34 



SILK MANUAL. AND 



when I gave the Rev. Mr Thomas a few cuttings, 

 and with them a sprout with a fibre of root, which 

 was recommended to his special care. He gave 

 it a good situation, and its growth was remarkable. 

 In three months, I have no doubt it had increased 

 in volume one hundred fold. At this time, about 

 the first of September, I advised Mr T. to lay it; 

 but he replied that it was so beautiful he disliked 

 to spoil it. He did, however, lay it in the early 

 l^art of September, and in three months more, 

 when he was talking of a return to Carolina, I of- 

 fered him ten dollars, I think, for the product of 

 the little plant I had given him six months before. 

 He probably got much more. The case, however, 

 was a remarkable one. 



The plant may be propagated here much more 

 rapidly than at the north, as the growing season 

 is ten months instead of five or six ; but we are 

 not to expect, in extended operations, to realize 

 results in proportion to Mr Thomas's success with 

 a single plant. Mostly from the small lot of plants 

 I brought on as above, there are now some twenty 

 or thirty thousand in the territory; and as within 

 the last year I have introduced a new and larger 

 stock from the north, and as others have also 

 brought in some within two or three years, if al- 

 lowed to proceed in their propagation by our 

 masters, the Seminoles, there inay be millions of 

 the Morus multicaulis in East Florida. The un- 

 fortunate Mott, when attacked and murdered, was 

 employed in planting the Morus multicaulis. 



D. Brown. 



St Augustine, June 13, 1836. 



From the Silk Culturist. 

 Fredericksburg, Va., June 30, 1836. 

 Mr F. G. CoMSTOCK, 



Dear Sir: — The excitement upon the silk 

 business is getting high in this part of the country. 

 A company, called the Potomac Silk and Agricul- 

 tural Company, obtained a charter from the legis- 

 lature in March last, with a capital cf $5000, with 

 the privilege of increasing it to $50,000 They 

 held their first meeting on the 4th inst. when the 

 following officers were elected : — 



John Moncure, President. 

 Wm A. Jackson, ") 



Henry R. Robv, ! r>. 



rri r^ T^ > .Directors. 



Thomas F. Knox, ( 



William Allen, J 

 Thorpas F. Knox, Sec. and Treas. 



The Company have purchased. 400 acres of 

 land, and have planted about 2000 Chinese Mul- 

 berry trees. They fed about 5000 worms this 

 season, merely as an experiment, in an old house, 

 without a covering, and consequently exposed to 



all the rain that fell, and remarkable to say, not a 

 single worm died ; the rain seemed rather to re- 

 fresh them. A gentleman who visited the farm 

 a few days since, brought home with him a small 

 bush that was filled with cocoons of very large 

 size. The worms were fed with the black and 

 white mulberry leaf, of which there is a sufficiency 

 to feed one million of worms. The black and 

 white mulberry tree is very abundant on the land, 

 some of very large size. 



Respectfully, H. R. Roby. 



From the Silk Culturist. 

 Ausierlitz, JV. Y. June 10, 1836. 



F. G. CoMSTOCK, Esq. 



Sir — I have perused your valuable paper, the 

 "Culturist," the year past, and have subscribed for 

 the year to come. I am a plain, "matter of fact" 

 farmer, but would like to see the tiine when mul- 

 berry nurseries and silk manufactories in America 

 shall be as common as thej'^ are now in France 

 and Italy ; and when old England shall send out 

 her ships to American ports to bring back silks of 

 the richest kinds. I am fully ])ersuaded that the 

 cultivation of the mulberry tree is going to be a 

 valuable business for a farmer, even if he does not 

 wish to make use of them himself for silk; for at 

 the price at which they are selling here (which is 

 18 cents for each tree 3 years old), they will be 

 valuable for years to come. 



I hfive obtained a ^ew trees, and have sown 

 seed the last spring, and have also about 100 cut- 

 tings of the Morus multicaulis, or Chinese mul- 

 berry, which have been in the ground but twenty 

 days, and have grown above the ground from six 

 to eight inches. Many of them have also put out 

 two shoots, though there was but one bud on them 

 when planted — they were about two or three 

 inches in length, and the buds had not started, 

 when they were put into the ground. Now, sir, 

 will you please give me some information relative 

 to the propagation of this valuable species of the 

 mulberry : — 



i 1st. Can I increase my stnok^if plawto faster by 

 cuttings than by layers.^ 



2d. If so, when should they be cut, and how 

 kept till planted ? 



3d. Should there be more than one bud to each 

 cutting? 



4th. If propagating from layers is the best 

 method, at what time should they be laid down, 

 and should all the shoots be laid down, or one left 

 standing? 



5th. As T was desirous of increasing my stock 

 as fast as possible, I cut off the trees in the spring 

 near the ground, and there are several shoots from 

 each already started ; now from these may I gain 

 anything by bending them down to the ground to 



