PRACTICAL FARMER. 



51 



where the buds have just started.) The buds will 

 shoot upwards with great, rapidity, and when 

 about one inch high, then cover the stalk lightly 

 with earth, and the fibrous roots will immediately 

 shoot downward, in every direction — this I know. 

 In this way, there is not the least danger of smoth- 

 ering the plants or buds. 



Remember, the top must be nipped off, or the 

 plant will grow from that end only, and the buds 

 will not grow so well. I have found that cover- 

 ing the plant or branch with the earth, when first 

 laid down, is a great error, at least I think so, 

 with all due deference to your better judgment 

 and experience. — Courier. • 



Silk VV^orms are feeding now and some of 

 them windingtheir cocoons. The ordinary meth- 

 od is to lay branches over the wornis or set 

 broom brush upright and they will find a po- 

 sition to their own taste. After they have finished 

 winding, those cocoons to be used for reeling 

 must be boiled in hot water a few hours or laid 

 in the sun three or four days, as the moths will 

 come out in about ten days, if not destroyed, and 

 spoil the cocoon. Those cocoons which are in- 

 tended for seed, should be of the largest size and 

 bright color and firm to the touch. They should 

 be laid away carefully, and in ten or fifteen days, 

 according to the weather, the moths will come 

 out. The male is known by his small size and 

 the continual fluttering of his wings. The female 

 is larger and seldom moves. They should be 

 taken in pairs and put upon sheets of paper and 

 in about twentyfour hours, the female lays three 

 or four hundred eggs. They should be laid away 

 carefully, rolled up, as they adhere to the paper. 

 The moths die soon after the eggs are laid. — • 

 JVoi'thdmpton Courier. 



tFrom the Northampton Courier.) 



Extract from Gen. Tallmadge^s Letters in Europe^ 



SILK A'SiD MULBERRY TREES. 



April 6, 1836. 



In my kist letter from Naples, 1 believe I prom- 

 ised to say something more on the cultivation of 

 silk. I have since travelled through Italy, and es- 

 pecially in the silk districts) and also through 

 France, and have visited many of the manufac- 

 tories in both countries, endeavoring to learn the 

 details of this subject, now so interesting, and, I 

 think, so essential to our country. The limits of 

 a letter, will, however, confine me to a few isolated 

 remarks. 



The weaving of silk, after it gets into skeins, 

 is like any other weaving of like character; it is 

 the production of silk and the habit of growing 

 it, that must be acquired by our country ; and it 

 is, in this view, a mine of boundless wealth, not 



second even to the production of cotton. The 

 country which so lately sur[)rised Europe by 

 sending eight bales of cotton to its market, and 

 now astonishes the world with its countless thou- 

 sands, may soon exhibit a like wonder in the pro- 

 duction of silk. 



In Calabria, which is in the south of Italy, the 

 black mulberry is principally used. In the rest 

 of Italy, tlie white mulberry, common to them 

 and France, is principally used. The north of 

 Ithiy, that is between the Alps and Appenines, 

 produces ! he best and most silk. In this region, 

 and especially iii Sardinia, near Turin, and at No- 

 vi, the English and French are competitors in 

 market, to Durciinse llieir silk as the best in the 

 world ; and yet on the 9th of March, tne enow 

 was one foot and a half deep, and the streets of 

 Novi blocked up like our Cedar street ! In Cala- 

 bria, the silk is produced by the country people, 

 in their families, and im;stly reeled by them. — 

 There are very few factories for reeling in the 

 Neopoli.tan kingdom. In Lombardy, and towards 

 Venice, there are also establishments for reeling, 

 yet the greater part is reeled by the families, in 

 detail, and brought to market in the skein, la 

 Sardinia the cocofous are mostly reeled in estab- 

 lishments. At Novi their reeling establishments 

 are numerous-^-! saw one, now erecting, whicb 

 is % quadrangle two hund.ved feet square, and ap^ 

 prdpriated solely to feeling cocoons. They are 

 'purc?hased from tip near Milan and many milei! 

 distant. This is admitted to be the best silk in 

 the World. The red mulberry is here principally 

 used, and is known as the Calabriat (nulberry. li 

 is described as having a dark fruit j the tree is 

 like our black ; and when I called it black mul- 

 berry, I Was corrected, and was told the stain of 

 the fruit was red and not black, and which gave 

 the character of the tree. The French, in a(Mi- 

 tion to the white mulberry, have a dwarf white, 

 much liked, and getting into use ; but, it must be 

 remembered, there is not in France, and scarcely 

 in Italy, a fence, and they do not graze their fields 

 as we do. With our habit of pasturage, the 

 dwarf would be inadmissible. The Chinese 

 mulberry is unknown in Italy. I found only a 

 few yoimg engrafted trees, but no experiments 

 there, to be relied upon, to establish its superior 

 utility. 



In Italy, and in France, the mulberry is gene- 

 rally planted near the houses, along the road side, 

 by division fences and often like an open orchard. 

 The trees afe formed like a middle sized apple 

 tr-^e. Its shade does not injure the land. The 

 tree in Italy is usually made to sustain a gra[)e vine 

 and the field is cultivated for wheat and other 

 croj)s. There is less discrimination here than you 

 would imagine in the kind of mulberrv. The 



