO REPRO- 

 DUCE THEMSELVES. 



It is a general law of nature obtaining in both 

 the animal and vegetable kingiloms, that, in or- 

 der to perpetuate the species, each individual or 

 pair of individuals, are so constituted, that by a 

 union of their powers respectively, progeny is pro- 

 duced. 



It is remarkable that in both those kingdoms the 

 manner of production is similar. The eggs ot" 

 animals are very similar to the seeds of" plants; 

 and the bulbs, and tubers, and suckers of plants 

 bear a strong resemblance to the viviparous young 

 of animals. Increase by division also obtains in 

 both: the dividing of the polypi is exactly like the 

 production ami separation of the sporules of fungi 

 and other inferior orders of plants. 



