98 



SILK MANUAL, AND 



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surface of the earth ; sprinkle the bed with a wa- 

 tering pot, and put on the glasses ; keep the bed 

 ])roperly moistened by watering every day, and 

 throw matting over the glass at night, and in the 

 middle of the day, to protect both from frost and 

 the hot sun. By the middl»; of May, the plaiits 

 will be four, six or eiglit inches high, and may 

 then be transplanted to the place they are to grow, 

 like cabbage plants, watering them once a day for 

 eight or ten days, if the weather is dry ; they will 

 be found to be well rooted, and will grow from 

 four to six feet the same season, and will ripen 

 their wood so that the ensuing winter will not 

 injure them. After the first year, I have never 

 seen any of them lost by the winter, except in 

 some extra cases, and in these cases the white 

 midberry has suffered, and even the native mul- 

 berry, fully as much as the multicaulis. Last 

 winter, a white mulberry tree. se\en or eight years 

 old in the western part of tlie city of Baltimore, 

 was killed to the ground; while my morus multi- 

 caulis, not a quarter of a mile from it, and north 

 of it too^ and in a higher situation, was not in- 

 jured." 



SJL.K. 



We have had occasion more than once to sj.eak 

 of the experiments in silk culture in Muskingum 

 county during the past season, and have cxliil>ited 

 specimens of beautiful silk made by a fellow 

 townsuian during the past summer. The fo'low- 

 ing communication states a further experiment, 

 that of rearing two sets of worms during the sa^ne 

 season, an experiment in which flir VVestbrook 

 was entirely succesful. We have visited his nur- 

 series of young mulberry trees, and must pm- 

 noimce them the handsomest we have seen. We 

 also procured last spring, a few plants of the Mo- 

 rus IViulticaulis, which have grown finely, and 

 shotdd they not kill down badly this winter, we 

 shall have several ]iun<lred cuttings next sjuing. 

 The great stuad>ling block in silk culture, the 

 reeling process, has proved to be a small matter 

 when imderstood. 



Mr Westbrook has left a s|)ecimen of his own 

 manufacture of sewing silk witii us, which ran be 

 seen by calling at this office. 

 Mkssrs Parke & BeiNNEtt : 



Last spring I obtained an ounce and a half of 

 the White Rlulberry seed, which I sowed on the 

 11th and 12th of April, on a bed 40 feet long, and 

 13 broad, in rows twelve indies apart, watering 

 the bed twice or three times a week in dry wea- 

 ther, once a week at least with soap suds. A part 

 of my seed, say one half, c;ime up the last of that 

 month and the first of May, when the dry weather 

 came on. The balance of my seed did not come 

 up until after the long spell of rain about the first 

 of June. By keeping the bed clean, and occasion- 

 ally stirring the ground between the rows, the 



plants grew rapidly, and those which came up 

 before the drought, jierhaps the nundier of three 

 or fdiir thousand, have attained to the average 

 height of three or four feet, and some to the 

 height of four feet ten inches ; but were I to sow 

 again, I should occupy at [east twice as much 

 gromid. 



I also obtained of Mr C. G. Wilson, ten trees 

 of the Chinese Mulberry of last year's growth, 

 about a foot in heigiit, which were brought from 

 Boston, and did not arrive here until about the first 

 of June, at which time they were transplanted, 

 but had no appearance of vegetating for about ten 

 days, when the buds next the ground began to 

 develo[)e themselves, the top of liie stock down 

 to those buds dried up. By occasional watering 

 in dry weather, and stirring the ground about the 

 roots, those buds, together with several sprouts or 

 suckeis. which sprang uj) fi'om the roots, some at 

 the distaiic.; of two or tun'« mciies fiu/ntlio iiiitht 

 stalk, grew rapidly and have attained to the aver- 

 a;ie height of five feet ten inches, and one measur- 

 ing six feet six inches, clothed with the most beau- 

 tiful foliage 1 ever saw, of a deep gre:-n,. and of a 

 beautiful glossy silky api)earance, some of the 

 leaves measuring eleven and one fourth inches in 

 length and ten in breadth. I iiitend, if I can 

 I res(Mve these tiMi trees entire the coming winter,, 

 to increase n>y number to one thousand from cut- 

 tings. 



I also o!)tained a few silkworm eggs last spring, 

 whicli came out on the 12th and 13th of Rlay, and 

 fed tiiem on the native Mulberry as a school of 

 expeiiment, they grew well and wound their co- 

 coons in thirty-five days from the date of their 

 luitchiiig. The moth came out in a few days and 

 laid their eggs, and as it has been shown that two 

 crojis in a year have been raised in the United 

 States, and to use a trite adage, " what has been 

 <lone may be done again," in order to test the 

 experiment satisfactorily, I allowed a second crop 

 to hatch : they came out on 13th of July, and 

 were fid from the limbs which I cut from my 

 seeding trees, until the fourth age, anri tlio l>alanftj 

 of the season on the native mulbtrry. The worms 

 grew as ra|>i<i!y, and ap[)eared equally as healthy 

 and vigorous as the former eroji, and came to ma- 

 turity five days sooner, and commenced spinning 

 their cocoorvs in thirty days from the date of their 

 hatching, and the cuoooiis were about the same 

 weight. 



The foregoing exposition will prove beyond iha 

 shadow of a doubt, the |>racti'-al)ility of rearing two 

 crops of worms in a season in our climate, and 

 also the adajitation of our climate and soil to the 

 successful culture of the mulberry, for in turning 

 over the pages of horticulture, there is no where 

 recorded, so luxuriant a growth as in the above 

 instance. — Zanesville [Ohio) Gazette. 



