250 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 2, ISSM '* 



work until they have cast off their first skin, which 

 is in about one week. At the expiration of the 

 first week, they are removed into a room or apart- 

 ment fitted up for their labors. This room should 

 be as dark as a common sitting room vvilli all the 

 outer blinds closed or windows curtained. The 

 worm always avoids the direct rays of light. The 

 temperature of the apartment should always be 

 kept at about summer heat. In case of unusual 

 cold the worms will appear torpid, and seem to 

 make no progress in their labours. The "worms 

 are fed upon tnhks and shelves. These tables or 

 shelves are phced one above another, at a distance 

 convenient for feeding. Thoy are from two to 

 three feet wide and may be of any length, having 

 ledges on their sides to prevent the worms from 

 falling down. Care should be taken to keep the 

 tables or shelves clean. It ia usual however to 

 change their bed twice or thrice only, while the 

 worms are small. The worm is supposed to suffer 

 an inconvenience from being disturbed toward the 

 close of their labors. Yet the practice of somo is 

 to change their bed even in their last week. The 

 tables or shelves should have no communication 

 with the sides of the room or apartment where 

 they are placed, and to prevent pismires or ants 

 from ascending the legs of the tables or shelves, 

 tar must be applied. In about four weeks from the 

 time the worms are hatched thoy begin to wind. — 

 They begin to leave their food and may he seen 

 seeking a refuge for that purpose. Twigs or 

 branches of trees with tUe leaves on must then be 

 prepared. The chcsnut or white oak twig is used 

 for the worm to form its cocoon upon. Some pre- 

 fer the one, some the other. The leaf of the ches- 

 nut will roll with greater facility but is more like- 

 ly to break and crumble than the white oak. — 

 These tv.-igs or branches are usually placed at the 

 sides of the tables or shelves and bent over the 

 same, and brought so near the worm as to make it 

 perfectly easy and convenient for the worm to as- 

 cend. Tlie twigs may also be suspended from 

 above for that purpose. 



The mode here practised of obtaining the silk 

 from the cocoons is to put in aboat one quart of 

 the cocoons into a vessel of boiling hot water. — 

 (The water is not suffered to boil after the co- 

 coons are put in.) A broom corn brush, the ends 

 of which are cut square is dipped into the vessel 

 to catch up the ends of the silk. By this means a 

 number of small filsynents are gathered which to- 

 gether make a thread, and this thread is wound 

 on to a common Reel. The expense of attending 

 upon the worms is not great, if the trees are con- 

 veniently situated. An active child of 15 years of 

 age is sufficient to attend upon t!0,000 worms till 

 within ten days of the time of winding. For the 

 last ten days two such children may take care of 

 them the first five days, and four the five last days. 

 A few years since, one woman in this vicinity took 

 care of 110,000 and did her day's work, every day, 

 at spinning flax. 



9. The experiment of raising silk in the open air 

 was never attempted here. It cannot possibly be 

 done however. The exposure of the worm to the 

 open nil", to direct rays of the sun or to showers 

 of rain would be fatal, besides almost all birds 

 prey upon the insect. 



10. Two crops of silk may be raised in every 

 part of New England in one year. The second 

 crop will be inferior in every respect to the firat 

 and it must be an injury to the trees. 



11. Thunder seems to affect the worm in no oth- 



er way except it be so hard and heavy as to jar 

 them, in whieh case, if it happens at the time of 

 winding, the worm is apt to break its thread and 

 its labor is lost. 



Cats, rats, mice, and all fowls prey upon the 

 worm. Pismires and red ants are their particular 

 enemies, one of which will destroy hundreds of 

 them in a short time. 



I'-i & 13. The quantity of silk made in any one 

 year in this town has never exceeded 20 pounds. 

 It has generally been manufactured into sewing 

 silk, and has always found a ready market in the 

 immediate neighborhood. Most of the silk thus 

 manufactured has been of equal quality, at least, 

 with that imported. All the varieties of colours 

 are obtained without the least difficulty. 



16. Greater efforts were made to raise silk dur- 

 ing our late war than are now made. The price 

 which the silk then commanded uiLide it more of 

 an iibjeet. It is however still persevered in here, 

 to a limited extent. 



To Ills Excellency Gov. Lincoln. 



RECLAIMED MARSHES. 

 .Vo. ///. 



Mr Pesshnden — The object aimed at in discus 

 sing the subject of diking salt marshes, has been to 

 show how far experience has been against it in this 

 part of the country ; and that from the nature and 

 productiveness of our marshes, a change would be 

 unadvisable. 



Nothing is more remote from the purpose of the 

 writer, than to disallow the great and important 

 utility of diking, in many cases. This has been 

 long and well established. But true judgment con- 

 sists in its right application. 



Thus when banks are thrown up on the sea-coast 

 or at the mouths of rivers, and are so much under 

 water as to bear very little and worthless grass — 

 or where a coarse rank !;rowtii is produced, like 

 tliat on the Jersey and Pennsylvania rivers, the 

 project is worthy of all praise. In such cases the 

 mind is not left to balance between what is lost and 

 what gained — for little is put at hazard. Well tri- 

 ed experience has established the fact, that in 

 proper situations, and at a reasonable expense in 

 the construction of the dike, the proprietor may bo 

 sure of a fruitful field for grazing, or for culture, in 

 lieu of unapproachable weeds and waterbushes. 



So also with the diking of the salt marshes in 

 Nova Scotia — It has doubtless been attended with 

 great advantage there, and is most earnestly re- 

 commended by a writer, to whom agriculture is 

 much indebted, under the signature of Agricola.* 



But it is proposed to show from the authority of 

 this very ingenious writer that ho^vevcr strong the 

 inducement, and whatever the success of diking 

 may have been in that province, there is yet noth- 

 ing in the nature and condition of their marshes, as 

 described by Agricola, which would so apply witli 

 us as to induce a like practice here. 



First, Agricola describes the salt marshes of No- 

 va Scotia as " with the tide covering and leaving 

 them alternately, and as land originally gained 

 from the sea." The effect of this, where the tide 

 rises over 40 feet, as in that province, in prevent- 

 ing the operation of the sun and air to sweeten 

 the vegetable product for so much longer a time 

 than with our marshes, which are seldom covered, 

 and for a short time only, goes very far in the con- 

 sideration of this subject. 



ttil 



* John Young, Esq. Secretary of the Provincial 

 Agricultural Society. 



Secondlif, this writer says that in " in their 

 ral state they are of little value, producing on! 

 very coarse herbage." How dissimilar fiom 

 are they in this particular. Our salt marshes 

 duce, it is thought, generally as much, or 

 than a good acre of average upland, say abol 

 ton, and many of them more ; whilst the cot 

 growth on the creeks and low places ia of grei 

 product, and partak.ng more of saline matte! 

 carried into the interior for that reason, to seal 

 their coarse fresh hay. 



Thirdly, they are described by Agricola j 

 formed by the action of the currents and the j 

 ceasing motion of the tides, suspending or rol: 

 forward in their waters, soluble and insoluble i 

 ter, agitating and disturbing the slimy mass, j 

 diffusing it on all sides to the enrichment of! 

 soil." They are also spoken of " as of great' 

 unfathomable depth, far beyond the purpose! 

 cultivation, as abounding in clay and rich fat i^ 

 of tenacious and binding materials, forming, wh 

 diked, the richest and most valuable soil — as pr 

 manently productive and with t!ic materials 

 happily mixed that any attempt to modify thu 

 would be injudicious and as likely to issue in i\ 

 terioration as in an improvement of them." 



Our salt marshes on the contrary are wiiolly 

 the vegetable strata, loose and spongy in thi 

 texture. O^this description of soil Agricola si* 

 they have in instance in one county only " whe 

 the marshes are of a light spongy nature, and cOi 

 not hold comparison with tliose in other parts 

 the province." Our marslios too when reclai, 

 ed are wanting in tenacity and other particoli 

 which form a perfect soil. Decomposed venctabl 

 though the product of a rich soil, do not of v.ece 

 sity again resolve themselves into such ; but b 

 come a new material for the ingenious applicati 

 of the agriculturist in the correction and foriualii 

 of an improved soil. But it would be needless 

 go far in comparison where the circumstances 

 obviously differ in almost every particular. 



The proposition in Nova Scotia is to pxchan; 

 a useless mud bank, or " coarse herbage of litt 

 value" by a judicious system of diking, confirmi 

 there by the test of long experience, as high 

 beneficial, for a soil so judiciously mixed that ai 

 attempt to modify it would be injudicious, at 

 which Agricola pronounces perfect. With us it 

 to be considered whether against experience, oi 

 under circumstances totally different in principl 

 the culture of the immense tracts of salt mars 

 shall be changed, and whether we shall reject tli 

 tribute derived from the sea, and thus forfeit 

 great and incalculable product. It has been sai 

 that distance and other inconveniences make th 

 marshes of little value. How will this be, whe 

 our labour, our culture and manure are there af 

 plied ? When instead of full barns and yards w- 

 take from our uplands to make up for what W' 

 have refused to receive from the oversprcadin) 

 tides. 



There are some observations of Agricola on th 



absolute necessity of recruiting even these dikei 



lands, and of the benefit which the sea affords ti 



marshes — for which I may hereafter crave room 



I remain, yours with esteem, 



Boston, Feb. 28, 1820. JOHN WELLES 



Erratum — In No. II. on Reclaimed Marshes i 

 page 218, 3d column, line 25, for " 4 aeres," rea» 

 "40 acres." 1 



