19S 



THE GENESEE FAttMEK 



June 25, 1831 



(Chinese yew) Quercus suber, (cork tree) 

 Melianthus major (10 feet) Begonia argy- 

 rostigma, Salvia tricolor (three colored 

 sage,) Ficus vastita, Chamerops Palmeto, 

 (cabbage tree of South Carolina) Strelitzia 

 pumela. Begonia, macrophylla, VVestringea 

 rosmarinifolia, Ardesia solanacea, Laurus 

 Cassia, (cinnamon tree) Mainmea Ameri- 

 cana, West India Apricot tree, nandina do- 

 mestica, Mvrtus tomenlosa, Calicoma ser- 

 ratifolia, Pandanus Utilis (screw pine,) Fan 

 palm, Cymbidium sinensis, Ardesia cienul- 

 ata, ;four feet high, Aspedum exaltatnm, 

 Ficus nitida, Thea Bohea, Bohea tea tree] 

 Phenix dactyliferea, date tree,) Zamia ful- 

 gens, maranta arundinacea, I arrow root 

 plant) Myrtus pimenia, ('Allspice Itee) Pas- 

 saflora alata, (a. splendid Passion flower,) 

 .Tapan evergreen honeysuckle, Metrosidorus 

 semperflorens, Cactus pereskia, f Barbadoes 

 gooseberry J Musa coccinia, f Bannana planlj 

 sempervivum arboreum, tree house leek, 

 Crassula falcata, seedling Cactus, Cactus 

 Braziliensis, notched Cymetar leaved fig 

 marigold, Cactus mamilaris with forty 

 shoots, musa sapientum, f Bannana, another 

 variety^ Lychnis grandiflora, carnations, 

 Sarracenia, Phlox, splendid Chinese Paso- 

 nies Whilleji, humei, an fragrans, purple 

 and white Foxglove, Amaryllis, Johnsonia, 



the tropics. All this reconciles us to our 

 dews, fogs vapor and drizzle — to our apoth- 

 ecaries rushing about with gargles and tinc- 

 tures — to our British constitutional coughs, 

 sore throats, and swelled faces.—-Edinburgh 

 Rtvieiv. 



TOP PRESSING GRASS-GROUNDS. 



By top dressing, much of the best proper- 

 ties of the putrescent manures are exhaled 

 or wasted in the way that has been descri- 

 bed ; if to this be added the too general loss 

 sustained by decomposition before the ma- 

 nure is applied, it will be found that but lit- 

 tle good can be done by a great deal of it, 

 when used in this way. 



If dung be used for lop dressing, it should 

 be applied soon after the fiist crop of grass 

 has been mown, and before the manure has 

 suffered any material loss by fermentation. 

 The grasses should be suffered to grow until 

 they form a close shade ; after this, they 

 may be pastured, provided a good covering 

 of them be preserved. This will prevent 

 much exhalation ; it will also keep the soil 

 much more open to receive the juices of the 

 manure. 



As water does not pass on so freely thro' 

 ja close pile of grass, much of the coarser 



agement and a proper 

 Tain's Husbandry. 



cultivation. — Lo- 



particles of the washings from the manure 

 and a seedling from the purpurea and a Bra- [ will be arrested in their progress through it, 

 zilian amaryllis. i ant ' '"uch more of the juices from the dung 



Of cut flowers the display was brilliant will sink into the soil. The close covering 

 beyond conception, but it is impossible to ; also greatly favors the decomposition of the 



give any thing like a list of them. The ro 

 ses, pinks, canterbury bells, phloxes, azalea 

 (one splendid new native variety) stocks anil 

 a thousand and one others, comprising the 

 beauty and fragrance of Flora's dominions, 

 were dispersed among the plants and shrub- 

 bery in tasteful order, and contributed large- 

 ly to the splendor of the scene. Beside all 

 these, numerous singing birds were perched 

 among the shrubbery in cages, and enliven- 

 ed by their joyous notes the imposing spec- 

 tacle. There were also a beautiful cabinet 

 of shells and minerals, a cage containing the 

 great American eagle, a couple of large hor- 

 ned owls, numerous preparations of other 

 birds very naturally perched upon the shrub- 

 bery, and a beehive with a glass top and 

 sides with the bees at their work in full 

 view. — — — 



A TROPICAL CLIMATE. 

 Insects are the curse of tropical climates. 

 The vete rouge lays a foundation for a tre- 

 mendous ulcer. In a moment you are cov- 

 ered with ticks. Chigoes bury themselves 

 in your flesh, and hatch a large colony of 

 young chigoes in a few hours. They will 

 not live together, but every chigoe sets up a 

 separate ulcer, and has his own private pus. 

 Flies get entry into your mouth, into your 

 eyes, into your nose. You eat flies, drink 

 flies, and breathe flies. Lizards, cockatri- 

 ces, and snakes, get into the be 3 — ants eat 

 the books — scorpions sting you on the foot 

 — every thing, bites, or bruises — every sec- 

 ond of your existence you are wounded by 

 some piece of animal life, that nobody has 

 ever seen before, except Swammerdam and 

 Mariam. An insect with eleven legs is seen 

 swimming in your tea cup — a non-descript 

 with nine wings is struggling in the small 

 beer, or a caterpillar with several dozen 

 eyes in his belly is hastening over the bread 

 and butter! All nature is alive, and seems 

 to be gathering her entomological hosts to 

 eat you up as you are standing, out of your 

 caat, waist-coat and breeches. Such are 



litter, and by keeping it flexible, causes it to 

 sink further into the soil, and lie much clos- 

 er to it; therefore but little if any of it will 

 be found in the way of mowing the ensuing 

 crop of grass, or of making it into hay, pro- 

 vided the manure be very evenly spread o- 

 ver the giound. But as the want of the sec- 

 ond crop for hay and other circumstances, 

 may readily prevent the cultivator from 

 hauling the dung at the proper time, he may 

 haul and spread it any time before frost sets 

 I in ; but not with the same advantage. Still, 

 if care be taken in racking up the hay of 

 the ensuing crop, but little of the litter will 

 appear among it. 



Top dressing, however, with putrescent 

 .manures, is, under the most favorable cir- 

 cumstances, a very wasteful practice, and 

 should be avoided where population is suffi- 

 cient to admit the practice of convertible 

 husbandry ; except by those who prefer the 

 ease obtained by grazing exclusively, to a 

 more active and much more profitable mode 

 of management. 



When ashes, gypsum, lime, (fc. are appli- 

 ed to the grass grounds, it must be by top 

 dressing. But either of these substances is 

 more extensively useful to cultivated crops, 

 when they are properly incorporated with 

 tin- soil. 



It is difficult to calculate the losses arising 

 from the prevailing practices of gathering, 

 preparing, and using the manure that might 

 be obtained from the general resources of a 

 farm. Some manage better, and others 

 worse. Neither weight nor measure to as- 

 certain these losses, can be referred to. — 

 We may, however, form a tolerable estimate 

 of their amount, by summing up the suppo- 

 sed losses arising from each improper prac- 

 tice, and, as well as it may be done, avera- 

 ging the losses. This must centre between 

 the best and worst practices in general use. 

 I have done this, and believe the loss cannot 

 be less than seven-eights of the whole, whicli 

 might be very readily saved by good man-| 



From the North C.irolina Spectator. 



SILK IN MACON, N. C. 

 We have been presented with a skein of 

 sewing silk, together with a hank of tht 

 raw material of a very fine and beautiful ap- 

 pearance, by Vr. Samuel Smith, a very en- 

 terprising and imelligent gentleman, who 



resides near Franklin in Macon county 



The specimen before us was produced from 

 silkworms, reared by Mr. Smith's daughter : 

 about 13 years of age, and reeled from the 

 cocoons and wrought into its present condi- 

 tion by the same fair hand. The account 

 which we have of Mr. S's progress in the 

 culture of silk, is, that he procured a few 

 eggs from the north three years since ; that 

 last year he reared 8,000 worms, and thn 

 year has made preparations to rear 100,000 ; 

 that the cocoons produced last year bavi 

 been reeled and mostly wrought into sewing 

 silk, which has found a ready home markel, 

 at a rate equal to the price of the imported 

 article, indeed in point of even texture and 

 quality of material it is scarcely surpassed 

 by the finest foreign silk ; that no difficulty 

 was experienced from the weather and cli- 

 mate to the health and operations of the 

 worm; that the specimen before us was pro- 

 duced by silkworms fed on leaves of the 

 I common, indigenous black-mulberry. 



The specimen before us has served to re- 

 call our reflections to the subject of the pro- 

 duction of silk by the people of this region 

 Blessed as we are with a climate congenial 

 to ihe health of the silkworm — with a soil 

 natural to the production of every species 

 of the mulberry, and even such portions of 

 it as now lie waste and useless, might, by the 

 culture of silk, be made profitable. Indeed 

 we think, every inducement is held out to 

 all who have lands to turn their attention to 

 this new, interesting and profitable occupa- 

 tion. There are a sufficient number of black 

 mulberry trees now growing on the lands of 

 almost every farmer in this region, to rear 

 several thousand worms, and commence an 

 experiment, which if it does not afford much 

 profit at first, and though the silk so produ- 

 ced may not be as white and fine as that 

 produced from other kinds of mulberry, vet 

 it will afford an opportunity to test the value 

 of the business and sufficient experience 

 that when they shall have obtained (by 

 planting the seed or by cuttings) other spe- 

 cies of the mulberry, they may be prepared 

 to reap a munificent profit for their cnler- 

 prize. Sufficient experiment! have been 

 made in the states of Connecticut, Pennsyl- 

 vania, South Carolina, and this state, to 

 convince all who have paid any attention to 

 the subject, that the United States can pro- 

 duce silk of as good and even a better quali- 

 ty than can be produced in any other part of 

 the world. It has also been' satisfactorily 

 proven, that the production of silk is a very 

 profitable and simple business — a business 

 which may be prosecuted by almost any and 

 every individual. The silk-growers in the 

 northern states labor under one disadvantage 

 which is not felt here. Thev are obli^ed'to 

 keep the worms in close rooms which are 

 warmed by means of stoves. In this state, 

 on the contrary, no fire is necessary ; and 

 small children and young negroes, who ate 

 of no other service, can be profitably em- 

 ployed in supplying the silkworms with food 

 and taking all the care necessary to these 



