80 



SILK MANUAL, AND 



crops in season, had better not be put in at all, as 

 labor and seed are tlius pievented from being 

 thrown away. It is besides always easier to per- 

 form work in the proper season than at any other 

 time ; for instance, how many cold fingers would 

 be prevented if farmers' corn was gathered and 

 husked in October, instead of remaining on the 

 stalk or in the shock till November or December ; 

 and how certainly would the waste and inconve- 

 nience of frost-bitten potatoes be obviated if they 

 were secured in the cellar, or buried in the holes 

 the last of September or the first of October. All 

 crops should be gathered when they are ripe : ex- 

 posure after that period must, from the nature of 

 things, be injurious. 



Mem. Always keep out of debt. This rule 

 must be inflexible ; or if not absolutely s©, the 

 only exception must be in the purchase of land. 

 The man who pays down will save twenty dollars 

 in the hundred in his trading. By running in 

 debt a few times, a man acquires the habit of pur- 

 chasing a tTiousand things of which he stands in no 

 need ; one of the very worst habits a farmer can 

 acquire, and which is sure, if persisted in, to re- 

 duce to poverty. Never buy an article because 

 it's cheap, till you have inquired whether you 

 cannot as well do without it as to have it ; and 

 whether the money you must use cannot be more 

 profitably employed. If you need a thing pay for 

 it ; and save your 20 per cent, by paying your me- 

 chanic, your day laborer, your bookseller, and 

 your Printer, down. — Gen. Far. 



Chinese Mulberry. — Although defoliation 

 might injure or destroy some trees and vegetables, 

 the leaves being to the vegetable what lungs and 

 stomach are to the animal life, it does not follow 

 that all trees and vegetables suffer alike by defoli- 

 aiton. The grasses, the box, the willow, and some 

 others, may be cut, headed down, or the leaves 

 plucked almost for an indefinite period, without 

 effecting destruction. Do not old pastures pro- 

 duce bett<;rand sweeter grasses by frequent crop- 

 ping, that when first laid down ? Shall it then be 

 thought wonderful that the Chinese xMorus Multi- 

 caulis will bear defoliation several times during the 

 same season ? From experiments already made, 

 it ai)|)ears that this valuable |)lant has been pluck- 

 ed of its leaves foj feeding worms, not less than 

 four or five times without any injury to its growth, 



— but the leading shoots must not to be topped ; 



— and every successive crop of leaves are improv- 

 ed in imitiber and weight. At the same time, the 

 wood is acquiring hardness for future use. If the 

 object be the formation of wood, then take off the 

 leading end of the tree or shoot. 



Another excellence of the Chinese mulberry is 

 the ri(;liness of its leaf for feeding worms — while 

 100 pounds of white mulberry leaves are required 



to feed worms suflieient to make one bushel of 

 cocoons, 75 to 80 of the Morns Multicaulis will 

 do the same thing ; and while it is a full day's 

 work to pick 100 lbs. of white mulberry leaves — 

 with the same labor 500 lbs. of the Morus Multi- 

 caulis might be collected. And while it is gener- 

 ally allowed that it requires about 3000 worms fed 

 on white mulberry to make one bushel of cocoons, 

 the same quantity of cocoons have the present 

 year been made with 2000 worms fed with the 

 Chinese mulberry. — Northampton Cour. 



Drying Fruit. — As present appearances indi- 

 cate a plentiful supply of the kinds of fruits most 

 commonly prepared for future use by drying, we 

 copy from an Ohio paper the following descrip- 

 tion of a cupboard as it may be called, which will 

 materially aid the operation. " Take two boards 

 eighteen or twenty inches wide, and four feet long ; 

 on the top nail a cover, extending a little over the 

 front; then make ten or twelve drawers, of the 

 width of the inside of the frame, say three feet, 

 and two or three inches deep, the frame of the 

 drawers to be made of common stuff, and the bot- 

 tom of narrow pieces of thin stuff, iastened five- 

 eighths of an inch from each other. Nail pieces 

 on the inside of the board frame for the drawers 

 to slide on, and the machine is done." 



Place the fruit to be dried on the slits of the draw- 

 ers, and the air will circulate freely through the 

 whole ; it can be placed outdoors, or in the house, 

 as occasion may require, or the drawers may be 

 taken out for the action of the sun upon the fruit. 

 The whole is cheap, easily made, and very con- 

 venient. 



A Texan. — I jocosely asked a ragged hunter 

 who was a smart, active young fellow, of the 

 steamboat and alligator breed, whether be was a 

 rhinoceros or a hyena, as he was so eager for a 

 fight with the invaders. ' Neither the one, nor 

 t'other, Colonel,' says he, 'but a whole menagerie 

 in myself. I'm shaggy as a bear, wolfish about 

 the head, active as a cougar, and can grin like a 

 hyena, until the bark will curl off a gum log. 

 There's a sprinkling of all sorts in me, from the 

 lion down to the skunk ; and before the war is 

 over you'll pronounce me an entire Zoological In- 

 stitute, or I miss a figure in my calculation. I 

 promise to swallow Santa Anna, without gagging, 

 if you will only skewer back his ears, and grease 

 his head a little. 



An Irishman had a bell hung in his lodging 

 rooms with a string so annexed that he could ring 

 the bell while in bed. — ' And what use is that .^' 

 said one of his neighbors. Oh it is mighty con- 

 venient,' he re[)lied, 'for when I have slept long 

 enough I can ring the bell and wake myself up.' 



