154 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



May 21, l83L 



ture." After some farther remarks upon 

 soils adapted to hemp, Judge Buel adds, " It 

 will do well on any soil that will grow good 

 flax," and he concludes that it will be profit- 

 able to the American farmer from the fol- 

 lowing facts : the quantity grown among us 

 has greatly increased and probably quadru- 

 pled within the last four years. Few have 

 abandoned its culture who commenced it 

 under favorable circumstances, while many 

 are annually turning their attention to it. — 

 Foreign hemp has increased in price on ac- 

 count of the tariff: one half of the ordinary 

 expense in cleaning and preparing it for mar- 

 ket may now be saved by the newly invent- 

 ed machine for separating the lint from the 

 fibre; and the process of water rotting in- 1 

 creases the value of the article, and renders; 

 American hemp equal in value and quanti- 

 ty to Russian or Piedmont. A select com- 

 mittee of the legislature of Ohio, made an 

 elaborate report last winter, in which they 

 speak favorably of the climate of our pari 

 of the United States for its cultivation, and 

 conclude their remarks upon the soil adapt- 

 ed to it, by saying, " any land however, that 

 will bring a good crop of flax, corn, or pota- 

 toes, will bring a good crop of hemp." This 

 report, published in the New-England Far 

 mer, is a good treatise upon the cultivation 

 of hemp, and would alone repay a year's 

 subscription to an agricultural paper. I will 

 however endeavor to obtain the information 

 it procures in some shape during the winter, 

 so that those who have good grounds for it 

 may if they chose try it next spring. On 

 that head I would not be understood, in quo- 

 ting what I have said above of the grounds 

 which produce hemp, nor is it either the 

 meaning of those papers to recommend its 



judging the question, and it is well worthy 

 the observant agriculturist. It has been ob- 

 served that our lands hold their quality re- 

 markably well without manure. There are 

 not far from this village, lands which have 

 been cleared more than twenty years ago, 

 and which have given and yet give without 

 manure, very good crops of wheat. A large 

 establishment for the rotting and dressing 

 of hemp has been made at Copenhagen, in 

 Lewis county, and is a credit to its proprie- 

 tors and to the country. One for the same 

 purpose has been made at Juhelville, oppo- 

 site this place, but unfortunately was never 

 in operation on account of the failure of the 

 person who put it up. There can be no 

 doubt of its being placed in activity next 

 year.* 



The second article above alluded to as 

 li ely to be added to our products, is silk, 

 for which we pay annually above ten millions 

 of dollars to foreign countries, but which 

 will probably be produced in the United 

 States in sufficient quantities for consump- 

 tion, and even exportation, and will partly 

 be manufactured here. It it now ascertain- 

 ed and acknowledged in France, that the 

 quality of the raw silk is superior to that of 

 other countries, and no difficulty exists in 

 producing it to any extent. The white mul- 

 berry tree, on which the worm feeds, will 

 succeed well here, so far as we can judge by 

 analogy and the short experience we have 

 Jiad.f The leaves may be gathered by chil- 

 dren after school hours, and females from 

 twelve to fifteen are amply sufficient to at- 

 tend to the worms within doors. Mr. Rapp, 

 in a letter dated Economy, Pa. 30th June, 

 1830, says, "Adhering to the instructions 

 iven in the American Farmer, and books 



being sown on lands, such as would but treating on the culture and manufacture of 

 strictly come under that designation, at least | silk, we find no difficulty in keeping the 



in any thing like large crops. On the con 

 trary, I think it is important to try it first 

 under the most favorable circumstances. I 

 am dispensed from giving you estimates of 

 the probable, and accounts of the actual ben- 

 efits of this new staple, by referring you to 

 our neighbors of Lewis county, who have 

 been before us in this branch. On the same 

 principle that I avoid exciting you by high- 

 ly promising statement*, I would warn you 

 against drawing conclusions too hastily from 

 what you see yourselves. Inquire well into 

 the nature of the soil and the state in which 

 it received the crop. Examine such lands 

 as you have to devote to that plant when 

 thev have been well prepared. You need 

 not think of putting hemp in an indifferent 

 soil, half tilled and already overgrown with 

 thistle. Failures in sucH cases prove noth- 

 ing. The question of the soil being exhaus- 

 ted bv it, I should thinu to be in a great 

 measure relative to its natural quality and 

 the price of the land. We might afford to 

 let any of ours which would bring a net pro- 

 fit, such as I have seen mentioned under the 

 most respectable authority, lie dormant for 

 ever thereafter : and even under ordinary 

 circumstances it is probable that with a pro- 

 per rotation of crops, the injury done to the 

 soil will be repaired. I do not find this sub- 

 ject treated in the writings I have consulted, 

 or if it is, it has escaped my notice. One 

 article, however, 1 have met with in the Troy 

 Sentinel, which contradicts the received o- 

 pinion on this head, and I believe in fact 

 that it will be found tc be exaggerated. — 

 Hemp has now been raised sufficiently long 

 in this country to have an opportunity of 



worms healthy, unwinding or reeling the 

 silk, or weaving it." In 1828, the industri- 

 ous society directed by him, made a small 

 j beginning: they have now made stripe for 

 female apparel, vesting, and one hundred 

 handkerchiefs, of a good quality, and feel 

 sufficiently encouraged to have erected a 

 \two-story building, 24 by 44, for the worms 

 land the various operations of the silk manu- 

 facture. It appears, however, that the finer 

 [textures of silk require a more delicate pro- 

 cess for reeling, so much so, that it is only 

 [in the south of France and north of Italy 

 | that it is well understood. Congress will 

 probably next winter pass a law, which they 

 had no time to pass upon last session, pro- 

 I riding for the teaching of skilful reefers, and 

 meanwhile the family reel will answer for 

 family use, and our ladies may shortly at- 

 tend our anniversary in silk dresses of then 

 own manufacture. J 



* A Mr. Wedge of Lewis county, sowed last 

 spring fourteen acres of hemp, ami had delivered 

 a part of the crop on a contract, with the owners of 

 the works at Copenhagen, who had agreed with 

 him and others to give iifteen dollars a ton. Jndg 

 ing from what he had delivered, his fourteen acre? 

 Will yield fifty tons, or a fraction over three and a 

 half tons per acre The preparation of the ground 

 was the same as for corn. I emote this, not because 

 I have reason to believe that it is a favorable Bpeci- 

 men, but merely because 1 happened to have heard 

 of it. and of no other. Some of my neighbors had 

 small pieees which gave a far greater produce in 

 proportion. 



t It grows luxuriantly in Massachusetts, where it 

 was introduced forty years ago. It is no uncommon 

 thing there for the plants to be cut down by the 

 frost during the first winter ; but they shoot out a- 

 gain and grow witli fresh vigor the following spring. 



} See on the subject of silk, "Practical iustruc- 



It was a most gratifying surprise for me, 

 on my return to the United States, after a 

 year's absence, to find the great improve- 

 ment which had been effected in the morals 

 of the people in the use of ardent spirits. — 

 If there was one cause capable of checking 

 and arresting the unexampled prosperity of 

 this country, it was the frightful increase of 

 the vice of intemperance. For the last thir- 

 ty or forty years, a great melioration had 

 taken place in the customs of the richer 

 classes in that particular. A fashion, im- 

 ported from England, was prevalent in our 

 cities at that period, of sitting at the dinner- 

 table many hours after the cloth was remov- 

 ed, and it was no uncommon thing nor was it 

 esteemed derogatory, for men of respectable 

 standing, to drink to an excess on these occa- 

 sions, which would hardly be credited here. 

 The more refined custom of soon joining the 

 ladies or even of accompanying them to the 

 drawing-room, is now prevalent ; and this 

 has been aided in its good effect by the more 

 general introduction of the lighter French 

 wines, of which the influence upon the so- 

 briety of a people is so universally acknowl- 

 edged, that it has been urged upon Congres.- 

 as a reason for diminishing the duties upon 

 them. The low price of whiskey, since the 

 fall in price of grains, is probably the great 

 reason for the alarming increase of intem- 

 perance among the poorer classes. But 

 where wine, not stronger than cider, as Un- 

 common French wines, is generally drank, 

 temperance is universally admitted to be 

 prevalent. Those wines are also healthy ; 

 and it is the opinion of enlightened and good 

 men, that the most effectual and lasting mode 

 if reducing the use of ardent spirits is the 

 one recommended last year by your Presi- 

 dent, of introducing generally the cultiva- 

 tion of the grape. 1 know that this will be 

 controverted by men very intelligent am! 

 very good too. Put my little experience 

 tells me that moderation is the more sun 

 way of proceeding in amendments, and that 

 we must mistrust, in this country particular 

 ly, an eagerness of zeal which has carried 

 too fir almost all the objects to which pub 

 lie attention has been called. 



In thus recommending the culture of the 

 grape, (for family use only, either as wine or 

 for the table) we are encouraged by one more 

 year of success. Thai plant is subject to 

 injury by late frosts in the spring, even in 

 its favored abodes of the south of Europe. 

 We cannot complain, therefore, if after the 

 uncommonly warm month of April of this 

 year, the grape v. is hurt in the succeeding 

 month. Bui those which have escaped this 

 partial injury, show that in proper situations 

 and with cine care, this plant is destined to 

 find a congenial country among us. 1 have 



dons for the culture of Silk and the Mulberry Tree, 

 bj !■ Pascalis. M. D." nn i " Essays on American 

 Silk l> John D'Homergue and Peter Stephen l>u 

 Ponceau " The '.alter work shows satisfactorily 

 that silk ought to be worked at present in this coun- 

 try only to that stale when it is enllcd raw silk.ai.il 

 thi 'i exported, and that this would afford more pro- 

 fit than to make Bewing silk, as they do in Connec- 

 ticut. But as tin- preparation of raw silk requires 

 Borne knowledge and machines which we do nol 

 i el poi seas, I think it « ill be found advisable to be- 

 gin as soon as possible lo raise the trees and get 

 experience in the management of worms : we may 

 reach even immediate benefits therefrom : for no 

 doubt the inhabitants of Connecticut would not 

 have persevered in making sewing silk for seventy 

 years (even with the whole of the cocoons, altho" 

 M. D'Homerguo says that this is a great waste. 

 nice ihc refuse cocoons only are used for that pur; 

 pose) unless there was a profit in it. 



