1837.] 



FARBIERS' REGISTER. 



701 



solutions offered, elicited a good deal of interestinn; 

 discussion, winch evinced not more zeal than there 

 was (act and talent to support it; and while many 

 of the speeches were creditable to those who 

 made them, the audience were both gratified and 

 instructed with the maimer and matter ni which 

 the ideas were clothed and presented. 



A few specimens of domestic silk m the skein, of 

 almost all colors, with twist, and manufactured 

 handkerchiefs of white and variegated colors made 

 from the worms \'ed upon the leaves of the native 

 white and red nuilberiy, were shown. The}' were 

 excellent in their kind, both in quality and work- 

 manship. Here was proof positive that excellent 

 silk could be made li-oin the native mulberry; and 

 I have long thought that our indigenous mulberry 

 being suited to our climate, will supercede all the 

 imported varieties. At all events, it will take a 

 succession of years, and much loss, to acclimate the 

 others; and imtil then, if we do not use the native, 

 we cannot perfectly succeed. 



Two instruments, apparently very perfect in 

 their kind, among other things, werepfTered for the 

 notice of the convention. One was a machine 

 very simple in its structure, and apparently perfi^ct 

 in its operation lor reeling ihe silk from the cocoons, 

 twisting each filament, and forming as many of 

 them into a thread as may be required, the 

 threads multiplied, and all done by one operation. 

 The convention were very much pleased with its 

 performance, as the manatacture appeared so easily 

 and perfectly done, as the thread was made in their 

 presence. Depend upon it, the Americans will 

 excel the French and Italians in a levy years in the 

 growth and manufacture of silk. There is an en- 

 terprise, an ingenuity, and a liicility in our coun- 

 trymen to accommodate and seize upon circum- 

 stances, which is not so apparent in other nations, 

 and their inventive ingenuity will soon throw aside 

 the cumbrous and complicated machinery lor the 

 manufiicture of silk, which is considered so indis- 

 pensable to an European. 



Green's straw-cutter is an excellent article: it 

 performs its work, as such things ought to do, well 

 and quickly. The specimens shown, were very 

 much approved of! lis use, you know, is to ena- 

 ble us to keep over the winter one fourth more of 

 stock from the same quantity of provender, than 

 we have heretofore done. If the principle is car- 

 ried out into practice, it will give millions more of 

 profit every year to our farming population. 



A beautiful lijiTiale Angora goat, imported from 

 France, was exhibited to the members of the con- 

 vention: (the male was lost on the passage.) I 

 think the animal will do well in this climate. The 

 one shown was in high health and condition, and 

 its fine coat was long and thick enough to protect 

 it against the severity of our winters. It has a 

 warmer covering than a sheep; for next to the 

 skin it has the fine wool of the Saxons, and grow- 

 ing through it, along hair, soft as silk and twice as 

 long as the wool of the Bakewells. If the animal 

 thrives in this country, of which there is every 

 probable appearance, it will be an acquisition that 

 will add immensely to our wealth. 



Of the meeting of the Agricultural Society, I 

 have said little, as it was in a measure meiged 

 in the acts of the convention. This was very 

 desirable, as the members of the society were 

 few in number to those of the former. We, 

 however, transacted our usual business, and to 



give the public an opportunity to hear our an- 

 nual address, adjourned from the City Hall, where 

 it was held, to tlu; Assembly Chamber, tor that pur- 

 pose. The subject of the address by Dr. Alc- 

 Naughlon was a history of agriculture. It was a 

 very creditable and satisltictory performance — was 

 listened to with deep attention, and a copy request- 

 ed'fbr publication. I do not know that I can en- 

 ter into farther tletails. Our excellent agricultural 

 journals, will, no doubt, give a more full and per- 

 fiict history of the proceedings of the state society 

 and this convention. Their readers, I am satis- 

 fied, cannot have more interesting matters spread 

 before them; and it must be extremely gratilying 

 to the editors of those journals, as it Was to the 

 members of the convention to liave so large and 

 respectable a delegation attend; for it was a proof 

 that they have excited an interest in the improve- 

 ment of agriculture, which was fully shown by the 

 numbers present, and the talent elicited during the 

 course of oiir proceedings. 



1 had previously come to the conclusion, that 

 this would probably be the last agricultural con- 

 vention necessary to be held for some time, and 

 that it would be best to merge it for the future in 

 the state agricultural society. But at our close, 

 one feeling seemed to pervade the assembly — that 

 was, that we would not meet the expectation of 

 the public, and certainly deny ourselves great gra- 

 tification as well as instruction, did we not adjourn 

 to a future meeting. It was, therefore, unanimous- 

 ly resolved, that we stand adjourned to the first 

 Thursday of February next, which God grant we 

 may all live to see. 



I remain your friend, &c., &c., 



J. p. BEEKMAiy, 



[What a subject for gratification and pride does the 

 foregoing sketch furnish for a citizen of New York! 

 and what cause for humiliation and shame, for a citizen 

 of Virginia, in the marked contrast presented at home ! 



Compare the numbers and the animated zeal — the la- 

 bors and the expected results — of the recent and previ- 

 ous Agricultural Convention in Albany, with the thin 

 ranks, and feeble action, of the one held in Richmond 

 last winter, and the attempt, totally abortive, to hold 

 another there last month! 



In New York, one agricultural publication of Vir- 

 ginia — the translation of Puvis' Essay on Lime, pre- 

 pared for and first published in the Farmers' Register — 

 has already been republished in a separate edition, and 

 distributed gratuitously to the farmers of that state, by 

 the munificence and public spirit of a single individual; 

 and now, the convention have recommended that Tay- 

 lor's Arator, a work altogether Virginian, shall be made 

 a textbook in their elementary schools. In Virginia, the 

 last named of these works is nearly out of print, and 

 there has been no demand for a new edition in the last 

 twelveyears: the former, (JM. Puvis' Essay,) though re- 

 published in every northern agricultural journal, in ad- 

 dition to the separate New York edition, (published 

 for gratuitous distribution, at the instance and expense 

 of James Wadsworth, esq., of Geneseo,) has been cir- 

 culated in Virginia no further than in the pages of the 

 Farmers' Register. 



Further comment would be both painful and super- 

 fluous.] 



