378 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 22, 182". 



37th. 1 have remarked, in llie way of grafting, 

 1 curiosity which, it is likely, may be new to many 

 cultivators. If we have a good bearing tree 

 which runs so much to blossom that the shoots 

 ■and fruit are small ; if v.e take from the bearing 

 shoots of such a tree a few buds and inoculate 

 them upon largo vigorous shoots of some other 

 pear tree, such buds will bear the second year 

 and produce very large fruit, having plenty of sap 

 to nourish it ; or if we put buds of tlic less bear 



loy again to conduct it, to whom they ordered whole of it to be enclosed with hedges of 

 eighteen hundred livres to be paid, for defraying seedling white mulberry ; and the carrying on 

 the e.xpcKses of it. Here it is to be remarked, | second operation they likewise trusted to 



that eight pounds and a quarter of the cocoons, 

 raised in this first public experiment in the open 

 air at Montpellier, yielded a pound of silk ; v/herc- 

 as it required twelve pounds of the cocoons rais- 

 •1 the very same season in the house, to yield a 

 pound of silk. 

 The second experiment, carried on publicly in 



ing kinds upon good bearers, such buds will be so the open air, took place in 1765, which I likewise 

 far overruled by the nature of the bearing tree as attended with the same punctuality. It had how- 

 to briniT abundance of fruit; but on either of ever, a very different issue from the former; for 



these occasions, it is necessary to assort our fruits, 

 and to inoculate only summer pears upon some 

 of the pear trees of the same season. Autumn 

 pears should be inoculated upon autumn pears, 

 &,c. but never graft or bud a winter pear on a 

 summer one, for the sap of the summer pear will 

 decline or diminish before the winter fruit is suf- 

 ficiently grown. 



ON THE CULTURE OP SILK. 

 Concluded from page 370. 



Is it then extraordinary, that nurses, who pass 

 three weeks together at the hardest work, and 

 in the most infected air, should givo a kind of 

 pestilential milk, which occasions thiit mortality 

 amongst the children ? They are seen, after that 

 hard labour, to be in a languishing condition thera- 

 selves for several months together. That kind of 

 jaundice which attacks those women who ordina- 

 rily have the charge of attending the silk-worms, 

 does it not evidently demonstrate the cause of 

 their illness ? The excess of labour might well 

 occasion their growing meagre ; but it does not 

 ordinarily give that livid yellow colour which we 

 remark always in those who raise large quanti- 

 ties of the silk-worras. That method of culture 

 ought then to he avoided, as bein^ evidently so 

 prejudicial to the human ho;ilth ; and the new me- 

 thod, before pointed out, should certainly be fol- 

 lowed ; as the continual circulation of fresh air 

 not only prevents all those bad effects upon the 

 .^lealth of those persons who are employed in roar- 

 ing the silk-worui, but also secures a certain and 

 rich crop of silk, by keeping the worms always 

 in full health and vigour. 



In consequence of the foregoing memorial, the 

 states ofLanguedoc, upon the recommendation 

 of the minister, appointed an experiment in the 

 open air, to bo carried on publicly in the garden 

 belonging to the Jesuits' College at Montpellier, 



that second season having turned out ancommonly 

 cold and wet, the worms, though the top of the 

 stage was roofed with boards to throw off the wet, 

 like our sheds in England, were frequently drench 



care of Monsieur Marteloy. These particula 

 had from Monsieur Marteloy himself, whom in 

 autumn of 1767 I met with at Thoulouse ; i 

 where I left him busily engaged in forward 

 these spirited operations committed to bis char 

 which he told me were going on rapidly, as 

 employers liberally supplied him with the fm 

 necessary for that purpose. 



FENCES. 



Europeans who visit the United States expri 

 their astonishment at the numerous fences eve' 

 where seen, dividing the whole country into sm 

 enclosures ; and especially at the immense qm 



ed with the rain ; and at the most critical time of'''''<'s of timber worked into our zig zag Virgil '"' 



fences. In most countries of Europe the cultf 

 eJ lands form vast open commons, and the fan 

 live together in villages, sometimes five or f 

 mil3s from their farms. This deficiency of fenc 

 is partly owing to the want of materials to co 

 ■ trict them, and partlyrto the state of society a* 

 government. 



In England and Scotland the greater part 

 the farms are enclosed by fences, of which the> 



their growth, namely, from their having got over 

 their fourth malady, to the time of their mounting, 

 the heavy rams continuing almost incessantly, 

 laid Monsieur Marteloy under the unavoidable ne- 

 cessity of giving them their food wet, as there was 

 not the least possibility of getting the leaves dri- 

 ed. The consequence was, that the experiment 

 failed; but, indeed, not more so than this culture 

 failed almost every where else in Languedoc, where 

 the worms were all 'reared in houses ; owing, 

 without doubt, to the extreme v.'ctness of the seas- 

 on. 



Though this last failure put an end to any fur- 

 ther attempts to raise the worms in the open air, 

 the consequences, however, of these two experi 

 ments were yet productive of great advantages to 

 tlie country ; formally of the people engaged in 

 that culture, having been made perfectly sensible 

 of the great errors in their former management, 

 were led to adopt the alterations recommended by 

 Monsieur Marteloy ; namely, not to overcrowd 

 their worms as formerly, to observe more clean- 

 liness, by frequently clearing away the litter ; and, 

 lastly, by taking care to preserve the air of the 

 rooms always sweet, by a continual circulation of 

 fresh air ; which certainly form very material al- 

 terations in their practice for the better. 



Whether owing to Monsieur Marteloy's experi- 

 ments, or not, I will not pretend to say ; but cer- 

 tain it is, that at this time a spirit for extendin" 

 the silk culture greatly spread itself all over Lan- 

 guedoc. Amongst those who distinguished them- 

 selves the most, were the proprietors of the Royal 

 Canal of Languedoc. As these gentlemen were 

 proinielors of both the banks of the canal, for the 



It of Ik' 

 tills ill 



under the direction of Monsieur Marteloy, and | purpose of their navigation ; they formed the spir- 



ordered the sum of twelve hundred livres to be 



paid to him for defraying the expenses of it 



This experiment was accordingly carried into exe- 

 cution in 1764 : and as I happened to reside at 



ited resolution of planting entirely with the seed 



ling white mulberry the whole banks of the canal, 



from one end to the other, which, from the town of 



Agde to Thoulouse, forms a stretch of nearly one 



that time at Montpellier, I regularly, during the [ hundred and twenty miles 



whole course of it, attended to its progress twice i The care of carrying into execution these ex 



a day, taking care as regularly, to mark down in [tensive plantations they committed to Monsieur 



my notes the state of the weather daily, and every 

 other occurrence which seemed to demand my at- 

 tention. This experiment naturally drew to it the 

 public notice, and the people engaged in that cul- 

 ture flocked in from every quarter to observe the 

 result. To their no small astonishment, the ex- 

 periment succeeded in the most perfect manner ! 

 And the report of its success having been made 

 to the minister, the states ofLanguedoc were ad- 

 vised by him to order a second experiment of the 

 same kind to be made the year following, which 

 they accordingly did, appointing Monsieur Marte- 



Murteloy, upon whom they settled a handsome ap- 

 pointment for defraying the expense of his living 

 and travelling charges. And, with a view to fix 



ijlllllof 



Will 



are various kinds — live hedges, ditches, hed|i *''' 

 and ditch together, stone walls, turf walls, sto' 

 and turf walls, posts and boards called paling, jaI' 

 In Ireland there are but few live hedges ; stoj) * 

 walls and turf banks are the usual fences. 

 France the lands are generally unenclosed ; sow «5" 

 fences may be seen near towns, but in genet' 

 the whole country is open, and the boundaries 

 estates are marked by occasional stones, heaps 

 earth, rows of trees, &c. ;i 



Guards are established throughout the kiugJw 

 to prevent passengers on the highways from com 

 mining depredations. In Austria and Germani ■" 

 tlie lands are not enclosed, except those neiCr 

 towns. — In Russia and Poland the lands are 

 most every where unenclosed, although in mac 

 districts there are large forests and plenty of tin 

 her. Poland and part of Russia appear to th , 

 traveller to be interminable forests with here an i 

 there a tract of pasture or ploughed ground. I( "*! 

 Sweden there are but few fences. Small encloa "■, 

 ures near the farm-yards are fenced by splinteni *'' 

 of deal set up in a sloping position, and fastenei ° 

 by withes to upright posts. 



This is the only fence used in Sweden, NorwB) 

 and Lapland, and it is often seen near villages U 

 Russia, and the northern parts of Germany. Xi L 

 the best cultivated parts of the Netherlands, ths , 

 estates are enclosed with hedges or other fences* /,i, 

 The Dutch keep their fences in a better state 'L 

 than most other nations. In Spain the lands are ' ,! 

 open every where, excepting immediately rounS ° 

 towns and villages. The plains of Lombardy and- ,. , 

 Tuscany are enclosed with hedges or ditches, but j, 

 the rest of Italy is eenerally without fences. ■■ L', 



The Rev. J J. Blunt, who published a work dfi 

 Italy a few years since, says there was no raoriji 



his attention still the more closely to the duties of i enclosures in the days of the Romans than th 

 his charge, they likewise bound themselves hy J ire now. For this reason flocks were always at- 

 contract, to communicate to him a tenth share of tended by shepherds. " Tityrus and Menalcas [« 

 the free profits of these plantations, for a certain ' Virgil] would have had something else to do thai) 

 number of years. I sit under a beech tree and blow their rustic reeds, 



Nor was this all ; for the same gentlemen car- , 'f s. w'ant of hedges had not rendered their servi- 

 ried ihoir views of this kind still further. Being pos- ' ces indispensable to prevent the goats from stray- 

 sessed of an extensive property inland, which : '"?•" In ancient Greece, much of the countri 

 at that 'ima lay entirely open, they ordered the ' ^vas in common pasture, .^mong the .Tews, poi 



I 



ii 



