428 SILK AND MULBERRIES. 



stimulate the patient, and to deaden him to a sense of danger, that it is a long 

 time, after they cease to operate, before he is restored to a sane state of mind, 

 and a sound healthy condition of body. And though he does apparently re- 

 cover from the shock, we have serious fears, that these repeated attacks are 

 imperceptibly undermining his constitution. We have seen the turnpike 

 bubble burst. Few of these roads are at this day productive many have been, 

 abandoned much money has been expended upon them and still the public 

 is not greatly benefitted, for in general they are not enough better than 

 common roads to make up for the tolls they exact. Had the number been 

 limited to one-third, or one-fourth, and these well made, the interests both of 

 the stockholders and of the public would have been much better subserved than 

 they now are. They have besiues led to the culpable neglect of our public 

 roads. We have seen that several of our banks have turned out to be mere 

 bubbles; and, if we mistake not, some of our canals, and many of our pro- 

 jected rail-roads will in the end prove to be not much better public sacrifices 

 at the shrine of private gain. We profess to be the ardent friends to public 

 improvements of every sort; but we insist that prudence, which is wisdom 

 applied to practice, is as commendable, and as necessary, and as much a vir- 

 tue, in the management of the public concerns, as it is in the management of 

 one's private concerns. What individual has ever been renowned for his 

 wisdom or for his justice, who lavished upon one or two favourites, the patri- 

 mony which belonged equally to his whole family, or who, to benefit his chil- 

 dren, has encumbered his farm with an enormous debt. We would neither 

 creep nor run, if we meant to make haste in a long journey. 



No sooner has the silk business become a theme of public favour, than we 

 see capitalists, or speculators, clubbing their means, and already erecting large 

 silk establishments, as they have an undoubted right to do, but in too many 

 cases we fear, from a hope of getting a profit on the stock, rather than on the 

 business on their cunning, rather than on their labour. They should remem- 

 ber, that the first requisite in cooking fish, is to catch them. Children some- 

 times recreate themselves with a play called "Robin's alive'' and this seems 

 now to have become a fashionable game with men though many a "burnt 

 child," we apprehend, will have cause, hereafter, to dread the fire. 



But we will go back to our starting point, from which we have been inad- 

 vertently drawn. 



The silk business may be safely undertaken by every farmer who has a 

 family of females, or children, willing to pick the mulberry leaves and ialce care 

 of the worms, of, if he begins with seedling plants in the nursery, who has 

 this aid in prospect, and he may enlarge his scale of operations, as his pros- 

 pects of help and profit increase. His outlay will be comparatively trifling. 

 An ounce of mulberry seed, or a few hundred plants, and some eggs when his 

 trees afford leaves, will constitute the principal expense. The money which 

 he obtains for his cocoons, or his silk, will be so much added to his nett income. 

 But if the business is to be managed by hired labour, or without the super- 

 vision of the master or mistress, we cannot guarantee success, at least not to 

 the extent that many sanguinely anticipate; and we should by all means advise 

 such as thus intend, to begin with moderation, and to satisfy themselves, from 

 experience, that they can manage the business with profit, before they venture 

 to embark in it to a large extent. 



We ought in candour to state two other facts, one of which we have not seen 

 published, and which may be doubted by many till they have it confirmed by 

 their experience. One fact is, that even the common white mulberry is often 

 seriously injured, and sometimes killed, by the severity of our northern win- 

 ters. The other is, that the Chinese mulberry, or morus multicaulis, seldom 

 escapes injury from a like cause. We have had the white mulberry in our 

 nursery the last six winters. In five of these the frost has killed many of the 

 branches and some of the roots. We have had the Chinese three winters, and 

 three winters the plants have been killed to the ground, and some of them 

 have been destroyed root and branch. Oihers, we know, have succeeded better. 

 Our soil is light, and we are aware that tender plants suffer more in it, from 

 cold, than they do in clay or loamy soils. 



