332 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



July 



For the New England Farmer. 



REARING SILK WORMS. 



Mr. Editor : — Having had some experience in 

 rearing tlie silk -worm, and reeling cocoons, I ven- 

 ture to reply to your fair correspondent's inquiry, 

 "can tlic worms be raised and the cocoons sold 

 to advantage !" I answer, I do not think they 

 can. Our climate is too changeable for the health 

 of the worms ; the change from dry to wet, which 

 we frequently have about the first of August, cre- 

 ates a disease of the most fatal kind. I have seen 

 it spread with sucli fearful rapidity, that out of a 

 hundi-ed thousand worms ready to spin their co- 

 coons, not two thousand lived to complete their 

 task. If your correspondent's trees are the white 

 mulberry, they are much better for the health ol 

 tlie worm than any other variety, but the expense 

 of picking the leaves is such that unless labor be 

 very cheap, it will not pay, even if the worms 

 prove healthy. The expense of machinery for 

 making sewing silk would be considerable, a good 

 twisting machine, if new, would, t think, cost at 

 least two hundred dollars. The most profit would 

 be to reel the cocoons and sell the raw silk, for 

 wliieh there is a ready market in this vicinity. 

 Any mechanic can make a reeling machine in one 

 or two days, if provided with a description of one. 



I presume eggs can be procured in Connecticut, 

 but [ cannot refer to any individual who has them. 

 Siivrh further information as I possess will be free- 

 ly ;iiven, if desired. E. Hersey. 



llinirliam. Mass. 



For the New Englani Fanner. 



WHAT A GARDEN SHOULD BE. 



Having discussed Gardens at some length under 

 tlieir oruamentiil aspect, lest the accusation be 

 brought that the useful has been forgotten, this 

 article sliall be devoted to the special considera- 

 tion of the Kitchen Garden. 



. We are wrongly apt to associate with the word 

 Garden, a corner of land filled with weeds and 

 flowers, and another corner marked into rows, by 

 a regiment of White Birch, bean poles, and pea 

 buslies, with an intersprinkling of corn stalks, 

 some squashes — vines, and a great deal of rubbish, 

 where, as the country people say, the "Garden 

 Sauce" is grown. Now, as theobjectofthisarticle is 

 to have a little talk about this very " Garden Sauce," 

 let us see if we need to abandon our much loved 

 vegetables, irt impi'oving our homestead, and mak- 

 ing its surface, a little uTore pleasing to the eye. 



Rather than abandon them, it would be better 

 to lose much that would be pleasing of the purely 

 ornamental, for in the countr.y, people are very 

 dependent upon the vegetables of their own grow- 

 ing, as markets arc rare, and but ill supplied. 

 ^^''ere there no oth(;r argument for their culture 

 but this, it, alone, would be enougli, but there is 

 a still stronger one : few are aware how conducive 

 to health the summer veget;ibles are : all authori- 

 ties agree in recommending their free use ; and 

 the danger of cholera arises, not from the bad ef- 

 fects of good, fresh vegetables, so much as from 

 the stale and wilted denizens of the market. It is 

 always a matter of very great surprise to city resi- 

 dents, to find so little attention paid to the growth 

 of anything l>ut potatoes, corn, and a few beans, 

 in the country. Leaving bricks and dust for green 



lanes and trees, they revel in the fresh air, and 

 with a keen appetite, eargerly await the promised 

 dinner, imagining all the dainties of the vegetable 

 world they have heard of, strawberries and cream, 

 green peas, sweet corn, tomatoes, &c. When to 

 their surprise they see the kitchen maid return- 

 ing from the neighbor's with a bought, or bor- 

 rowed pint of milk, and meet with the excuse from 

 the matron, that "she regrets the lack of aspara- 

 gus, lettuce, &c., but the butcher didn't bring 

 any, and its so hard to get vegetables in the coun- 

 try." The difficulty lies in the dread of trouble, 

 not in the trouble itself: do not be so afraid, good 

 sir, after you have come homo from the day's 

 work, to drop a few peas, or tomatoes or lettuce 

 seeds ! and do not let your imagination dwell , 

 upon the hot days' weedings by and bye. 



It is a great shame, that it should be universal- 

 ly true, that it is no where so difficult to get veg- 

 etables as in the country. It will not do for you 

 to say, anytime will answer for that work. Any- 

 time is no lime. Believe me, the ten minutes of 

 aggravation a day, your wife will feel when the 

 dinner presents no variety ; of disappointment 

 you will experience when you find your wife is 

 not a fairy, and cannot produce baked beans and 

 potato in any other shape than baked beans and po- 

 tato, and is unable to alter the everlasting veal and 

 bread, into green peas and sweet corn, — is much 

 more, than the mere trouble of weeding and sow- 

 ing the seed. But weight enough has not been 

 given to the healthfulness of vegetables : we are 

 too essentially a meat-eating race ; we do not 

 know how to make the most of things ; and hun- 

 dreds of poor families might enjoy a luxurious 

 variety, would they but use the bounties of the 

 vegetable world. The English and Euroj^ean 

 poasiintry, live entirely on a vegetable diet, and yet 

 are quite as healthy as we are, and hundreds and 

 thousands of our poor people have more sumptu- 

 ous meat fare, than the majority of the inhabitants 

 of the old world. Lay off, then, in your garden, 

 a bit of land ; plant a few of the different vege- 

 tables, just enough to supply yourself, and do not 

 make that fatal mistake of getting so much land 

 under culture. 



People are inclined to go to work too largely, 

 and plant enough of a few things, to supply sev- 

 eral families, and then to allow the quantity to 

 take the place of variety. It is very easy to calcu- 

 late how much you will want, and when you have 

 decidt d do not plant all at once, but have a suc- 

 cession ; plant a row of peas and coim to-day, 

 another in a week, and another the third week ; 

 then have a few hills of squashes, summer and 

 winter, and remember it is no economy to cover 

 the land with winter squashes to the exclusion of 

 summer vegetables ; — it is robbing Peter to pay 

 Paul, and no gain ; then a few hills of melons, some 

 distance from the squashes, to prevent impregna- 

 tion of seed. Have some ten tomato plants, a lit- 

 tle patch, ten feet square, of carrots, another of 

 parsnips, a few hills of rhubarb, or jDie plant, a 

 small square, say 20x20, of asparagus, and dotted 

 in, a few pepper plants, some cucumbers, and in a 

 corner by themselves, one hundred raspberry vines 

 with two or three strawberry beds, 4x20 feet. 

 On the edge of the walk, set currants and goose- 

 berries, and a little farther in, dwarf pears. By « 

 a judicious selection of place, you can get two or 

 thr.Jfc crops a year from some of the land ; the par- 



