12^ AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [March, 



culture of silk ; and from the mulberry I pass on to other sub- 

 jects, in respect to which information of a practical nature 

 seems to be mainly desired. 



VL Amount of Silk to an Acre, and Cost of Production. 

 — (Questions of great importance come up here, respecting the 

 amount of silk which may be produced upon an acre of ground, 

 and the cost of production at the rates of labor existing among 

 us. On these subjects conjectures abound ; and calculations 

 respecting the amount to be obtained so enormous and extrava- 

 gant, that they are much better suited to form a chapter in the 

 Arabian Nights' entertainment, than to enter into the thoughts 

 of any sound mind. Conjectures, however, in matters of this 

 kind, are not what we want ; and it does not belong to me 

 to present them to the farmers of Massachusetts. I have to 

 lament, however, that few exact experiments in this case have 

 been made in the country ; and that many points, the decision 

 of which, in my opinion, is more likely to have a favorable 

 than an unfavorable influence upon the silk culture, remain to 

 be determined. In my intercourse with the agricultural com- 

 munity, the mortifying conviction is continually forced upon 

 me, of the very small number of persons, upon whose authority 

 any strong reliance can be placed for that exactness of observa- 

 tion, which constitutes the first element of all true science, and 

 all useful and practical information. It is said that in the map 

 of the world in use among the Chinese, and to which they go 

 to study geography, the empire of China occupies about two 

 thirds of the whole surface. Too many of our farmers in their 

 sketches of their own domains, and their own operations, are 

 too prone to measure things by this Chinese scale. I shall 

 have the pleasure, however, of referring to some authorities en- 

 titled to entire respect and confidence, to the extent to which 

 they go. 



1. Timothy Smith, of Amherst, who has had considerable 

 experience in the production of silk, says in a letter to me, 

 " I consider that one acre of white mulberry, set in hedge rows, 



