130 



SILK MANUAL, AND 



None but the young trees are ever injured by 

 winter, and all we have to do is to give them siicli 

 a start as to enable them to ripen their wood pre- 

 vious to the approach of very cold weather. I 

 raise all my trees from cuttings in a hot bed. — 

 About the first of March, I make an ordinary hot 

 bed, like those used for cabbage plants ; then I 

 take the young wood of last year's growth, and 

 cut it into pieces about two inches long, merely 

 leaving a single bud on each ; thede pieces I stick 

 in the°hot bed, three inches apart, in a slanting 

 direction, the upper end inclining to the north, 

 and burying it so that the bud i.s scarcely seen at 

 the surface of the earth ; sprinkle the bed with a 

 watering pot, and put on the glasses ; keep the 

 bed properly 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. I5y the middle of May, the 

 plants will be four, six or eight indites high, and 

 may than be transplanted to the place they are to 

 grow, like cabbage-plants, watering them t>nce a 

 day fur 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, 1 have 

 never seen any of them lost by the winter, exce(>t 

 in some extra cases, and in these the white mul- 

 berry has suffered, and even the native mulberry, 

 fully as much as the n>ulticaulis. Last winter, a 

 white mulberry tree, seven or eight years old, ni 

 the western part of the city of Baltimore, was 

 killed to the ground ; while my morns muUicau- 

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

 too, and in a higher situation, was not injured. 



Gideon B. Smith. 



BKET SUGAR. 



BT W. G. 



the manufacture in France, assert that thi^l'e can 

 be no doubt of the practicability and j.rofitablene^s 

 of domestic or ftimily mannfactnre, and that there 

 are large quantities act\ially so manufactured in 

 France, In addition to these statements, in the 

 '•Journal dcs Debats," of April 15, 1836, appears 

 an article on this subject, in which it is stated, 

 that four residents in the village of Wallers, de- 

 partment of the North, formed an association for 

 making sugar, subscribing 50 francs each as cap- 

 ital. One was a blacksmith, the other farmers. 

 These men were able to make from 40 to 50 lbs. 

 a day, of sugar of a medium quality, a result sur- 

 prising, considering their simple mode of conduct- 

 ing the jjrocess. They used curry combs to rasp 

 the beet roots, used linen bags for expressing the 

 juice, and the syrup thus obtained, was boiled in 

 pots on the blacksmith's fires. Several others are 

 mentioned as having introduced the business on 

 a small scale sir:cessfully, and the French editor 

 intimates as his opinion, that the time is not dis- 

 tant, when every fitmily in that country, will 

 make their own sugar, as they now do their pre- 

 serves. 



That some experience in the manufacture of 

 beet sugar by companies and capitalits m this 

 country must be acquired, before it can be intro- 

 duced "into families, can be readily conceived, but 

 as the processes become sim|)lified, and our lar- 

 n>ers become familiarized with them, and with 

 the culture of the beet, we can see no reason why 

 it cannot be as well made in families here as in 

 France ; and tliere is no reason for doubt but 

 that it will. If with cooking pots and a black- 

 smith's fire, six or seven dollars worth of sugar 

 were produced ; tl ere can surely be no obstacles 

 that American perseverance, and an improved ap- 

 paratus will find insuperable. — Genesee Far. 



There seems to be some little conflicting differ- 

 ence of opinion on the possibility of manufactur- 

 ing beet sugar profitably by individuals or families, 

 among those whose attention has been drawn to 

 the subject, and who profess to speak from exper- 

 ^jment. For instance, Mr Sleigh of Philadelphia,^ 

 in a late communication to the \J, S. Gazette of 

 that city, says: «' An establishment will not clear 

 its expense, unless it be calculateil to manufacture 

 at least from two to five hundred pounds c.f sugar 

 a day ; so that the idea of individuals in this coun- 

 try manufacturing profitably for private consump- 

 tion is preposterous; their sugar would stand 

 thenj, including labor, a dollar a pound." This 

 opinion Mr Sleigh says he has come to "after nu- 

 merous experiments." 



On the other hand, Mr Le Ray de Chaumont, 

 Mr Isiiard, and others intimately acquainted with 



(From the Maine Farmer.) 

 RAISING -WHEAT. 



Mr Holmes : — In your paper of the 9th ult. 

 a correspondent calls on me far further reinarks 

 on my farming operations, more particularly as to 

 my method of cultivating wheat. 



1 had intended to have made a communication 

 on this subject as soon as 1 had ascertained the 

 amount of my crops. That time has not arrived, 

 but no matter,! shall not probably write so much, 

 no; so often, as to make it very burdensome, if I 

 begin now. 



In 1835, as I have said in a former number, my 

 wheat was sown mostly on land broken up in June 

 and July previous — part of it in grass, most clo- 

 ver — the crop turned in — part was cross ploughed 

 in the fall, part in the spring, and part not cross 

 ploughed at all. The quantity sown, and manner 

 of preparing the seed and the amount of crop was 

 stated. On all that field, leached ashes were spread, 



