42" 



SILK AND MULBERRIES. 



ON this subject we have little to say; when the immense 

 excitement which has seized upon our fellow citizens in every 

 portion of the union shall have passed away, something may 

 he said definitely upon it. It does not strike us favourably at 

 the present writing there is too much of mania too much 

 wild speculation, to determine the merits of the question now. 

 That many sections of our country are adapted to the growing 

 of silk, is an undeniable truth; and we fully believe that, even- 

 tually, when the matter is better understood when it has be- 

 come purified of the taint of speculation, that it will come up 

 on a sure and firm basis. But time and experience are neces- 

 sary. We do not speak this by way of discouragement. We 

 desire to put our brother farmers on their guard against loss, 

 and not desert their legitimate calling for the morus or any 

 other new device, with which men, in their haste to get rich, 

 have filled the public mind to bewilderment. If they must 

 engage in such speculations, we bid them be cautious to mani- 

 fest the same care they do in trying agricultural experiments. 

 The farmer is so situated that he can test a thing of this kind 

 without running; headlong into the ditch. We advise them to 

 go on the small and safe scale, and not on the large. 



The following article on this, at present interesting topic, 

 was penned by one of our most discerning, intelligent and pa- 

 triotic farmers, who has just paid the debt of nature; and in 

 whose death the community at large, and the agricultural por- 

 tion particularly, have sustained a severe loss. 



We have promised to ?ive directions for the culture of the mulberry, and 

 the in ana -i me u t of ihe .silk-worm and we shall now proceed to redeem our 

 promise. In the meantime we will recommend, that every person who de- 

 signs seriously to enter into the business, should either purchase one of the 

 half dollar publications which have recently come from the press, or subscribe 

 for one of the dollar periodicals, which are specially devoted to this business. 

 Either of these will afford all the instructions, in a compact and handy form, 

 necessary for the perfect management of the business. We shall be obliged to 

 be somewhat brief; for were we to publish all that is written upon this subject, 

 it would engross our whole paper. 



We will remark in the outset, that we do not doubt but the silk business 

 will succeed in our country, and that it will ultimately become a matter of 

 great national concern. Yet we believe that many who embark in it will fail 

 to realize their golden dreams; and that when the fever has passed its crisis, 

 it will be found to depend for success, like every other money making under- 

 taking, upon the knowledge, prudence and economy with which it is managed. 

 We are an enthusiastic, and often an inconsiderate and fickle people. When 

 the fever of public feeling is excited upon any great subject, be it turnpikes, 

 banks, canals, rail-roads, or the culture of silk, we are apt, for want of pru- 

 dence and forethought, to permit it to assume a dangerous type, that baffles 

 the counsels of reason, and sometimes terminates in extreme lassitude and 

 prostration of strength. Local rivalship and private interest, the spirit of 

 speculation, and the aggrandizement of party, are so profusely employed to 



