182 



SILK MANUAL, AND 



silk, worth now, at wholesale price, five cents the 

 skein. The h ghest price ot cocoons is $4 per bushel. 

 Assuming these data, and basing our calculation upon 

 five bushels of cocoons, which a family of girls may ea- 

 sily produce every year, h-t us see what would be the 

 gain which would accrue to this family in, five years, 

 from the use of this m tchine. 

 The 25 bushels ol cocoons would produce 8,750 skeins 



silk, worth five cents at wholesale, - - $437 5U 

 From which deduct the wages of a woman, 



50 days at 50 cents, . - - - $25 00 

 Add cost of machine, ... - :i5 00 



And it makes a total of 



GO 00 



And leaves a profit of - - $377 50 

 The highest price at which cocoons sell is $4, 



which would be, for the 25 bushels, - - 100 00 



$277 50 

 Which shows a profit, in buying and using this ma- 

 chine, over selling the cocoons, in the small fluantily of 

 25 bushels, of $277 50. This would acquire the labor 

 of a woman only ten days in a year, or 50 days in the 

 five years. The remainder of the time, to any extent 

 required, might be as profitably applii-d, in working up 

 the cocoons of the neighborhood, of the town, or of 

 the county ; and the value of the machine would be but 

 little impaired by these earnings ! Every silk district 

 should have one of Brooks's machines.— v'J/in?!?/ Cult. 



GiN-SENG AND Garlick.— The gin-seng is a native 

 of Tartary, Corea, and also thrives in Canada, Virginia 

 and Pennsylvania, in shaded and damp situations, as it 

 soon perishes under the solar rays. The Chinese at- 

 tach considerable vahie to it. Thumburg informs us 

 tliat it sometimes fetches forty pounds a pound ; and 

 Osbeck states that in his time, it was woitli twcntyfour 

 times its weight in silver. This enormous ])rice fre- 

 quently induced smugglers to bring it into the Chinese 

 territory; but the severest laws were enacted to punish 

 this fraudulent trt.thc. Tlie Tartars alone possess the 

 privilege of cultivating and collecting it; and the dis- 

 tricts that produce this precious plant are surrounded 

 with palisade, and ?triotly guarded. In 1707, the Em- 

 peror of China, to increase his revenue, sent a body of 

 10,000 troops to collect gin-seng. According to the 

 Chinese physicians, this root possesses the lacuity of 

 enovating exhausted constitutions; giving fresh vigor; 

 raising the drooping moral and physical faculties ; and 

 restoring to health and embonpoint the victim of debau- 

 chery. It is also said, that a bite of the root chewed by 

 a man running a race, will prevent his competitor from 

 getting the start of him. 



It is somewhat singular that the same property is at- 

 tributed to garlic ; and ihe Hungarian jockeys frequent- 

 ly tie a clove of it to their racer's bits, when the iiorses 

 that run against them, fall back the moment they breath 

 tlie offensive odor. It has been proved that no horse 

 will eat in a manger if the mouth of any other steed in 

 the stable has been rubbed with the juice of this plant. 

 I had occasion to witness this fact. A horse of mine 

 ■was in tlie same stall with one belonging to a brother 

 officer; mine fell away and refused his food, while 

 his companion throve uncommonly well. I at last diis- 

 covered that a German groom who had charge of the 

 prosperous animal, had recourse to this vile stratagem. 

 It is also supposed that men who eat garlic, knock up 

 on u march the soldiers who have not made use of it. — 

 Hence, in the old regulations of the French armies, 

 there existed an order to prohibit the use of garlic when 

 troops were on a march. — MiUigcns Curiosities of Med. 

 Experience. 



FAU3JF.R-S \VORIv FOR APKIL. 



Spring Wheat. — Great care should be tak^n wilfi 

 regard to the seed from which we attempt to obtain our 

 ctops, arid particularly of wheat. " One error In re may 

 mar our whole system, and render our skill productive 

 of as much evil as good On poor and worn out land, 

 the evil of sowing impure seed will.' grain or grass seed 

 would be gveat; but when the ground is in high order, 

 the crop is more injured ; the noxious plants tuke firm- 

 er h'lld, and are mere difficult to be eradicated. It 

 would be belter for a fanner to pick over his seed wheat 

 bv single handluls, than to sow cockle darnel, tares and 

 other vegetable nuisances." 



A correspondent gives the following directions for 

 preparing seed wheat : " The only succesb.lul course is 

 to prepare the seed about ten diivs before sowing time. 

 This is done by s<^leeling clean and plump seed, passing 

 it through water in a tub ;iboiit half ii bushel at a lime, 

 and washing it and skimming oil" the inntter that floats; 

 then empty it into a basket lo diain ; then lay it on a 

 clean floor, and rake in two quarts of slacked lime and 

 one quart of plaster to the bushel, and if too dry, sprin- 

 kle on water, and continue to stir it till all is covered 

 with the lime and plaster. In this way you may pro- 

 ceed until you have prepared your whole seed. Let it 

 remain in w ho;ip one day, tlien spread it and move it 

 daily, until it becomes perfectly dry ; it is then fit to 

 sow, and you may then sow it if the land should hap- 

 pen to be quite wet?" 



The same writer observes that " the quantity of wheat 

 to an acre, should be a bushel and twenty quarts. lu 

 the process of sowing, you may n it be able to a(>jM)rtion 

 your seed exactly to the acre; tl erelore, wlun you 

 "have sowed and jiloughed in the quantity proposed for 

 the acii?, you may gather all that remains, with the 

 liine and phistet, and sow it on the whole piece of huid, 

 passing across the furrows. This will make it even, 

 and < ause a vtiy equal distiibution of the seed, which 

 may then he hisrrowed. After the wheat has come up 

 three or four inches above ground, sow one bii>iiel of 

 p!abt(,'i' to the acre, or house ashes, equivalent, as you 

 please, or ieached ashes, increasiug tlie quantity." 



A writer in the Maine Farmer of the 28lh ult., with 

 the signature B. S., gives the following siatement on 

 this subject : 



'■'■ .\ gimtlcman, who for several years has been a suc- 

 cessihi cultivator of wheat, lius pursued the following 

 method He |)louglis the 1 md he intends to be sown 

 with wheat, as late in the fall as possible, with the fur- 

 rows running north and south ; so that every part of the 

 surfice shall be equally exposed to tin; .sun s rays. Jn 

 the spring, as soon as the fVost is out s. fficiently to lev- 

 el the ground, he puts on his team with a stout harrow, 

 and sows his wheal without regard to the earliness of 

 the season. Here let me remark, that I believe spring 

 frosts seldom, if ever, injure grain in the least; but an 

 early frost in the fall is very liable to, especially if it 

 come while the grain is in the rnilk. 



" I su;.pose tjie success of the gentleman alluded to 

 above, to flepend principiilly on his practice of late 

 ploughing and early sowing " * * * * 



" 'j'lie oggs or larvae of insects are early deposited in 

 the earth, in such cells and with such supplies of iiiitri- 

 nienl for their infantile state as their natures require. — 

 The parent insect does not anticipate, and of course 

 makes no provi.-ion for their disturbance or relnoval. — 

 Late ploughing effectually dislodges a great portion of 

 them from their winter quarters, and exposes them to 

 t.ie sudden changes of v\eather — the alternate welling 

 and drying, freezing and thawing, which we inevitably 

 have late in the fall and early in ihe spring. Tliis ex- 

 posure is more than they can endure, and the natural 

 consequence is, that they perish in myriads." 



