Vol. IX— No. 28. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



221 



FOR THE NEW ENGLANB FARMER. 



CULTURE OF FLAX. 

 Mr Fksse.nuen — Mr NtUluui Pniiclle, on tlio 



west bank of the Connect i<-ut in this town, sowed 



a fieUl with flax seed about the 8th of May 



last. The orop was iiiuisually hir^e and heavy 



and tlie seed very abinidant: he i)ulled tlii.s on the 



2oih of July ; nnich of the seed fell in this ])roocss. 



Immediately he sowed turnii) seed on this field, and ; ti,^ Governor Johnson's views and the opinions e.\ 



covered it with a brush harrow. In a few days pressed by a late committee of Congress, of the 



quantities of raw silk were e.xported from the 

 southern provinces. 



Tlie present extract is from a paper, published 

 ill the ' Historical Refiister,' oil Me /rarfe and lutv- 

 igalion of Great Brilain, by Robert Johnson, Esq. 

 Governor of South Carolina, in the year 1730. 

 The encouragement of the silk culture is recom- 

 mended to the General Assembly and this jiaper 

 exhibits its advantages. It is worthy of remark, 



tliere .sprang up au abimdanee of both turnip and 

 flax. This last grew slowly, but to the connnou 

 size, and about the 1st of November put forth flow- 

 ers, wliich were as large and as full as those of 

 tlie first crop. This flax continued in full bloom 

 till long after the frost had destroyed every other 

 aniuiar plant. Mr P. pulled this on the 19th of 

 November ; I saw it then ; the flowers were scarce- 

 ly shrivelled and the leaves not affected by the 

 frost. The corollas were of usual size, the capsules 

 were somewhat dilated, and the seeds formed, 

 though green and milky. The stalks were thinly 

 scattered, but they were as heavy as those of the 

 former growth. It was thought this was more 

 than one third as large as the other crop and pro- 

 bably if as much seed had been sown, it would 

 have been equal to that. 



The crop of turnips was as large as usual, some 

 of them were very large : one, which I had in 

 my room, measured about 20 inches in circumfer- 

 ence. 



This instance affords to our farmers a suggestion 

 whether two crops of flax could not be raised on 

 he same field in one year. Here it is to be 

 noticed, that the seed for the second crop, was 

 if this year's growth ; could this have any effect in 

 ■iccelerating the growth of the second crop ? Will 

 he development of the vegetable life in the seeds 

 3e any more rapid, if there be no suspension of vital 

 iction between the process of formation and ripen- 

 ng in the parent plant, and the sprouting of the 

 lew plant ? We know that some seeds must be 

 iowa as soon as they fall from the tree, else they 

 ivill not sprout. Others may be preserved for cen- 

 luries without impairing their vital power. But is 

 Ihere no difference in the rapidity of the growth of 

 ilants raised from the seeds ? 



The second crop of flax had the advantage of 

 he immediate sowing, and though it had but a 

 ew weeks of sunny summer and grew mostly 

 n sterile, frosty autumn, it had all the fulness and 

 Hgor of the more favored crop, and resisted the 

 tost even to the last of November, which I had 

 lot supposed belonged to the vitality of any flax. 

 Whether the continuance of the active life in the 

 eed had any effect in this, I cannot say : but it is 

 question worth the thought of the vegetable phy- 

 iolosist. I leave it for your consideration, or for 

 ome of your correspondents to answer. 

 I send you herewith specimens of both crops. 

 I am, sir, vours respectfully, 



EDWARD JARVIS. 

 Mrthjield, Ms. Dtc. 27, 1830. 



CULTIVATION OF SILK. 



The following extract from the 16tli volume of 

 le ' Historical Register' for the year 1731, will 

 liow that at so early a period, the culture of silk 

 s a staple of the then colonies, had attracted the 

 ttention of the Provincial and Metropolitan Gov- 

 rnments. Under the encouragement and protec- 

 on which they afforded, it is known that large 



peculiar adaptation of this country to the growth of 

 silk, arc of perfect accord. ' If care were taken to 

 cultivate and improve the raising of silk, in our 

 plantations, Carolina,Virginia, Maryland, and Penn- 

 sylvania, they would produce the best of silk, 

 and as fit for organzine as any in the world, for 

 these countries produce vast numbers of white and 

 other mulberry trees, which grow wild and spring 

 up everywhere in great abundance, which looks as 

 if nature had called us thither to propagate that 

 manufacture ; and if put on foot, would in time bo 

 of as great advantage to this nation, as any em- 

 ployment in the plantations ; for, as I have already 

 observed, the manufacture of silk is a most pro- 

 fitable undertaking, where the land and air are 

 proper for raising it. 



The vast riches of China, by this manufacture, 

 is siiffieient to demonstrate the great advantage 

 thereof; and the extraordinary treasure the Duke 

 of Savoy draws into his country by silk, which is 

 made in that little Principality of Piedmont, as I 

 have already observed, is also another instance ; 

 we may judge, if he draws above two hundred 

 thousand poun*ls a year from England, what his 

 profits are, which he draws from Holland and 

 other places, where the manufacture is carried on 

 to a very great degree. 



We are informed the very land for planting of 

 mulberry trees, in many parts of Italy is worth 

 from three to five pounds an acre ; and gentlemen 

 there, as well as in Sicily, sell their mulberry leaves 

 to the poor for half the silk they make, and the 

 money is equally divided between them, upon sale 

 of the silk, and that the leaves of a tree there, 

 have yielded three or four pounds. Now, if the 

 manufocture of .silk, and the [danting of mulberry 

 trees, have raised the land to be so valuable, and 

 some gentlemen receive such considerable reven- 

 ues from their crops of leaves, very great things 

 may be expected by our encouraging and promot- 

 ing the manufacture of silk in our colonies, where 

 as much land may be had for five pence, as in 

 Italy for five pounds. And if great numbers of 

 muiherry trees were planted among the Indian na- 

 tions bordering on our settlements, and some skil- 

 ful, good tempered persons employed to instruct 

 them in the proper season for gathering leaves, 

 and feeding the worms, and rewarding them boun- 

 tifully for their pains, those people might be 

 brought to be very profitable subjects to this na- 

 tion. 



It may be noted that very few places are agree- 

 able to the silk worm, and no part of the world 

 better than in our colonies ; no silk clearer, more 

 glossy, of a better body, nor fitter to answer the 

 use of the fine thrown silk we have imported from 

 Italy, than the small quantity of silk that has been 

 imported from thence. 



It is generally observed, that all those countries 

 that produce the best silk, border upon the sea, 

 and he pretty near the same latitude ; our planta- 

 tion, the Province of Gilon and Nankin, and 



Chekiani, in China, all border upon the sea, and 

 are pretty near the same latitude. Those places 

 in Turkey that produce silk, border upon the sea, 

 and Italy and Sicily, are in a manner environed 

 by the sea; and the provinces of Granada, Murcia 

 and Valencia, in Spain, the places that produce 

 the best silk, as well as Languedoc and Provence 

 in France, all lie upon the sea ; Canton in China 

 and Bengal in India, lie ten degrees more to the 

 southward, the air of which countries being hotter 

 is supposed to be the reason why the silk is of a 

 baser sort. 



As the great advantages that arise to Portugal 

 and Spain, as well as to us in our sugar and tobac- 

 co plantations, is by the cheap labor of negroes 

 or slaves, tl^e same cheapness of labor might be of 

 most prodigious advantage to us, if employed in 

 our colonies, in the producing and making of silk ; 

 and when that is over, may turn their hands to 

 raising and dressing of hemp and flax,* the charge 

 being little more than their clothing from Eng- 

 land. 



We are told by gentlemen of good intelligence 

 that the whole charge of making a pound of silk 

 iu China, does not stand in above five shillings ; 

 and almost any person, man, woman, or child, 

 may work at it.' 



•The culture of cotton was not introduced into this 

 country, until 1785. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 183). 



MR PHINNEY'S ADDRESS. 



We have this day commenced the publication of 

 the excellent Address of Elias Phi.n.vey, Esq. de- 

 livered before the Society of Middlesex Husband- 

 men and Manufacturers ; and are unwilling to let 

 the occasion pass without expressing our high 

 opinion of its value. His notices of the impor- 

 tance and progress of agriculture, of the erroneous 

 theories and ridiculous as well as injurious prac- 

 tices of our native as well as of foreign cultivators 

 — the absurd style of many of our farm buildings 

 — on the utility of' warm and comfortable lodgings' 

 for cows and oxen — on the different sorts of soil, 

 and the advantages which result from blending 

 them — on the benefits which accrue to agricul- 

 ture from the ' ivritten wisdom of the past and 

 present ages' — on the cultivation of swamps and 

 peat land, are judicious and eveiy sentence tells 

 of something useftil, and deserving a place in the 

 record of memory as well as on the shelf of the 

 Farmer's library. 



On the last mentioned topic, in particular, his 

 observations are of great practical utility, and the 

 more so as they are derived not only from proba- 

 ble and rational theory, but have been tested by 

 practice, under the superintendence of the author. 

 His remarks on the possibility of making ' too 

 great use of the plough,' on exposing the swards, 

 by harrowing and cross ploughing and leaving it 

 to be wasted by the sun and wind, and the state- 

 ments of the process which he adopted to increase 

 his crops, and diminish the labor and expense of 

 culture are all practical lessons of incalculable 

 value to cultivators in general, and especially to 

 those New England Farmers, whose soil and 

 circumstances may enable them to put in practice 

 Mr Phinney's precepts. 



