NEW ENOL.AND FARMER, 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISHED BY GEORGE C. BARRETT, NO. 62, NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultural Warehodse.)— T. G. FESSENDEN,. EDITOR. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 20, 1836. 



NOi 41. 



(For the New Eugliinii Former.) 



SIL.K culture:. 



(Concluded.) 

 We have seen that one ounce of seed contains 

 42,000 worms ; M. Beauvais employed 8 ounces 

 of seed ; he ought, therefore, to have had 336,000 

 silk worms. 



He ohtained and realised 1,102 pounds, or 551 

 kilo;rr. of cocoons ; it requires at the berberies 

 but 360 cocoons to make a pound, lie has, there- 

 fore, only brought to a productive state 286,520 

 silk worms. He lost 4000 at the mounting, by a 

 fault in the arrangement of the bruyeres (brush- 

 wood), ventilation having been nearly suppressed 

 in arranging them. Ho lost, therefore, in the first 

 ages, 45,480 intduding the eggs which were not 

 hatched. 



It results from au analysis which M. d'Arcet 

 has commuiiicated to me, that the air in the estab- 

 lishment of the Bergeries, diying the fourth age, 

 appeared to be slightly alkaline. Water which 

 was condensed in it, by means of a balloon filled 

 with ice, was found to be as limpid as distilled 

 water — it was slightly alkaline ; the nitrate of sil- 

 ver.did not form a precipitation at the moment of 

 mi.xture; but very soon it became colored with a 

 pale red. At this period of the process; ventila- 

 tion was very regular ; the air was so little changed 

 that carbonic acid could not be found by means 

 of the water bath, and that the eudionietric exper- 

 iments made with the air by this water bath, 

 whether by phosphorus, or the deutoxide of nitro- 

 gen, always indicated as much nitrogen and oxy- 

 igen in it, as in the air taken from out-doors and 

 comparatively essayed ; this air contained only 

 slight traces of ammonia and carbonic acid com- 

 bined. 



At the period of' mounting, ventilation, as I 

 have said, was interrupted, and in part suppressed 

 by the arrangement of the bruyeres ; and at this 

 time, the air in the establishment had ceased to 

 be as pure. M. Henri Bourdon, who three times 

 analyzed it, found it to be composed in the hun- 

 Ired for a medium term, of 



Nitrogen and carbonic acid, 82,57 



O.xygen, 17, !3 



100,00 

 The atmospheric air, we know, contains in the 

 hundred. 



Nitrogen, 79 



Oxygen, 21 



It will be seen that this air was already much 

 itiated. At this period, the water condensed by 

 neans of ice in the establishment, was limpid ; it 

 lad neither taste nor smell ; it was alkaline ; it 

 vas not disturbed by the addition of nitrate of 

 ilver ; but it almost inj mediately became colored 

 vith a deep brownish red, an abundance of which 

 vas at once precipitated, but which does not 

 ppear to have been perfectly defined. 



We can imagine what would happen to worms 

 kept constantly in an establishment not ventilated, 

 from the following experiment which M. d'Arcet 

 made with worms which had been bred in pure 

 air. Twelve large silk worms, taken in the fourth 

 age, were enclosed in a qiuu't bottle, into which 

 mulberry leaves had been put ; at the end of 

 tvvontyfour hours, the air contained in this bottle 

 had diminished in volume ; it was alkaline, and 

 contained in the hundred. 



Nitrogen, 79,11 



Carbonic acid, 17,50 



Oxygen, 3,39 



100,00 

 "This air was, therefore, almost completely 

 vitiated. Of the twelve silk worms, one was 

 dead ; the others which were still alive, were 

 drawn up, of a dingy yellowish color, almost 

 motionless ; three others died soon after upon 

 fresh leaves ; the other eight consumed a little ; 

 three made a little silk before they died, two were 

 converted into chrysalis without spinning, and 

 three died without spinning,and without being 

 conv.'rted into chrysalis. 



1 have before said that M. Beauvais ought to 

 have had 336,000 worms. Out of one hundred 

 eggs, he has, therefore, realised 85,27 cocoons; 

 and lost 1473 silk worms and eggs not hatched. 



By adding to the 286,520 vv^rms which spun, 

 the 4000 which died at mounting, we have 290,- 

 520 worms, as the result of the process. The 

 worms had eaten 16,830 pounds of leaves ; the 

 fresh leaf contains in the hundred — Dry leaf, 32 ; 

 Water, 68. Each silk worm, therefore, had eaten 

 ill the whole course of his life 29 grammes of fresh 

 leaves, (the gramme is equivalent to 15,434-1000 

 grains Troy. 



I have before spoken of pupils. M. Beauvais 

 represents himself as a man of conviction an<l of 

 progress ; but this conviction and progress his 

 ardent and disinterested zeal seeks to give weight 

 to and extend, in a manner which indefinitely 

 increases their influence. To attain this object, 

 he has opened gratuitously at his establishment 

 theoretical and practical courses of instruction, 

 which are attended by young proprietors coming 

 from all parts of France. This year the number 

 of fifteen were attracted to them. Aniong them 

 were found, with M. H. Bourdon, pupils of Ro- 

 ville, the marquis Amelot ; a large proprietor in 

 Gatimais ; the son of the baron Mallet; M. Bella, 

 son of the director of the model farm of Grignon; 

 M. Raynaud, former prefect of the Hautes-Alpes 

 and of Maine-et-Ijoire, who is at the [)resent time 

 making considerable plantations of mulberry trees 

 near the bergeries. After having employeil a 

 part of their time in attending to the smallest 

 details of the mode of management pursued, and 

 in assisting in them with their own hands; in 

 studying the cultivation aud treatment of mulberry 

 trees, under the direction of a nurseryman from 

 the South atfiched to the establishment ; every 

 day during two hours, their vvorthy master a.ssenv- 



bles them in instructive conferences, in which are 

 rceap-tiilated and collated all the observations of 

 the day; in whi('h are discussed all the advantages 

 which must result to the country in general, from 

 the interesting subject of their studies, under the 

 various points of view which their social position 

 may give rise to. How many truly logical ideas, 

 how much sound intelligence, how inany amelio- 

 rating germs rendered fruitful by this powerful 

 reunion of observation and of facts, ought ihese_ 

 young and studious citizens, the legitimate hope 

 of the agriculture of the state, to have carried , 

 with [hem to their homes. To describe to you, 

 gentlemen, in a word, both their deep conviction 

 of the advantages which they have received from 

 their relations with M. Beauvais, and the senti- 

 ments which his own generosity has given rise to, 

 I ought to say, that before separating, they unani- 

 mously voted to him a gold medal, as a testimonial 

 of their own gratitude, so sensibly felt, and so 

 worthily merited. A crowd of jiersons have en- 

 rolled their names to attend the ensuing course. 

 One of these pupils, M. Peycams, a nephew of 

 M. Caussade, a proprietor in Gaudaloiipe, has 

 particnlarly attencieu to reeling. At the request 

 of tlie principal colonists, he is going to that 

 island to instruct women of color the reeling of 

 the cocoons ; for which purpose he carries with 

 him a complete filature. 



But it is a fact, and one which M. Beauvais 

 acknowledges, and gives publicity to, in terms 

 which exhibit at once his character, his gratitude, 

 and his love of truth, that the brilliant results 

 which he has this year obtained — to do full jus- 

 tice to his own intelligence, to the high order of 

 his own mind, and to his assiduous perseverance 

 — he owes indisputably to the arrangement for 

 ventilation, which M. d'Arcet has already made 

 you acquainted with, the plan and descrijition of 

 which, under the name which he has given to it 

 of a salubrious " magnanerie," (habitation for silk 

 worms,) the Society of Encouragement has pub 

 lished in its Bulletin. After various experiments, 

 this simple and economical arrangement has 

 proved to him at last, says M. Beauvais himself, 

 that he had discovered what he had been so long 

 endeavoring to obtain, an equal temperature and a 

 pure air constantly renewed ; conditions which, 

 added to a minute cleanliness, assimilate, as near 

 as possible, the artificial mode of raising silk worms 

 in the narrow habitations in which Europe is 

 obliged to keep them confined to the most favora- 

 ble condition in which nature may have placed 

 them.* 



The first application of the system of ventila 

 tion of M. d'Arcet to the establishment of the 

 Bergeries, imperfect as must bean operation which 

 the want of time only permitted to be arranged 

 without suitable jireparalion, has resulted in a 

 success which cannot fail to strike, every one. 

 God forbid that what remains for me to say should 



*fn China, there is a wild kind, which breed in the 

 open air upon the mulberry trees of the country, and 

 which they h;ive not yet been able to domesticate. 



