v.. I. IX.— No. 2- 



AND HOllTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



213 



.Vmiionv Wright, requestiiiginforiiiation ' wlieth- 

 !r Cocnoiis arc an avlkU: ofsale witliiii any leason- 

 ibleilistaiice ami the price peril).' I would iiifuriii 

 lim Iliat I think they are, as will appear by the 

 luiniMoiis ailvertlsemeuts in the various uewspa- 

 lers in ilie country. As to the price, it will de- 

 end on the quality. For those ofa good quality, 

 presume 25 cts per 11). to be a lair price ; but they 

 lav be more, as it will ilepcud on the demand, 

 liieh will probably exceed the production another 

 DQSon. There will be, or should be, Agents in 

 ioston to purcharic them. 

 I have attended a course of Lectures in this place, 

 the Silk business, by J. II. Coeb, Esq. of Ded- 

 im, and think tliat he possesses e.vlensive informa- 

 on on the subject. He appears to have a practi- 

 s well as theoretical knowledge of its growth 

 id manufacture; and I should think thai it would 

 beneficial for the inhabitants of Concord audits 

 cinity to employ him to deliver a course of Lec- 

 res in that place, as his charges are reasonable, 

 id he would no doubt impart valuable informa- 



lU. 



I am informed that in Connecticut, where the 



wing Silk business is carried on extensively, they 



rive a very handsome profit, as will appear by 



e value they attach to a Mulberry Orchard. A 



irm that would bring Two Thousand Dollars 



thout one, will as readily command Three 



lousand with one ; and Mr D'Homergoe states 



It converting the best silk into the aforesaid 



icie, is as injproper as it would be to manufacture 



! gold from the mines of North Carolina into 



ng pans and kettles. — His Essays are a valua- 



production and v/ill be the means of facilitating 



growth and nianutacture of silk in this country. 



, together with AFr Peter Duponceau, piopose 



t the Rawt-ilkbe reeled in a proper manner 



I be made an article of exportation. 1 have no 



ibt it might he made a profitable branch of in- 



try, but think the course it will naturally take, 



1 first be to supply those persons alrea<ly en- 



ed in its manufacture and those that will fol- 



■ from the operation of filature establishments. 



soon as silk is prepared in a proper manner for 



manufacture of goods, the artists already fn 



country, that understand the manufacture of 



stuffs, will be called into action, and the raanu- 



iure of the various kinds will i)robably keep 



« with the production. 



(Ve already manufacture silk fringe, suspenders, 

 tons, satin straws, silk lace, silk velvets, and 

 er articles, and find a difficulty in obtaining the 

 per material. Whenever there shall be an 

 rstock of the raw material for the aforesaid pur- 

 Bs, the exportation of the article will neeessa- 

 follow, but until that time it wdl probably be 

 sumed in the country. 



Vith respect to the coni'nunication signed W. 

 )uld ol)serve that a few filature establishments 

 Id be the means of producing more Cocoons 

 bout disgust or fainting' than all the schools 

 writings of a centm-y without them. The 

 ner of producing them in Connecticut is, first 

 'LANT Xm orchard ; then erect a suitable 

 iing, or convert a part of the house for the 

 ing the worms ; then boys are employed to 

 the leaves at a certain price per lb. ; after being 

 jlied they are handed over to females who 

 ibnte them and take the necessary care. I pre- 

 e that a Mulberi'y Orchard of o?ie acre, proper- 

 lanaged, would produce a nett income annually 

 le farmer of Sixty Dollars, by selling his Co- 



coons at twentyfive centR a lb. Mr Vernon in 

 his appendix, pages 169 and 170, to the Treatise 

 on the Cultivation of the Mulberry Tree ami raising 

 of Silk Worms, estimates the profits at mHc/^.su- 

 dollurs per acre, and then goes farther and says 

 that should the person have the silk reeled, bo 

 woidd then derive Tivo Hundred and Sixtijtwo 

 DolUtrs per acre. 



Yours, respectfully, Paul Ware. 



frarren, R. 1. Jan. 14,'l831. 



BARK PEELED FROM FRUIT TREES BY 

 CALVES. 



Mr Fessenden — Through the medium of 

 your useful paper the success of farmers is often 

 brought before the public. A failure like the fol- 

 lowingj I have thought might also b; of service. 

 A neiithbor of mine has a mowing lot of 5 acres — 

 on a part of it be has an orchard of about 80 ap- 

 ple trees which were set out in 1824. The trees 

 were inoculated excepting a few which were graft- 

 ed, in a nursery three years before. Owing to a 

 want of skilful management, the trees are not very 

 thrifty. At the ground the stocks will average about 

 1 J inches. But for an injury they received, whicli 

 I am going to mention, they probably would have 

 borne fruit in a year or two. This year, after 

 iiaying, there was considerable aftermath. — My 

 friend had no stock with which he could feed it, 

 so let it out to one of his neighbors, who put in a 

 couple of spring calves. The lot is some distance 

 off and was visited but seldom, and not until it 

 was time to take calves home for winter, was the 

 mischief they have done discovered. They have 

 barked the trees, with few exceptions, from near 

 the ground to the height of 3 or 4 feet. They 

 ate the bark so far as coidd be known. Tliis is a 

 tiling unheanl of in this region. Did yoir, or any 

 of your correspondents, ever hear or know any- 

 thing like it .' What is it best to do witli them.' 

 One of vour Readers. 

 South Rendina:, Jc'i. 14. 



Remarks by the Editor. — With regard to the 

 al)Ove subject, some writers have advised to keep 

 orchards for pastures for calves and swine, though 

 sheep, it is said, will sometimes gnaw oft" the bark 

 of young apple trees ; and it has been advised to 



ive them a coating of lime or Forsyth's composition 

 to <lefend the trees against their depredations. With 



egard to the best remedy for the injured trees, we 

 can think of none except heading down or cutting 

 off" the stocks close to the groimd, and training the 

 fairest and most thrifty sprouts from each stump 

 to form future trees. 



lamw asT(a3»iiiTiD iFiiasaiaaa 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 1831. 



From the Transactions of the London Horticultural Society. 



ON THE CULTURE OF THE POTATO. 



Br THHMii ANDjiEW KmoHT, Efq, F. R. S. &c. President. 



Whatever may have been the amount of the 

 advantages, or injury which the British Empire 

 has sustained by the very widely extended culture 

 of the Potato, it is obvious that under present 

 existing circumstances it must continue to be very 

 extensively cultivated ; for though it is a calamity 

 to have a numerous population who are compelled 

 by poverty to live chiefly on potatoes, it would 

 certainly be a much greater calamity to have the 

 same population without their having them to eat. 



Under this view of the subject, I have been led 

 toendeavor to ascertain by a course of experiments, 

 the mode of culture by which the largest ami 

 most regular produce of potatoes, and of the best 

 ([uality ipay be obtained from the least extent and 

 value of ground, and having succeeded best by devi- 

 ating rather widely from ordinary rules of culture, 

 I send the following account of the results of my 

 experiments. These were made upon different 

 varieties of potatoes ; but as the results were in all 

 cases nearly the same, I think that 1 shall most 

 readily cause the practice I recommend to be un- 

 derstood by <lescrH)ing minutely the treatment of 

 a single variety on\y which I received from the 

 Horticultural Society, under the name of Lank- 

 man's Potato. 



The soil in wliicii I proposed to plant being very 

 shallow, and lying upon a rock, I collected it 

 with a plough into high ridges of four feet wide, 

 to give it an artificial depth. A deep furrow was 

 made along the centre ant' highest i)art of each 

 ridge, and in the liottom of -.bis whole potatoes, 

 the lightest of which did not weigh less than four 

 ounces were deposited, at only sis,- inches distance 

 from the centre of one to another. Manure, in 

 the ordinary quantity was then introduced, and 

 mould was added, sufficient to cover the potatoes 

 more deeply than is generally done. 



The stems of the potatoes, as of other plants, 

 rise perpendicularly, under the influence of their 

 unerring guide, gravitation, so long as they continue 

 to be concealed beneath the soil ; but as soon as they 

 rise above it they are to a considerable extent under 

 the control of another agent, light. Each inclines in 

 whatever direction it receives the greatest quantity 

 of that fluid, and consequently each avoids and a|:- 

 pears to shun the'^'.iude of every contiguous plant. 

 The old tubers being large, and under the mode of 

 culture recommended, rather deeply buried in the 

 ground, the young plants,in the early part of sum- 

 mer, never snft"er from want of irjoisture ; and be- 

 ing abundantly nourished, they soon extend them- 

 selves in every direction till they meet those of the 

 contiguous rows which they do not over-shadow on 

 account of the width of tlie intervals. 



The stems being abundantly fed, owing to the 

 size of the old tubers, rise from the ground with 

 great strength and luxuriance, support well their 

 foliage, and a larger breadth of this is thus, I think, 

 exposed to the light during the whole season, tiian 

 under any other mode of culture wliich I have 

 seen ; and the plants acquire a very large size early 

 in the Slimmer, the tubers of even very late varieties 

 arrive at a state of perfect muturity early in au- 

 tumn. 



Having found my crops of potatoes to be in the 

 last three years, during which alone I have accu- 

 rately ado|)ted the mode of culture above described, 

 much greater than they had ever previously been, 

 as well as of excellent quality, I was lead to ascer- 

 tain the amount in weight, whicli an acre of ground . 

 such as I have described, the soil of which was 

 naturally poor and shallow would produce. A col- 

 ony of Rabbits had, however, in the last year done 

 a good deal of damage, and Pheasants had eaten 

 many of the tubers which the Rabbits had ex|)0s- 

 ed to view; but the remaining ])roduce per acre 

 exceeded five hundred and thirtynine bushels of 

 eightytwo pounds each, two pounds being allowed 

 in every bushel on account of a very small quantity 

 of earth which adhered to each of them. 



The preceding experiments were made with a 

 large and productive variety of potatoes only, but 



