PRACTICAL FARMER 



39 



CUIiTURB OF SII4K. 



From the result of several years' experience, I 

 venture to assert, that the culture of silk is one of 

 the most lucrative branches of agriculture, and is 

 very light and pleasant employment. Nearly all 

 the labor of feeding and tending the worms may 

 be performed by small children, that are useless 

 at most other employments. The reeling, twist- 

 ing, coloring, and manufacturing sewing silk is a 

 simple process, and as easily performed as wool or 

 flux. This may be demonstrated by the small 

 specimen I send you, which was wrought upon a 

 cotnmon reel and wheel by one who had not the 

 advantage of experience, and who had never seen 

 a cocoon before. One hundred pounds of leaves 

 will produce one pound of sewing silk, and a 

 child from nine to twelve years of age, will gather 

 seventy five pounds of leaves in a day, this is cail- 

 ed a day's work for a child in Connecticut. At 

 this rate, the same child will feed as many worms 

 us will produce tweutyseven pounds of reeled silk 

 in six weeks, worth from four to seven dollars 

 per pound, the price being regulated by the good 

 or bad reeling. The reeling of this quantity will 

 occupy the attention of a woman three weeks, and 

 will be produced from a half acre of land. Ac- 

 cording to this calculation, which I think is not 

 exaggerated, two children from nine to twelve 

 years old, in six weeks, and one woman in three 

 weeks, from an acre of land, will make fiftyfour 

 pounds of reeled silk, worth say five dollars per 

 pound, which amounts to two hundred and seven- 

 ty dollars. I presume that by planting one field 

 with the Italian mulberry, more may be made an- 

 nually from them, by feeding silk worms with the 

 leaves, than can be made by the usual mode of 

 farming on a plantation of one hundred acres. 

 We have long been in the habit of sending vast 

 amounts to the Indies, and Europe, to purchase 

 silk, and at the same time of sending the widows 

 and orphans of our country, who are left in pecu- 

 niary embarrassments, to alms houses. I think 

 every man who feels an interest in the prosperity 

 of this country, should lend his assistance to put 

 a stop to such proceedings, and thus contribute his 

 mite to a great national good. I would, therefore 

 advise with humble deference, that every farmer 

 procure trees, which may be planted by walls, on 

 side hills, and by the side of high ways and by- 

 ways, in lands too stony to till, or too barren to 

 produce ; — they should occupy the places of use- 

 less shrubs and forest trees, as Lombardy and 

 other poplars, paper mulberry, &c., the Italian 

 mulberry being more ornamental than any of 

 them, of speedy growth, and very tenacious of 

 life. I have shown that the business may be at- 

 tended to by women and children ; consequently 

 upwards of twelve millions of dollars may be 

 saved iu this coimh-y annually, without clJmiDieh- 



ing in value our other products. The time of 

 feeding worms is from the tenth of May, until 

 about the twentieth of June, a season of the year 

 when a barn is not much used, and by trial, the 

 worms are found to pi-oduce as much silk and as 

 good in a barn as in a Laboratory scientifically 

 constructed. Many of the worms in New Eng- 

 land are attended in barns, without the trouble of 

 Thermometers or Barometers. 



The Italian mulberry is of very speedy growth, 

 and may be propagated so speedily that the manu- 

 facture of silk in this country may be commenced 

 much sooner than has been anticipated. The 

 genius and enterprise of our citizens is equal to 

 the task of manufecturing silk superior to the im- 

 ported ; when once in operation their zeal and ac- 

 tivity will enab'.e them to compete with the world 

 in the culture. I venture to assert, without fear 

 of contradiction, that there is not a country on the 

 globe having soil and climate so well adapted to 

 the growth of the Italian mulberry, and constitu- 

 tion of the silk worm as the United States. The 

 tenacity of life is indeed wonderful in those trees. 

 I transplanted moie than 8000 between the 4th 

 and •28th of June last, and although so very late 

 in the season, I think not 100 died. The tree is 

 perfectly hardy, also in regard to heat and cold ; 

 among upwards of 300,000 seedling plants, I have 

 not discovered one that has been injured by the 

 severe frosts of the past winter, while nearly all 

 my other trees have been more or less injured 

 thereby. The Chinese inorus multicualis as well 

 as many native trees are entirely killed. 



What a proud day will that be for Pennsylva- 

 nia, when her daughters will appear in silk of 

 their own manufacture. I presume that day ia 

 not far distant. — Penn. Reporter. 



A Profitable Crop. — A Northampton gentle- 

 man ylanted last year a half-paper (costing twenty 

 five cents) of the Morns Multicaulis, or Chinese 

 Mulberry. The seed occupied a few feet square 

 of his garden, and the plants came up to the num- 

 ber of about two hundred and forty. For these 

 plants he has repeatedly this season been ofl^ered 

 twentyfive cents each. The principal reason of 

 this, however, is that the seed originally procured 

 of this species of mulberry has all been consum- 

 ed, and there is not much probability that any 

 more good seed can be procured from the same 

 quarter; and some years, of course, must be elapse 

 before it can be procured from native trees. Other 

 parcels of this seed have been obtained from 

 China since the first was imported, but none of 

 them have produced anything, having without 

 doubt under the influence of the proverbial 

 jealousy of the Chinese been subjected to some 

 process, which, without affecting the appearance, 

 destroyed the fructifying principle; — Franklin Mer. 



