Vol 1.— No 47. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



371 



would have done, if satisfied with the princi- 

 ple of the plan, and our Fanning, at least as 

 it appeared on paper, was almost all theory, 

 ' literary Farming,' as 1 have heard it char- 

 acterized, somewhere. So, that which pro- 

 duced ihe disgust, accelerated the downfall 



employed upon some kind of work. Such 

 was the practice of my grand-fathers' fami- 

 ly, my father's, and such is of mine. Such, 

 also, was the practice of Washington, and of 

 that Patriarch of our order, the Virginia 

 Farmer, the neighbor, friend, and counsel- 

 of the plan. If ever ii is to be revived, the || lor, of the counsellor of this nation, the Fa 



lessons of experience, it is to be hoped, will 

 not be lost upon those who are to be its man- 

 agers. 



A State. Board of Agriculture, properly 

 organized, composed principally of practical 

 men, duly impressed with the importance 

 of actual labor, as a part of ihe business of 

 Farming, without which a thorough knowl- 

 edge of it cannot be acquired, would, under 

 the direction of men of sense, be productive 

 of immense benefit. It should be, however, 

 and must be, in order to be useful, a Board 

 of working bees, not of drones, nor of the 

 butterflies of parties in power, nor of the 

 men who are always ready to mount the hob- 

 bies of the day, and ride them, all for patri- 

 otism ! Such patriots there are, riders of 

 hobbies, always ready to pocket the collars 

 of the people, good souls, solely for the pub- 

 lic good ! The days of their glory may have 

 gone by, as to one set of them, but others 

 will come forth, on the spur of every occa- 

 sion, and even some of the old class may be 

 resuscitated, to Jill the papers with their own 

 praise. ' Will ye reject the counsels of your 

 old leaders?' 



When the late war broke out, all eyes were 

 turned upon men who had seen something 

 of the war of the Revolution, or who had a 

 name in its annals, if only upon its muster- 

 rolls. There was a halo of glory around 

 the heads of some men of those days, and 

 the public mind, suddenly startled into a- 

 larni, seemed to think — nay, it was told — 

 that those were the only men, to stand at the 

 helm, and direct the storm of war. Hull 

 was sent out, did wonders, astonished every 

 body.yeW, at Detroit, and with hivn an army, 

 of young and vigorous Republicans ! Still 

 the delusion was kept up, because the < /irej[* ns 'd e 



ther of American Liberty. It is a trait, sir, 

 J in the character of the intelligent Farmer, 

 one of the modes of the Farm House, by 

 [ which its Education is conducted. 1 should 

 count it a high honor, to by usefully em- 

 | ployed in sucli company, and so, 1 trust, 

 : would every one of your readers. If ambi- 

 tion, of this sort, is a sin, or if my estimate 

 of ability to be useful, is grounded in pride, 

 ;or folly, stil! I avow my purpose, and will be 

 | content to abide the impartial decision of 

 in) compeers, 'he honor of usefulness, is 

 i all the eminence" worth seeking, and real 

 [merit is never ostentatious. Writing, with- 

 out, thought, is worse than useless. One ob- 

 ject in writing these papers, is, to call out the 

 Farmers, by showing that t >ey are the men 

 i who can best guide others, in the business of! 

 Farming, of which the conductors of thev 

 1 press seem hardly to be apprized. 



From ihe New-tnglauu Farmer. 



MANUFACTURE OF SILK. 



Mr. Euitor — In a late journey to the 

 eastward i called on Mr. Enoch Boynton, 

 innkeeper, of Newbury, and had some con- 

 versation with him relative to the growth and 

 manufacture of silk. 



He informed nie that he had made the 

 silk business a study for forty years, and was 

 convinced of the utility and practicability of' 

 its being pursued as a lucrative branch of 

 business. 



He stated that the inhabitants of the Uni- 

 ted States, can be clothed with silk goods 

 ' with less land and less labor than with flax, 

 I wool, or cotton, and that it can be made im- 

 I pervious to water, for outside garments,while 

 j cotton, wool, and flax can be made useful for 



was not slackened, the fire of the goose 

 quill, of the pen and the press, potent en- 

 gines, in such wars as republics are always 

 engaged in, \he Wars of Elections. Others 

 of those men were called for, and Hampton, 

 and Wilkinson, and Dearborn, and Lewis, 

 and Armstrong, entered the lists, led on in 

 arms, but still not to victory. By-and-by 

 the Working Men came into command, and 

 then came the tug of war, but with hard 

 work, the harder for past misfortunes — and 

 the cause of the country revived. The Sol- 

 diers were working men, and so are the Far- 

 mers ; but, to do work, and do it well, they 

 must have working men or officers. There 

 is no such thing as standing before an army 

 with bayonets, without bayonets, or leading 

 Farmers in a career of Agriculture, without 

 Farmers for leaders. 



These long stories, Mr. Editor, about ma- 

 ny things, may seem to you rather protract- 

 ed ; but there is somewhat of instruction in 

 every thing of experience, none of which 

 ought to be lost, i may entirely err, in my 

 estimate of the reception of these Numbers ; 

 for I confess to you a belief, that, if copied 

 into all the newspapers of the country, they 

 will be attentively read, by such of my broth- 

 er Farmers, as have a few hours time for 

 reading. They will even be laid aside for 

 long winter evenings, our way of managing 

 such things, when some one will read, and 

 'he rest listen, perhaps while their fingers are 



I perfectly coincided with him relative to 

 converting the cocoons into silk goods with 

 less expense and labor than cotton, wool, or 

 flax are manufactured ; for in converting cot- 

 ton into goods it has to be cleansed from seeds 

 &.c. ; it is then broken and finished ready 

 for drawing, and has to pass through a card 

 called a breaker, and another called a finish- 

 er — then through the drawing, roping, pro- 

 cess, and then spun and woven. The ma- 

 chinery for breaking, finishing, drawing 

 and roping ike, is very expensive, — all of 

 which is not necessary for the operation of 

 silk. 



Silk is first drawn from the cocoons by a 

 reel, say like those of D'Homergue's or Du 

 Ponceau's of Philadelphia, or J. H. Cobb, 

 Esq. of Dedham, or E. Boymon's, of New- 

 bury. It could then be taken, spooled, and 

 twisted and doubled for such kind of goods 

 as are intended for manufacture. Then 

 washed and woven by water or steam pow- 

 er as well as cotton, wool, &c, and with 

 much less labor than the afore-mentioned 

 materials. He informed me he had upwards 

 of fifty thousand white mulberry trees of 2, 

 3, and 4 year's growth, a part of which he 

 would sell at extremely low prices, and of 

 such ages and quantities as to suit purcha 

 sers. 



The trees will do to take up and set out 

 till the ground is frozen and as early next 

 spring, as the frost is out till the month of 

 May, He stated that he pruned a part f 



the aforesaid tree this year, and gave the 

 primings to the silk worms which produced 

 upwards of seventy pounds ot cocoons, which 

 were stifled in an oven with a temperature 

 of 140 down to liiO degrees by the thermom- 

 eter. He took the primings without separa- 

 ting the leaves, and placed them among the 

 worms to feed on, and thought they did bet- 

 ter than if the leaves were stripped otf, as 

 the worms would climb and rest themselves 

 on the branches, as intended by their benifi- 

 cent Creator. 



The improvement he has made on his silk 

 mill, will no doubt be of utility. He run 

 from said mill £0.0 yards of different sized 

 thread, reeled and spooled from the cocoons, 

 aim laid on spools or bobbins in such a man- 

 ner as to be put into a bobbing nest for doub- 

 ling and twisting for any fablic wanted. 



He declines exhibiting said mill at present, 

 for vaiiott s reasons ; one of winch is the 

 great hindrance it would make him, to grat- 

 ify the idle curiosity of people who might call 

 on him. Bo.no Piblico. 



Remarks by the Editor. — We esteem the 

 above valuable information, and would take 

 this occasion to recommend the introduction 

 or at least the more general trial of the Chi- 

 nese Mulberry, ( Morus multicaulis) as a sub- 

 stitute for the white mulberry. Its proper- 

 ties are said to be the following. It contin- 

 ues low and bushy, so that tne leaves can 

 always be gathered without a ladder, and the. 

 leaves are of large size, very tender, grow 

 in abundance, ate eaten with avidity by the 

 worms, and the silk they produce is of the 

 first quality. This species of mulberry may 

 be obtained by application at the office of 

 the New England Fanner, No. 50£ North 

 Market street, price $1 each. 



Agriculture. — the following is stated 

 in the New England Farmer as the pro- 

 duct of one acre for 3 successive years. — 

 The land belongs to B. Noras, Esq. of 

 Bristol R. I. 



1829. 

 12178 bunches of onions, as 60 bushels 

 to the thousand bunches, a common aver- 

 age would be 



730 bushels of Onions. 



Potatoes. 

 Carrots. 

 Round Turnips. 

 Beets. 

 Beans. 



Winter Squashes. 

 Cabbage heads. 

 1830. 

 10560 bunches of onions, equal to 

 638 bushels of Onions, 

 80 " Potatoes. 



30 " Carrots. 



31 '' Round Turnips. 

 26 " Beets. 



3 pecks of Beans. 

 2500 pounds Winter Squashes. 

 150 Cabbage heads. 



1831. 

 10363 bunches of onions, equivalent to 

 628 bushels of Onions. 

 130 " Potatoes. 



23 " Round Turnips. 



30 " Beets. 



2 pecks of Beansj 

 2000 pounds Winter Squashes ; 

 20 heads of Cabbage, 



