F E S S E N E IN ' S 



AND 



B«Toted to the Culture of J§ilk, Agriciiltwre and Kural Ecououiy. 



VOL. II. 



BOSTON, APRIL, 1837. 



NO 12. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY 



JOSEPH BRECIv & CO. 



51 ^ 52 JVorth Market St., at the JV. E. Farmer Office. 



T. G. FESSENDEN, Editor. 



Fifty cents per year — twelve copies for five dollars 

 ■ — always in advance. 



[O* Postmasters and Agents allowed 10 per cent on 

 all subscribers. 



BOSTON, APRIL, 1837. 



(From the Genesee Farmer.) 

 SIEilC AND THE MULBERRY. 



Some individuals seeiu disposed to sneer at the 

 idea that the silk business can ever become of 

 much consequence to the counti-y, or that such 

 siuidl beginnings as we at present witness, can ev- 

 er grow into establishments able to compete with 

 the long and permanently fixed ones of France or 

 England. For ourselves, we think differently of 

 tiie enterprise. Unless individuals should be so 

 cheated and humbugged by men who care more 

 about making money, than the benefit of the silk 

 business, as to cause a prejudice against the whole 

 affair, the time is not distant when American in- 

 genuity, and American skill, will produce fabrics 

 which will vie with the best of those from abroad. 

 Difficulties which have required centuries to over? 

 come in France and other j)arts of the world will 

 not retard us as many years ; as the business of 

 raising silk is now so exlremely easy and siujple, 

 so the reward will be ample. During the last year 

 the quantity of silk imported amounted to about 

 seventeen millions of dollars, and a manufacture 

 which shall eventually save this amotmt to tlio 

 nation, should not be treated as an affair of little 

 moment. The history of the silk trade and busi- 

 ness in France, was given a few years ago, in a 

 work written by Mr Mavet. From this vvo-i-k it 

 appears that the first nmlberry tree was brought 

 into France and planted during the time of the 

 crusades, by Gulpape of St, Auban, Lord of Al- 

 Jau, three leagues from Moutmeliart. This iden- 



tical tree was living in 1810, when the owner of 

 the premises, M. De La Tour du pay-le-Chaux, 

 caused this monument of antiquity and venerable 

 parent of French njulberry to be ])reserved and 

 n!S|)ected, by having a low wall built around it, 

 and forbidding its leaves to be gathered. Ihe 

 cuttings or descendants of this tree now cover the 

 soil of France, and produced to the State in ISIO, 

 a reveiKie of more than 100 m illions of pounds 

 of raw silk, and more than 410 millions of 

 francs in industry, an amount greatly increased 

 since that time. Only let silk growers be careful 

 how they suffer themselves to be hoaxed by de- 

 signing speculators, and by pursuing the business 

 steadily and prudently, gatliering experience, and 

 correcting the errors of a new and untried busi- 

 ness by the |.ublished results of the labor of teth- 

 ers, they vrill find themselves in the road to com- 

 petence and independence. 



SILK CULTURE. 



Mons. Tinelli, an Italian gentleman, (who was 

 a sojourner here during a greater pi rt of last win- 

 ter,) has just published in New York a neat little 

 vvork of 54 pjiges, entitled "Hints on the cultiva- 

 tion of the Mulberry, with some general observa- 

 tions on the production of bilk." 'ihe author has 

 j)o!itely sent us a copy, wiiicli we have perused 

 with much pleasure, as it affords many, to us, 

 new and very useful facts in relation to the cul- 

 ture of the mulberry and silk, and the rearing of 

 worms. 



This subject, which, for a few years past has 

 elicited the attention of many enterprising men in 

 this country, and especially in the eastern states, 

 is as yet but little understood, and it is for that 

 reason that the introduction among us of this itti- 

 j)ortajit branch of com.iiercial industry is so tar- 

 dily effected. For a want of proper knowledge 

 of the first princi|tles necessary to be known to 

 make the culture of silk profitable, niany who 

 have undertaken it have be(rome discouraged, and 

 desisted, irom the belief that the receipts would 



