Jo. 9. 



The Silk Business. — Cranberry Meadows. 



291 



f doing our best. We bought three ounces 

 f eggs, of two or three of the best varie- 

 es of the worms, which cost $ 17.50 : they 

 atched at the usual time ; began to spin 

 cjthout any night-feeding after nine o'clock, 

 uite as soon as any which the papers re- 

 orted to have been nursed night and day, 

 ut they were watched and fed with unre- 

 litted attention, from daylight until bed- 

 me, so long as their precious health re- 

 uired particular care — indeed, I never saw 

 lore bestowed, even upon the infant chil- 

 ren of a family. The produce of these 

 iree ounces of eggs, was only 13 bushels 

 f cocoons, for which I have found no market 

 oyvvhere near me, although I have been 

 >ld, that I may possibly get three and a 

 alf or four dollars, if I will be at the trou- 

 le and expense of sending them, at my own 

 sk, as far as Baltimore or Philadelphia ; 

 ut if I could sell at the highest price, 

 ihich is not probable, as our cocoons are 

 ily of medium quality, the balance, after 

 educting the first cost, would be $34 50; 

 lis pittance would be the whole earnings 

 f my daughter, and at least six other per- 

 ms, constantly employed tor seven or eight 

 r eeks, in the hopeful business of nursing 

 lk-worms, and taking care of their co- 

 jons ! Now, the least profitable of all the 

 mployments they could have pursued, would 

 ave brought them in more money, but then 

 ley would have lost the brilliant chance of 

 iking rank amongst the disinterested and 

 itriotic encouragers, of 'the silk culture 

 f the United States !' who have been so 

 itrageously puffed from one end of the 

 nion to the other; although, in fact, like 

 .1 other originators of new schemes to suc- 

 jed in the old business of making money, 

 ;itriotism had no more to do with their mo- 

 : ves, than had any other honest project, 

 ilelv for the promotion of their own indi- 

 dual interests ! A due regard to this, is 

 ways laudable in every body, and as such, 

 ell deserves to be commended ; but when 

 e go so far as to ascribe it to ' love of 

 >untry,' as has been done most profusely 

 this multicaulis and silk-worm business, 

 must for one, protest against any such 

 "oss abuse of language. 

 " I should have added, that in our experi- 

 ent we employed more than double the 

 bour anywhere reported as sufficient, by 

 ose who professed to know, and found it 

 rely enough — that we occupied triple the 

 ne for killing the moths in the cocoons, 

 iher by steaming or the sun, when the 

 ermometer ranged from 80 to 88°, yet 

 any of the moths cut out afterwards — that 

 ith all the drying we could give the co- 

 ons, their odour continued offensive to 



the last — and though last, not least, that the 

 ants and the wasps, the rats and the mice, 

 proved themselves to be enemies in almost 

 every stage of the business, and against 

 which it was extremely difficult to guard 

 effectually." Jacme Myers. 



Cranberry Meadows. — Meadows that 

 will bear good cranberries, will yield more 

 profit than grass meadows. Two hundred 

 bushels per acre, have often been obtained ; 

 and one man will harvest an acre at less ex- 

 pense than he will an acre of corn. A 

 meadow, therefore, that will yield one-fourth 

 of that quantity, will give more net profit 

 than any acre of corn land, and save you 

 the labour of planting, of tilling, and the 

 cost of manure ! Would it not be good 

 policy to pay more attention to cranberry 

 meadows ? Nothing can be done to them at 

 this season, unless we attempt to give them 

 a top-dressing. This has been done in a 

 few instances, and we cannot doubt that by 

 a little attention, we could double the har- 

 vest on many of these valuable lots. Can 

 it be doubted that a little coarse sand strown 

 on the surface, would give a greater product 

 on a cold meadow ? Sand may be carried on 

 and spread at this season, on many soft mea- 

 dows, better than at any other. 



Sand that has been saturated with the 

 wash of the cow-yard, would be better than 

 that directly from the pit. We hope some 

 of our friends will look to this matter, and 

 make some of their cranberry meadows more 

 productive. It should not be forgotten, that 

 flowing in winter and spring, has a most 

 beneficial effect on the harvest. Meadows 

 may be kept covered with water till late in 

 May, and no doubt they would be improved 

 by drawing the water off, and then flooding 

 again, after a few days, as grass meadows 

 are. By a little management of this kind, 

 the June frosts would be prevented. Thou- 

 sands of bushels were destroyed last season 

 by the frosts of June. — Mass. Ploughman. 



Extraordinary Crop of Oats. — The 



New Genesee Farmer states, that Andrew 

 Snider, of Henrietta, last season produced 

 446 bushels of oats, estimating them at the 

 legal weight of 32 lbs. per bushel, on four 

 acres of land, that is 111^ bushels per acre. 

 The kind is called the barley oat ; it is pro- 

 perly the Scotch potatoe oat. 



Three bushels of seed were sown to the 

 acre. They were sown the last week in 

 April. The land had been in corn, in peas, 

 and in potatoes the previous year. The part 

 which had been in corn and that which had 

 been in potatoes, had been manured for those 

 two crops; on that which had been in peas, 

 wheat-straw only had been ploughed in. 



