370 



Bone Dust, <^c. 



Vol. VII. 



or any other suitable material, is affixed to 

 the rockers, that prevents mice, ants and 

 other insects from ascending to the worms. 

 The plan throughout is simple, cheap, and 

 easy of application ; it curtails the expenses 

 more than one half, and more than doubles 

 the quantity and quality of silk from a given 

 quantity of eggs." 



The plan appears feasible and easy of 

 adoption. At first there would appear a 

 danger of the tents suffering damage from 

 the effects of storms, but their use would be 

 confined to a short space of time; as it is to 

 be understood, I presume, that the worms 

 are to be reared to half their growth in other 

 buildings, and be transferred to the cradles, 

 there to remain until they spin; when, at 

 the end of the season, the tents could be 

 taken down and packed carefully away for 

 another year; this is no doubt an economi- 

 cal plan, the re-erection of a tent being the 

 labour of an hour or two only; and a situa- 

 tion might be chosen most convenient to the 

 business, perhaps in the plantation, to save 

 the labour of carrying the branches to a dis- 

 tance. It is calculated, that a tent 50 feet 

 long by 15 feet wide, would contain six cra- 

 dles of 12 feet in length, and that each cra- 

 dle would feed 15,000 worms. Mr. Gill pro- 

 poses to dispose of individual rights for three 

 bushels of merchantable cocoons, or ten dol- 

 lars cash. J. C. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Bone Dust, &c. 



Some two years since, I became thoroughly 

 convinced of the great value of bone manure, 

 so much so, that I only wished to know the 

 best mode of applying it, and then would 

 purchase no other. I also wished to know 

 whether the ground bones, or the sawings 

 and turnings of the button makers, were the 

 best; accordingly, I bought from three dif- 

 ferent persons, as many kinds, at 16 to 45 

 cents per bushel, near 300 bushels, which I 

 applied from the 1st of Fourth month, until 

 the latter part of Eighth month, at the rate 

 of 10 to 40 or 45 bushels per acre, on or- 

 chard grass sod, timothy, and clover of the 

 first, second, and third years' growth; on 

 wheat and turnips broad-cast; and on pota- 

 toes, corn, pumpkins, peas, beans, onions, 

 celery, radishes, strawberries, and other 

 things in the hill and drill ; and have anx- 

 iously waited ever since, without saying, 

 and for obvious reasons not wishing to say, 

 any tiling against it; but have now come to 

 the conclusion, that the same bulk of good 

 stable manure would have done more good 

 to the crops and the land; for I cannot even 

 now, see any difference in the appearance 



of the present crops of grass, where it was 

 sown last year on the wheat, and on other 

 different pieces of grass. It is certainly not 

 a profitable manure for my farm, either on 

 the clay, loam, or sandy part; what the rea- 

 son is, I leave for wiser heads to determine. 

 My principal reason for making the present 

 communication, is to caution others from 

 going quite so deeply into it at first, as I 

 did, but try a smaller quantity, and in the 

 meantime, let the bones go to England, or 

 to those whose soil they may suit. 



I find that glue dung is the cheapest ma- 

 nure I can purchase; my manner of using it 

 is to mix and ferment it with stable manure, 

 in the proportion of about one-third of glue 

 dung with two-thirds of other manure, and 

 turn it over twice, then apply it in the usual 

 way. Spent, or soapers ashes, I have also 

 used with very good success; harrowed in 

 with oats, clover and timothy, on a loamy 

 clay — four two-horse wagon loads per acre. 



I am quite disappointed this spring, in my 

 observations as to the manner in which the 

 cut-worm makes its appearance in the corn. 

 I always supposed the egg was deposited in 

 the ground, and remained there during the 

 winter, and from which the worm was pro- 

 duced in the spring, in time to make its 

 ravages on the corn. My corn field this 

 year, was a stiff sod of blue grass and timo- 

 thy, and I expected the worms would be 

 bad in it ; accordingly I commenced search- 

 ing for them as soon as the corn was fairly 

 up, and found them in many cases completely 

 covered, except at top, in a web or cocoon, 

 immediately by and attached to the corn, 

 just under the surface of the ground; I have 

 destroyed hundreds of them found in this 

 way, which proves to my mind, that the 

 eggs must have been deposited there only a 

 few days before. There are various things 

 recommended to prevent them from injuring 

 our grain, but I have found the Frenchman's 

 plan most successful, as recommended to de- 

 stroy fleas; "first catch them." The pro- 

 posal to plant onions in the hills with the 

 cucumbers, to prevent the striped bug from 

 attacking them, has with me, proved a total 

 failure, as most of the hills have been de- 

 stroyed, either wholly, or in part. S. S. 



Spring- Wood Farm* Sixth mo. 1st, 1843. 



That man is far behind the spirit of the 

 age, who follows any system of husbandry 

 or agriculture, merely because his father 

 followed it before him, and without looking 

 into the reason or propriety of it, or reflect- 

 ing on its susceptibility of improvement. It 

 is not reverence for example, but ignorance 

 of improvement, that influences a man to 

 do so. — Maine Farmer. 



