AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



9 



PUr.LISHF.n BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 62 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Aobiooitubal Wabehousi.)— ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 11), 1843. 



[NO. 4 '4. 



N. E. FARMER. 



NEW ENGLAND SILK CONVENTION. 

 We have received a pamphlet containing the 

 ings of this Convention, from which wc extract 

 s following : 



" Agreeably to a call issued by a committee ap- 

 inted for that purpose by the Silk Convention 

 Id in Northampton, in 1841, delegates from differ- 

 t parts of New England assembled in conven- 

 m in that town, on Wednesday, the 28th of Oct. 

 42. 



The Business Committee reported the following 

 lolutions, which were discussed in their order, 

 d unanimously adopted : 



Besohtd, That in the general progress of the 

 ik business in this country, from year to year, the 

 invention are happy in seeing ample grounds for 

 Igmentcd confidence in all the great principles 

 I which it is based. 



Resolved, That in regard to all agricultural pro- 

 |3ts, there is a broad and well defined distinction 

 I be observed between permanent and transient 

 I jses of failure or success ; — that the permanent 

 \iees a.re climate and soil; — and that wherever 

 |se are known to be favorable to any such pro- 

 i ;t, we should never be discouraged by transient 

 ! ises operating against success, knowing that 

 I se causes operate in like manner in regard to 

 I such products. The late frosts of the present 

 ! son, that nipped in the bud the food of our favo- 

 f! worms, nipped also, with an impartial hand, 

 I • vines and our corn ; and the unusual weather 

 ! August and September, that injured some of our 

 \i crops of worms, injured in like manner, our 

 I 3 crops of grain, and hay, and fruit. 



Resolved, That, as American silk, in the state in 

 I ich the worm leaves it, has long been known to 

 I of Jirst rale quality, it is adequate proof that 

 I climate and soil of our country are eminenttly 

 1 igenial to its culture, inasmuch as these are the 

 I manent causes that control the quality of all ag- 

 r Jitural products. 



Resolved, That the silk culture demands, for its 



Icessful prosecution, essentially the same cli- 



1 te, and the same kind of seasons, and the same 



k d of upland soils, as are required for Indian 



D n ; and as this crop is successfully cultivated in 



thf" Slates and Territories of the Union, there 



aothing to forbid the co-extensive cultivation of 



' silk crop. 



Resolved, That, inasmuch as in America and 



ina the mulberry tree is found in the native for- 



8, it is a manifest indication of Divine Provi- 



ice, that this country, as well as China, was de- 



ned to be a great silk-growing country. 



Jhsolved, That we are much gratified in behold- 



• the manifestations of a growing public confi- 



jice in the essential merits of the silk business, 



II we are herein decidedly encouraged to go for- 



ttrd in the business ourselves, using at the same 



Die all appropriate means to enlighten the public 



aid, and confirm the public confidence still more 



Kly. For this purpose we will freely communi- 



cate to individuals, and to the conductors of the 

 newspaper press, the results of our own experi- 

 ence, and such other information as may be in our 

 power, exercising all due care to keep within the 

 limits of rigid truth. 



Resolved, That we rejoice in the liberal protec- 

 tion given to the silk business in the new tariff 

 enacted by the Congress recently closed ; and in 

 the fact that this section of the bill excited no op- 

 position from any quarter of the country, we have 

 a pledge that the policy now establishe<l will re- 

 main undisturbed ; and that amendments will be 

 readily secured, should experience prove them ne- 

 ces.?ory. And, further, inasmuch as our Congress 

 has never imposed discriminating duties, except in 

 favor of such products as may be brought forth 

 from our own fields and workshops, this act is only 

 the expressed opinion of the intelligent body that 

 passed it, that our country can as well make its 

 own silks, as its cottons and woollens, its hats and 

 its shoes, its nails and its axes. 



Resolved, That inasmuch as we at present do 

 not, and for some years cannot, furnish our silk 

 manufacturers from our own fields with an ade- 

 quate supply of the raw material, a heavy duty on 

 raw silk would operate against the manufacturer, 

 and so injure the general business; therefore, for 

 the present, the silk-grower must look chiefly to 

 his own State legislature for that measure of legis- 

 lative aid and encouragement which, in the infan- 

 cy of his business, he so much needs ; and which 

 great considerations of public policy so clearly de- 

 mand that he should receive. Hence — 



Resolved, That the legislatures of the several 

 States of New England, that have hitherto delayed 

 to pass laws granting a bounty on cocoons and 

 reeled silk, be respectfully, yet earnestly petition- 

 ed to enact such laws at their next session ; and 

 that those legislatures that have passed such laws, 

 but which laws are near expiring by their own 

 limitation, be, in like manner, petitioned to extend 

 them ; and that the friends of the silk cause in the 

 several States, be requested to see that memorials 

 on the subject be duly prepared, and circulated, 

 and presented. 



Resolved, That our manufacturers and other 

 business men have now every reasonable encour- 

 ogement to invest, in a wise and careful manner, 

 their funds in this new form of domestic labor — 

 growing and manufacturing silk. 



Resolved, That the thanks of this convention be 

 tendered to the conductors of the public press, for 

 the essential aid they have rendered the silk cause 

 in collecting and difl'using information on the sub- 

 ject, and that their further co-operation will be 

 highly appreciated. 



A large number of letters from gentlemen indif- 

 ferent parts of the country, giving their experience 

 in the silk business, were read. We have room 

 only for the following : 



J. R. Barbourr, Oxford, Mass. — " It is thirteen 

 years since I began carefully to examine the great 

 principles on which the Silk Business, as as busi- 

 ness of this country, is based. For six years I 



have been personally engaged in it — extendjng my 

 grounds yearly. I have now five acres of trees, 

 chiefly tnulticaulis and large leaf Cantons, anil in- 

 tend to extend my grounds yet more, making this 

 business the leading object of attention on the 

 farm. In feeding worms, I have no startling results 

 to give. In 1830, with my second crop, I over- 

 stocked and lost money. My fourth crop in 1841, 

 hatched the middle of .^u«;ust, did not pay for it- 

 self. My last crops this year, hatched and fed in 

 the rains of August and Sepfeiiibcr, did but indif- 

 ferently well. All the rest of my cropn during tlje 

 six years, have yielded a much bettor profit than 

 ordinary agricultural productions ; and my belief 

 in regard to the entire feasibility of the silk enter- 

 prise, at first derived from a somewhat extensive 

 course of reading, is now ripened into a full and 

 well settled assurance. 



I wish to advert to a few points that may not be 

 noticed by others. 



Trees. — I set mine on dry, warm land, in a state 

 of middling fertility, 4 by 2 feet, one root in a place, 

 like other trees. Managed in this way, I fully be- 

 lieve they are safe from the dangers of winter, any 

 where between Canada and the Gulf of Mexico. 

 The unripe ends of the limbs may, or may not, be 

 injured ; but this is of no consequence, as they 

 should all be headed down in the spring. On the 

 other hand, by laying my trees, and leaving them 

 to stand as they grow, I have lost many thousands. 

 The reason is obvious, although, as in most cases, 

 it is experience that has suggested that reason. 

 They do not form roots. In the other way, the 

 roots extend and fill the ground. 



2. In the spring, I cut my trees down within 

 about two inches of the ground, reserving a few 

 standing for early feed. This process adds greatly 

 to the quantity of foliage. 



3. For two years I have thought much in regard 

 to the best kind of buildings for feeding. In Eu- 

 rope, they feed chiefly in enclosed buildings, with 

 the temperature regulated by artificial means. In 

 China, they feed altogether in open places. Which 

 is best for us? I raise the question, in the earnest 

 hope that it may arrest the attention of silk grow- 

 ers throughout the country, and be fully tested 

 the coming season, by extended experiments — only 

 adding three things. 1. Our climate, in the same 

 parallels of latitude, is essentially the same with 

 that of China. 2. Some of the best cases of suc- 

 cessful feeding that have come to my knowledge, 

 were conducted on the Chinese plan, the worms 

 having an unobstructed circulation of air from the 

 first, and taking their chance as to the changes of 

 the weather. .3. This is nature. The worm, in 

 its native state, lives, and passes through all its 

 changes on the tree, in the open oir, subject to all 

 the changes of temperature, like the caterpillar, 

 the cankerworm, and other annual insects. In cul- 

 tivating the silk-worm, should we not follow na- 

 ture in all things, as closely as possible ? I do 

 repeat the earnest wish that the question proposed 

 may be extensively tested, and the results publish- 

 ed. 



4. My experience fully testifies against late feed- 



