FESSENDEN'S 



AND 



BeToted to the Culture of Silk, Agriculture, and Rural Economy. 



VOL. 1. 



BOSTON, DECEMBER, 1835. 



NO. 8. 



T. G. FESSENDEN— Editor. 



pDBLisHED MONTHLY BY woiild bc savecl in our country by the extension 



GEORGE C. BARRETT, ofthisvery profitable branch of husbandry so as 



51 8f 52 mrth Market St., at the ^.E. Farmer Office, to supply the home consumption. Much of the 



labor too can be performed by small children 

 who would otherwise be idle, and thus early hab- 

 its of industry would be created. 



The whole process is simple, and a knowledge 

 of it easily acquired. After the middle of May, 

 the egg of the silk worm is brought from the bu- 

 reau, and exposed to the warmth of the air, but 

 not to the rays of the sun. Early in June the 

 term of incubation expires, aufl the small silk 



Fifty cents per year — twelve copies for five dollars 

 — always in advance. 



Qj' Postmasters and Agents allowed 10 per cent on 

 all subscribers. 



BOSTON, NOVEMBER, 1835. 



FACTS ABfD OBSERVATIONS 



RELATIVE TO THECDLTURE OF SILK. 



The following facts are from a slip cut from worms make their appearance. They are now 



a New York newspaper, but the date nor the title to be fed with mulberry leaves, with which they 



not being preserved, we cannot give credit to the ^'^ s^uj-plied twice aday,tlie leaves to be scattered 



source from which we have derived it. J" 'lie enclosure where they are kept. In about 



About five years ago, William Gillespie, Esq., six weeks they attain their full growth, when they 



of the town of Montgomery, Orange Coimty, (N. ^''e of a beautiful golden color. A sma 1 quantity 



Y.,) sowed seed for a nursery of the white mulber- of loaves supplies them for the five first weeks; 



ry, (morus a'ba) for tlie purpose of the culture of t''e sixth week they require an abundant supply., 



the Siik Worm. The ground occupied by the Mr Gi lespie informs us, that during this week 



nursery is about four square rods. This small lot when a stranger visits their apartment, they leave 



yielded last summer 175 skeins of sewing silk off eating, raise their horn and give jjlain iinlica- 



rivalling in softness, strength and beauty, the best ^ions that they know him to be strange, 



imported specimens of the same article. These After feeding about six weeks they quit eatiig 



skeins, with a sufficient quantity of tow for a pair ^"fl ^''<^ prepared to commence s, inning. Oak 



of stockings, would command in market $10. 'J he ^i* walnut leaves, dried in the sun so as to be 



whole labor expended in the culture, Mr Gillespie curled are now thrown into their enclosure ; they 



estimates at $2 — making the product of four lodge in the folds of the leaf, and begin to spin 



square rods $8. O.'ie acre cu'tivated t!iis way from their own bowels — first the tow by which 



Would yield $320, besides the expense of the they attach their web to the leaf, then the thread, 



labour. which they form into a perfect web, so as to shut 



Farmers inight clothe their wives and daugh- themselves closely within, 



ters with silk of a good quality at less exi)ense The larvae or worms enclosed in the balls, that 



than it now re.juires to clothe them in fine cotton. are intended for propogation, cut their way oat of 



It IS estimated that $5,000 worth of sewing silk is the silken cell and escape from their own prison, 



so'd annually in Orange County alone, and the in the form of a butterfly, with beautiful variega- 



whole sale of the article in the State of New York tsd wings ; white paper is placed under them, on 



inay probably be estimated at 150,000. All this which the egg is deposited ; one butterfly will 



