220 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



JAN. 20, 1836. 



bo given to iiidiviiliial nntei prize upon tliis subject 

 that will redound licreafter to your own lionor as 

 provident guardians of tlie public good, and to the 

 iscalculabie benefit of the State at large. 



The cultivation of Hem]) is another branch of 

 agricultural industry, which ia commended to 

 vour consideration, as highly worthy of additional 

 encouragement by the State. It is a product 

 adapted to our soil and climate, to a degree unap- 

 preciated as yet, jierhaps, by a majority of those 

 who are immediately interested in its improve- 

 ment, it is of a nature to resist successfully the 

 droughts and frosts, that so seriously affect many 

 other vegetable productions on which the hus- 

 bandman in this State has been accustomed to 

 rely, as the principal reward of his iiidustry. A 

 practical illustration of the numerous advantages 

 to be secured by the cultivation of liemj), would 

 be of direct value to the [inbiic as well as most 

 satisfactory to the agriculturist. This may proba- 

 Wy be attained to the full extent desired, by the 

 itistitution of a limited system of bounties to the 

 cultivator. 



Extracts frcrrk " ATj/e s on the Growth and Man- 

 vfacture of Silk in the United States." By M. 

 Genrt, forniery Embassador from France to 

 the United Statles. 



"It is a matter of fact that the planting and 

 attending to mulberry trees, either in orchards or 

 hedges is the hardest part of the silk culture ; 

 and that the rest of the process, which occupies 

 ooly the fifty or sixty days to which the life of 

 the silk worm is limited, may be conducted by 

 females, children, and old or invalid men, unable 

 to j.erform hard labor on any farm or plantation, 

 and will accordingly offer a. new gain without 

 impairing the other sources of income. It is 

 proper for legislators to consider, that the more 

 the science of mechanics, applied to manufactures 

 substitutes machines for manual labor, the more 

 it is useful to supjdy the females of our country, 

 virhose number is everywhere superior to the num- 

 ber of men with the means of supjjorting them- 

 selves, or the families that support them, and that 

 no occupation besides the spinning of flax, and its 

 noanufactures, not yet entirely conquered by me- 

 chanics, seems to be better calculated to employ 

 the time of that supernumerary part of the popu- 

 lation than the culture of silk. 



"It will certainly be a great while before a 

 sufficient quantity of silk can be raised in the 

 United States to become an article of exportation, 

 or to supply even the few silk manufactures of 

 our own country, which now import the whole of 

 their materials. But, if the Italians, who first cul- 

 tivated the silk worms in the year 14.55, from seeds 

 brought with a great deal of trouble and care to 

 Rome, by two missionary Monks returned from 

 the East Indies, had been indifferent about the 

 domestic growth of silk, valued at that time 

 almost as much as gold ; and if the French, the 

 English, and all ether European nations who have 

 acquired wealth by the culture of that article had 

 not by bounties and rewards promoted at first its 

 introduction, and afterwards protected its exten- 

 sion by various law.s, no other silks, to this day, 

 would be worn, but those imported from China 

 and the East Indies. Comparatively speaking, 

 we are now ia America, in reference to silk, sev- 

 eral centuries behind the other manufacturing 



nations. That commodity, whether we import 

 it from India, China, or Eurojie, is for ns an 

 immense absorbent of our substance, and the 

 sooner we jirepare the means of stopping, effectu- 

 ally, that drain through which a great quantity of 

 bullion escapes from the vaults of our banks, the 

 better it will be for the progress of our wealth 

 and pros])crity at home. 



"The growth of raw silk in a merchantable 

 state, requires hardly any capital, and it occupies 

 but very little land and very little room. 



" An ounce of seed of the si k worm will pro. 

 duce 40,000 worms that will consume one thousand 

 ])ounds of white mulberry leaves, easily snppiicd 

 by fifty grown trees, or two hundred small ones, 

 between two and three years old, from the seed 

 or from the slips ; and the produce in silk will be 

 upon an average, twelve pounds of drawn raw 

 silk, allowing ad contingencies. 



" A small hedge that will occupy the twentieth 

 part of an acre, being planted with bushes not 

 more than three years old, as aforesaid, will supply 

 and accommodate 100,000 worms, the produce of 

 which will be thirty jjounds of raw drawn silk, 

 and if the whole acre is planted in the same way, 

 the produce will be six hundred pounds; which 

 merely spun into sewing silk, would amount, at 

 the present price of American sewing silk in Al- 

 bany, to three dollars per pound, sixty feet to the 

 skein, and one dollar and fifty cents per thirty 

 feet. 



"If the worms are housed instead of being 

 raised in the open air it is reckoned that a square 

 foot will contain, with ease, one hundred and ten 

 worms in their maturity ; accordingly a shelf 

 twenty feet long and three broad, will contain 

 6,600 worms, its surface being equal to sixty feet, 

 and a set of such shelves will accommodate the 

 40,000 worms, produced by a single ounce of seed. 

 These sets of shelves may be multipled in the 

 same room, observing only, to leave three feet 

 0j;ening between them, in order to enable the 

 attendants to nurse the worms. Besides such a 

 a room, in which several luillions of worms may 

 be raised, it is sufficient to have an adjacent room 

 or hovel to i)ut the worms into when they want 

 to make them ball and spin their silk ; so that 

 two rooms will be sufficieut to sjjin an immense 

 quantity of silk. 



Q,UAI<1TY OF MTJIiBEKRY LEAVES. 



The Abbe Rozier, a celebrated French writer in 

 a work entitled " Cours Complet d'Agriculture," 

 in treating of the mulberry. Sic, observes that 

 " The quality of the leaves of the mulberry is 

 affected by various circumstances. 1. The age of 

 the plants. 'J he leaves of a young- tree are more 

 watery, the juices less concentrated than in an 

 old one. 



The exposure has also great effect. Trees 

 |)lanted in a northern exposure or aspect are always 

 below modiocrity, or inferior in quality ; the juices 

 are too watery, and the worms do not thrive so 

 well on them. Those raised on hill sides with 

 southern exposure are preferable to those grown 

 on plains. 



" The berries gathered for seed cannot be too 

 ripe. AVhen they are just ^barely fit fur eating, 

 not more than fourteen per cent, will vegetate. 

 VVlien fully ripe and ready to fall more than half 

 the seed have usually grown ; if left till dry, 

 nearly all have succeeded. The mode of obtain- 

 ing the seed is to dry the berriei?, and when 



wanted, to rub out the seed, and fan away the 

 dried pulp." 



As to the tiine of sowing : In the most southern 

 parts of France they sow as soon as the seed is 

 ripe, but the most usual course is to sow the fol- 

 lowing spring. In France, according to the climate 

 of different [)rovinces, in February, March, and 

 April. In New England we cannot sow till April 

 or May. 



5. The manner of sowing. — They sometimes 

 sow in the spot where the young mulberry is to 

 grow for the first three years; but they prefer 

 sowing them in boxes about three feet long, and 

 nine inches deep. The reason assigned is, th'at 

 they are iriore easily watered and sheltered against 

 frost. They remove them from the boxes into 

 rows in a rmrsery, which is done without injury 

 to the roots, by taking off one of the sides of the 

 box. Rozier remarks ujon the practice of rub- 

 bing the berries on a liair rope and then burying 

 it in the earth, that it is an useless complication 

 of labor. 



The French seem to be in the constant practice 

 of grafting their mulberries. No satisfactory rea- 

 son seems to be assigned for this certainly expen- 

 sive process ; but as they are very familiar with 

 the cultivation, no doubt experience must have 

 shown them an advantage, or the French, being 

 habitual economists, would not have adopted it. 



It was formerly the jjractice in France to plant 

 out the mulberry as standards, and to suffer them 

 to attain a considerable size, taking care, however, 

 so to manage the pruning as to keep all the limbs 

 within the reach of gathering ladders. The prac^ 

 tice is of late much changed. It was observed, 

 says Rozier, that the young plants in nurseries 

 put forth their leaves much sooner than the stand- 

 ard trees, and the necessity of obtaining early 

 food for the young insects obliged the cultivators 

 to provide themselves with a certain number of 

 mulberries in the bush or shrubby state. 



From these first experiments arose the prevalent 

 practice of raising dwarf mulberries extensively, 

 and also of surrounding their fields with mulberry 

 hedges. It is said that the produce of an acre 

 in dwarf mulberries is much greater than one in 

 large trees, the distance between the plants being 

 so much less, so that the number of dwarfs may 

 he eight times as great. This is admitted to be 

 true at first, but some cultivators deny that it con- 

 tinues to be so after the standard trees have 

 attained their full size. The benefits of the dwarf 

 cultivation are thus briefly stated : — 1st. Women 

 and children can gather the leaves without danger, 

 and much quicker than the most experienced 

 gatherers could on large trees. 2d. The proprie- 

 tor is much more speedily repaid his advances. 

 3il. The dwarf mulberries put forth their leaves 

 earlier, a valuable quality, as the more early the 

 worms are produced the better. 4th. Dwarf trees 

 will succeed in situations in which standards will 

 not. 5th. 'I heir leaves are quite as gooil as those 

 of the others, but the leaves of young plants 

 should be given to newly hatched worms, and 

 those of the older to the more mature. 



INPIiUENCE OF SIL.K: CULTURE ON HEALTH. 



In urging U|;on the community, and especially 

 farmers and their wives and daughters, to engage 

 in the culture of silk, fidelity and good faith re- 

 quires of ns that we do not conceal the fact, that 

 some antagonist writers on the subject, have 

 maintained that the atmosphere of a cocoonery is 



