1837.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



725 



manuf'acturinfj company. Prudence and experi- 

 ence enjoin that a large sum sliould not be laid out 

 in huilduitr.^. Tiiese may be purchaped and ex- 

 tended, as tlie prospects and prosperity oi' the 

 company shall warrant. Machinery of ample 

 suffi;'iency to manulacture many articles properly, 

 and the expenses of the manuficture of those ar- 

 ticles, wiiii a sntfirient stock of raw silk, will be 

 at the command of a caj)ilal not exceeding ^20,- 

 000. 



In Philadelphia forsomc months there has exist- 

 ed a silk manufactory, conducted by Messrs. Up- 

 ton & Jackson. It is in Stamper's Alley, near 

 Second street. The machinery was made prin- 

 cipally by the proprietors of the establishment. 

 The committee have made inqturies into the char- 

 acters and skill of these gentlemen, and their re- 

 sults have been entirely saiisfictory. They are 

 men of excellent moral deportment, and appear to 

 be well acquainted with all the branches of the 

 manufacture of silk, and using machinery for the 

 purposes of ther production. It is highly interest- 

 ing to visit that manufactory, and to witness the 

 success of the operations conducted in it. 



Messrs. Upton & Jackson are desirous of ex- 

 tending the manufactory of silk beyond what their 

 present capital will enable them to accomplish. 

 They are willing to dispose of their establishment 

 to a company with sufficient capital, and to enter 

 themselves into the service of such a compan}^, 

 on very liberal terms. They will pass over their 

 lease in the buildings, and their machinery, to the 

 company at a just valuation, and become manu- 

 facturers of silk and superintend the preparation ol 

 machinery for the company, for a fair compensa- 

 tion. The estimate they have made of their pro- 

 perty is about ,98000 ; and as evidence of their 

 confidence in the success of a company, they will 

 take slock to the amount of -95,000 in part of pay- 

 ment of the amount at which their property shall 

 be valued, by persons mutually chosen and agreed 

 upon by them, and the company. 



Possessed of the machinery of the establish- 

 ment of Messrs. Upton & Jackson, and assisted 

 by them in its business and operations, a company 

 may at once enter profitably and extensively into 

 the manufacture of silk. The experience of Upton 

 & Jackson, and the results of their operations, 

 which have been carefully examined, and ascer- 

 tained by some of the members of the committee, 

 authorize these assurances. 



The committee recommend the formation of a 

 silk manuliscTuring company fbrthwilh, to be in- 

 corporated under the laws of Pennsylvania ; and 

 they have prepared articles of association, which 

 they submit with this report. 

 S. C, Cleaveland, F. Dusar, 



Moses Kempton, C. F. Hoekley, 



R. Peters, Garret Newkirk, 



Caleb Cope, George A. Snyder, 



William Neal, Samuel C. Atkinson, 



Committee. 



and 14,912 bags of rye ! The greatest part of 

 these larire importations from the cities of Ham- 

 burix and Dantzic. 



IMPORTATION OF GRAIX. 



According to a statement in the New York 

 Express, there was imported into New York, du- 

 ring the month of November, from European 

 ports, 29,878 bags and 17,900 bushels of wheat, 



OIV THE CAUSES OF THE I.OXG-CONTIXIIED 

 BKCLINE, AiVn GREAT DEPRESSION OF AG- 

 RICULTURE IN VIRGINIA. 



No. II. 



Causes presented in errors of practice. Remedies 

 proposed. 



To tlic Editor of tlie Farmeis' Register. 



Suffer me now to attempt the elucidation of va- 

 rious other powerful causes which have continued 

 to prostrate ever}' branch of Virginian husbandry. 

 One of a most formidable character, resembles 

 the disease in wheal, called "the stud" or "the 

 standstill," which efiectullay slops all growth. 

 It is the existence among us of a numerous class, 

 most happily characterized, if I mistake not by 

 the poet Burns, as " the gin-horse tribe.''' Their 

 peculiar distinction is, to tread the same eternal 

 round — the same uniform routine in all their agri- 

 cultural operations, without deviating a hair's 

 breadth to the right or left, which they have trod- 

 den fi'om their earliest recollection, in pious rever- 

 ence for ancestral usage : to feel and express an 

 utter scorn for every thing they call " book-liirni- 

 ing;'' to be unmoved by persuasion — impregnable 

 to argument in favor of experiments ; and as fixed 

 as fate in adherence to their own antiquated no- 

 tions of husbandry. But although they are thus 

 insensible to every thing like improvement in their 

 profession, they have not been equally obslinate 

 in resisting the contagion of that lavish expendi- 

 ture with which modern fashions have infected 

 our whole community. The consequence is, that 

 having done nothing to increase agricultural in- 

 come, which necessarily diminishes without con- 

 stant efforts to augment it, and having fallen into 

 habits of far greater expense than comport wiih 

 their unchangeable notions on all agricultural sub- 

 jects, they either join in the general cry, that 

 the landed interest of Virginia, which they have 

 never raised a finger to aid, is fast sinking; or they 

 are swept off to new and strange lands by the 

 general torrent of emigration which, of late years, 

 has been desolating some of the fiiirest portions of 

 our native state, until iew. comparatively speak- 

 ing, are left to do her reverence, or to assist in re- 

 storing her to something like her former national 

 rank and importance. Peace and conilbrt be with 

 these good souls! who, like Dean Swift's hen- 

 pecked husband, are ^^too xoise to take counsel, too 

 proud to take warning.^'' But nothing can rescue 

 them from the stigma of having contributed more 

 than their full share to all the evils under which 

 Virginia agriculture is now so severely suff'erinrr. 



Another widely extending cause of our decline 

 is, that even those who profess full faith in the vast 

 improveability of V^irginia agriculture, both as an 

 art and a science, do not evince the sincerity of 

 that faith by correspondent works. With very 

 few exceptions, ours is a " dead faith." We pro- 

 mise much, but perform little. But few, compar- 

 atively speaking, either subscribe for, purchase, or 

 read agricultural works. Still fewer of" those who 

 go a little beyond " making both ends meet,'''' at 



