102 



SILK MANUAL, AND 



Secondli/, with regard to the cheapness of this 

 kind of food. This may perhaps he best deter- 

 mined by calculation. We will suppo^^e that an 

 orchard is planted on an acre of ground, and that 

 the trees stand at a distance of twenty five feet 

 asunder, which would not be too near when they 

 are merely intended for this purpose. This would 

 give about seventy trees to the acre. The trees at 

 twenty five cents each would cost $18,75; and 

 the expense of planting, supposing each tree to 

 cost ten cents each, vvouhl be 7 dollars. While 

 the trees aie small, the land may be tilled and will 

 produce as much as before ; and from the time 

 they begin to bear,, they may be considered as 

 paying for the ground they occupy, by their fruit. 

 Such an orchard, therefore, in a good bearing 

 state, would cost as follows: 



One acre of land $50 00 



Seventy trees, 1» id 



Planting, 7 00 



$76 75 

 The annual interest on this sum at seven per 

 cent, would be $5,30, which would be the actual 

 expense of each crop, as the pastuie of the ground 

 woukl pay for gathering. If each tree bears on 

 an average five bu&helsa year, (this is low esti- 

 mate if the mosti)roductive varieties are selected,) 

 the annuid crop would be three hundred and fifty 

 bushels, which according to the preceding calcu- 

 lation would be at the nite of one cent and a half 

 a bushel. Estimating the cost at double this, the 

 clear profit in the second experiment before stated, 

 instead of being $41,45, would actually be $74,45. 

 One of our neighbors, last year, made forty 

 dollars from a small orchard of about an acre, l)y 

 fattening hogs,, and reserved a large sujjply for 

 winter and other use. 



If ii>siead of feeding potatoes to their hogs, 

 farmers would sell their potatoes, and purchase 

 apples for this purpose, they would find it to their 

 advantage, in ordinary seasons, apples suitable 

 for feeding may be had at one quarter the price 

 of potatoes, or even less, and their superior vahie 

 has been already shown. It would be far prefer- 

 able, however, if they would raise their own 

 apples, of kinds expressly for this purpose.— Gen- 

 esee Farmer, 



Silk Culture. — We have received from Mr 

 Kenrick of Newton, the indefatigable student of 

 vegetable nature, his annual "catalogue of fruit 

 and hardy ornamental trees, shrubs, herbaceous 

 plants, &c." cultivated at the extensive and wtll 

 known nursery of Nonantum Hill. To this pub- 

 lication is appended a most interesting and valua- 

 ble memoir on the culture of Silk, and the treat- 

 ment of the Mulberry — a paper which recoin- 



mends itself to the attention of every friend of 

 Home Industry, and deserves circulation through 

 the country. Such men as Kenritrk are the real- 

 benefactors of our race. Theorists may think and 

 elucidate — practical n>en may experiment and 

 execute ; but those who, like our author, com- 

 bine both characters, affording example as well as 

 precept, are the teachers to whom their fellow men 

 may most confidently look for profitable instruc- 

 tion. The little treatise before us, comj, rising less 

 than a dozen duodecimo pages, is stored with 

 information worth millions of money to the 

 American people, ft is a remarkably lucid expo- 

 sicion of the whole phenomena of the Silk mys- 

 tery — and in a form as concise as- its style is 

 clear and attractive. Were we not apprehensive 

 of infringing on the courtesies of authorship, we 

 should forthwith commence transferring these 



|>«gt.a lO (JUi u<jlnijin3. At u\\ events, we filiall 



have occasion fretpiently to refer to its details- 

 and directions ; and with leave of Mr K. will 

 hereafter republish the whole. Meantime we 

 cannot forego the gratification of copying the few 

 paragraphs subjoined, being the eloping iiorlion of 

 the work : 



" The value of silks imported into the Unit'^ 

 States, during the year ending Se[)t. 30, 1835 '^^ 

 stated on the authority of the Hon. Wihiain Jn'K- 

 son, member of Congress from Massacliue^'^j 

 amounted to $16,497,980,. this being tlie orgi'>«l 

 or first cost in the foreign country. Dnrirg "'is 

 period only $486,572 worth of this great amount 

 was exjjorted ; and the actual cost of l'>^ above 

 to the American people, or the whole retail cost 

 to tlie actual consumer, may be Fairlj estimated at 

 more than $22,000,000 for the year. Most of all 

 this was imported from Italy, Switzerland, and 

 from France : fonuerly half onr imports were 

 from China. Yet neither the articles of raw silk,, 

 nor any of those numerous, substantial and e.e- 

 gant fabricfi, which are composed of part siik and 

 part cotton, or of mixtures ol silk and worsted 

 are included in tlie at>ove amount. And the de- 

 mand for silks which is now so great, is contin- 

 ually increasing. Not half this amount was con- 

 sumed six years ago; and since 1821, and durnig 

 fifteen years, the annual amount of silks consum- 

 ed has doubled twice. 



Silk is believed to be eminently sulapted to the 

 soil and climate of every division of this great 

 republic ; our serene atmosphere is peculiarly fa- 

 vorable to its growth, and the prolonged and vig- 

 orous state of vegetation during our summers. 

 The genial climate for silk is ours, and the highly 

 favored soil of one whole continent of the great 

 western world, which, by an especial jnovidence, 

 with the exception only of Mexico, has fallen to 

 our share and is ours exclusively. 



