SILK MANUAL, AND 



row tools while he can make or buy ; a high 

 authority hns said, the borrower is a servant to 

 the lender. 



The farmer should never be so immersed in 

 political matters, as to forget to sow his wheat, 

 dig his potatoes, and bank up his cellar ; nor 

 sliould he 1)0 so inattentive to them as to remain 

 .gnorant of those great questions of national and 

 ptate ])olicy which will always agitate more or 

 less, a free people. 



A farmer should shun the door of a bank as 

 he would an approach of the plague or cholera ; 

 banks are for men of speculation, and theirs is 

 a business with which farmers should have little 

 to do. 



A farmer should never be ashamed of his call- 

 ing; we know that no man can be entirely inde- 

 pendent, yet the farmer should remember, that if 

 ;iny one can be said to possess that enviable dis- 

 tinction, he is the man. 



No farmer should allow the repi'oach of neg- 

 lecting education to lie against himself or fam- 

 ily ; if knowledge is power, the beginning of 

 it should be early and deeply laid in the district 

 school. 



A farmer should never use ardent spirit as a 

 drink ; if, while undergoing severe fatigue, and 

 the hard labors of the summer, he would enjoy 

 robust health, let him be temperate in all things. 



A farmer should never refuse a fair price for 

 nnything he wishes to sell ; we have known a 

 man who had several bushels of wheat to dis- 

 pose of, refuse 8s. because he wanted 85. 6d. and 

 after keeping his wheat six months, was glad to 

 get 65. 6rf. for it. 



A farmer should never allow his wood -house 

 to be emptied of wood during the summer 

 months ; if he does, when winter comes, in ad- 

 dition to cold fingers, he must expect to encoun- 

 ter the chiiling looks of his wife, and perhaps 

 be compelled, in a series of lectures, to learn that 

 the man who burns green wood has not mastered 

 the ABC of domestic economy. 



A farmer should never allow his window to 

 be filled with red cloaks, tattered coats, and old 

 hats ; if he does he will most assuredly acquire 

 the reputation of a man who tarries long at the 

 whiskey, leaving his wife and children to freeze 

 or starve at home. 



^ There are three things of which the man who 

 aims at the character of a prosperous farmer 

 will never be niggardlj^ — manure, tillage, and 

 seed: and thore are three things of which he 

 will never l)e too liberal — promise, time, and 

 credit. 



In 183 1, rsparagua was sent to market from the 

 Ralcm alm^-hnuse on the 16th of April; in 1835, 

 on the 13th of May ; the same means used to bring 

 it forward early in both years. — Salem Register. 



CHINESE MtTLBERRY. 



The first genuine seed of this plant ever had in 

 this country, was obtained by the Secretary of 

 our Agricultural Society, through an American 

 Missionary resident at Canton. It was distributed 

 among individuals here and various experiments 

 have been made and others are now making in this 

 town, to test its adaption to our climate and supe- 

 riority over the common mulberry for the feeding 

 of silk worms. As the seedling plant is but little 

 known in this country except in this town and its 

 character is exciting much interest with silk 

 growers, we have tried, through Dr Stebbins, to 

 collect such facts about the nature and cultivation 

 of the plants. The Secretary says — 



" This seed was probably the first and only true 

 seed ever imported. It was sowed in drills, and 

 where not planted too deep did well ; some was 

 sown as late as the month of August and did well. 

 The seed should be planted only about one fourth 

 of an inch in depth. The leaves attained a good 

 size, more than lOinchesby 9, and probably would 

 liave grown to a greater size, had not the leaves 

 been killed by the early severe frost, which des- 

 stroyed many other of a much firmer wood; the 

 roots have, however, been well preserved and 

 will answer well for trasplanting this spring — 

 those who have made engagenients for them will 

 be supplied, and can have more if wanted and 

 applied for soon." 



There is one distinctive peculiarity between the 

 leaves of the seedling Chinese Mulberry of the last 

 year and the leaves of plants or trees which have 

 been long in the country, propagated fi.-om cuttings 

 or layers, while the leaves of the latter are pen- 

 dulous, having the appearance of debility — the 

 former from the seed give out a leaf of stout tex- 

 ture, of equal size, witliout any appearance of de- 

 bility, equally soft, silky, and as congenial to the 

 constitution of the worm. For feeding worms 

 one pound of the Chinese mulberry is said to be 

 equal to nearly double that quantity of white 

 mulberry, probably because young worms will not 

 or cannot eat the fibres and stems of the white 

 mulberry, while of the Chinese leaf the worms 

 eat stem and all, a great saving in feed. It is 

 agreed among hoi'ticulturists, and a fact acknowl- 

 edged by nursery men, that trees propagated 

 by cuttings or shoots, are not as long-lived as those 

 from seed. This circumstance is highly favora- 

 able to the culture of the Chinese seedling. 



Although the climate of New England may be 

 congenial to the growth and culture of tlic Chi- 

 nese mulberry, and that trees have withstood the 

 severity of several winters, even in open and ex- 

 posed situations, because these trees have not been 

 disturbed by frequent hoeing about the roots, in 

 the extensive cultivation of tile Chinese mulljcrry, 

 it may be prudent to accelerate the growth in the 



