NEW ENG LAND FARMER. 



Published by JoH.N B. Russell at No. r>t North Market Strcet,7^i;^;;^Kn^an..ci! Hall]: 



)L. V. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, MARCH 80, 1827. 



-Thomas (i. FEssENi>i;ji, Editor. 



No. 36. 



AGllICULTUHE. 



ON THE CULTURE OP SIlJv. 



Continued from page 277. 

 it is proper to mention, that it is the prac- 

 Prance to plant out some of their young 

 from the nursery by way of espalier in 

 heltered situation, in a garden for example, 

 the soil is not over rich ; and if it can be 

 lere the soil has a great proportion of grav- 

 and ; the intention of which is to procure 

 avcs for the worms in their infant state ; 

 e leaves generally come out more early 

 warfish plants in a slieltered situation, than 



J~ie trees planted out in a more open e.xpos- 

 nd upon this occasion they have also re- 

 for tender leaves to the young plants in 

 'd bed and nursery ground, 

 quantity of the seed of the white mulberry 

 procured either from Montpelier or Mar- 

 where it is regularly to be found for sale 

 ;eed shops. And if you do not choose to 

 nlirely to the seed shops, a friend at either 

 ll « places may be applied to, who will take 

 procure for you the freshest and best seed, 

 also be obtained by the same means from 

 the seed from which country is even prcf- 

 to that of France, as the Spanish tree car- 

 arger leaf than that of France, and has the 

 (ually tender and good as the other, when 

 om tlie seedling trees. 

 1 the experiments earned on by Monsieur 



over, it willbesudicient if a dressing of the same 

 Kind IS regularly given them once every three 

 j years. Uut as some ofthe branches may probably 

 be broken annually, in gathering the leaves, care 

 must be taken to prune all such branches as may 

 happen to be thus broken, to prevent the trees 

 trom suffering matcriilly from such accidents. 



In planting out the mulberry tree in the lield 

 where it is to remain, care must bo taken to cover 

 the roots properly, so that the earth ra.iy not lie 



in the fields, whore they are intcniied to remain. 



From the e.xten.-ion ol' the culture of silk over 



all the southern parts of France, there is a great 



increasing demand yearly for mulberry leaves, so 



that they are now become as much an article o( 



commerce as any other vegetable production ; the 



peasants with eagerness buying them up annually 



with ready money at the proper season for the use 



of their silk worms. 



This last circumstance has given great encour 



■lollow upon them wliich would injure the plant. |agement to gentlemen of property to raise exten 



They should also take care to prop the different 

 trees with stakes to prevent them from wind-wav- 

 ing ; placing straw next the body of the tree, to 

 prevent the barit from boin? hurt. 



Here it is proper to remark, that tJie second 

 crop of leaves which come out of the mulberry 

 trees, after having been stripped of their first 

 leaves for the use ofthe silk worm are not allow 

 ed to fall off them.selves in the autumn. They are 

 gathered for the second time with care, a little be- 

 fore the time they would fall naturally, and are 

 given for food to sheep, and eaten by them with 

 greediness, and by that means turn to good ac- 

 couut to the farmer. Before the culture of silk 

 was introduced into thfit p.irt of Languedoc which 

 is near to the mountains of Cevennes, the peasant- 

 ry over all that neighborhood wore miserably 

 pcor, as their soil which is mostly gravel and 

 ssiid, was incapable of carrying crops of any kind 

 ol grain whatever. But as it was found upon trial 

 to answer remarkably well for the mulberry tree. 



e leaves ofthe trees which grew in a ricli 

 1 3re by no means proper food for the silk 

 as they are too luxuriant and full of juice 

 ra ; and that the leaves of those trees which 

 aised in a gravelly or sandy soil where no 



2 was employed, were greatly to be prefer- 



1 these experiments also one of the means, 

 oparently the principal one may now be 

 clearly pointed out, which rendered abor- 

 e trials made in England, during the reigns 

 iics I. and Charles \\. for introducing the 



3 of silk into Great Britain ; though that 

 was altogether unknown in England at 



ue these different trials were made. It ap- 

 to liave been only this, that they had no 

 food to give their worms but the ioaves ol 

 ick mulberry, carrying the large fruit usual- 

 lented at our tables, which is now altogeth- 

 cted in France as an improper food for the 

 ; and which was rendered infinitely more 

 clive to those insects by the trees which 

 ed them having been all of them reared in 

 chest grounds in England, namely, in the 

 1 grounds about London, which we know 

 a manner loaded with dung, 

 mulberry trees ouf ht not to be pruned the 

 •ear after planting out, for fear of making 

 bleed too much ; but in the second spring it 

 joned advisable to dross their heads, and to 

 ue to repeat that dressing yearly, during 

 xt ten or twelve years, taking care to make 



that gentleman made it fully appeai^^" people entered with great alacrity into the 



culture of silk ; and they have succeeded so well 

 m that lucrative branch, that from having been 

 amongst the poorest, they are now more at their 

 ease than most of the peasantry of that kingdom. 

 When I happened to be at Gange, which is 

 within the district above mentioned, and which is 

 remarkable for the manufacture of silk stockings, 

 I was carried to see some mulberry trees belong- 

 ing to a farmer in the neighborhood of that vil- 

 'age, which were the first that Iiad been introduc- 

 ed into that part of the country. The trees were 

 remarkably large and fine, and little inferior in 

 point of size to our elm trees ofthe middling sort. 

 The people who obligingly attended me to show 

 me these favorite trees assured me that a good 

 many of the largest of them brought a return to 

 the farmers family of a Louis d'or each of them 

 yearly. 



_ As an encouragement to the small heritors and 

 larmers to plant mulberry trees upon their grounds 

 the French government are at an e.xpense in 

 keeping up large nurseries of those trees in many 

 different parts of the country, from whence the 

 small heritors and farmers are liberally supplied 

 gratis with whatever number they desire to plant 

 out on their grounds ; and proper directiong are 

 ordered to be given along with the trees, by the 

 gardeners, who are charged with the care of those 

 public nurseries, that the people to vhoin the 

 trees are thus given, may know how to treat 

 them properly. This beneficent public measure is 

 attended with great advantage to the country, as 

 hollow in the middle, so as to give a free j ''^^ POOfsr people are by this means saved from 

 je for the air, and to render it easy to gath- '■''^ trouble and expense of rearing the trees, until 

 leaves. .After the first twelve years are ' '''^y '^O'"^ '" tie of a prop»r size for planting out 



sive plantation.^ of mulberry trees on their estates; 

 as they bring in a certain and steady revenue, 

 with little trouble or expense to the proprietor, af- 

 ter the trees have once passed the risk of being 

 hurt by cattle. And tliis improvement is of the 

 more consequence, because the grounds that arc 

 found to be the fittest for production of mulberry 

 trees, which afibrd tiie best food for the silk worm 

 being gravel or sand, cannot be employed to any 

 advantage in raising corn, more especially where 

 manures lis at a distance from them. 



Grounds of the above description had formerly 

 been in use to be planted with vines ; but the re- 

 turns from those were far from being equal to 

 what is obtained from grounds of the same quality 

 when planted with mulberry trees. As an in- 

 stance of this I shall take the liberty of mention- 

 ing the following paiticulars, which I had from a 

 gentleman, on whose veracity I am certain I could 

 fully depend. He told me there was a gentleman, 

 a surgeon, at Nismes, in Languedoc, who had a 

 tract of tery^oor ground in that neighborhood 

 left him by Ins lather ; which when it came into 

 his possession, yielded him a rent of three hun- 

 dred livres, wliich amounts in our money to twelve 

 guineas and a half. As this gentleman observed 

 that the culture of silk was extending rapidly over 

 that part of the country, he planted the whole of 

 his little property with white mulberry trees, the 

 leaves of uhich as his plantations advanced, he 

 found he could regularly sell annually for ready 

 money to the people in the town of Nismes and in 

 the neighborhood, who employed themselves in 

 the culture of silk ; and my friend informed mc 

 that these very grounds after having been only 

 sixteen years planted, gave a return to the pro- 

 prietor of twelve hundred livres yearly ; amount- 

 ing to fifty guineas of our money. This improve- 

 ment having been carried on under the eye of the 

 neighboring heritors, several of them pursued the 

 same plan with equal success ; and some of them 

 who had grounds of the same quality which had 

 been long planted with vines, actually grubbed up 

 their vineyards, and planted their grounds with 

 the white mulberry ; and here let me add that 

 the mulberry tree is long lived, there being many 

 instances whfre they stood perfectly good for 

 above one hundred }'ears. 



When the young mulberry trees are in the 

 seed bed, and even afterw.nrds when planted out 

 in nursery grounds, and likewise for several years 

 ifter they are planted out in the fields to remain, 

 you must be careful every night in the spring and 

 summer seasons to examine all round your plants, 

 for a little snail without a shell, which is very fond 

 of the bark of those trees when young, and preys 

 upon th«m prodigiously. These snails will cut 



