1840.] SENATE— No. 3G. 233 



S. 



EXPERIMENT OF J. V. McLEAN. 



The following extracts are from the account of his experiment given 

 by Mr. McLean to the American Silk Society. Mr. McLean's ex- 

 periment was made in Freehold, Monmouth county, New Jersey. Mr. 

 McLean is a clergyman, and a gentleman of great respectability. I 

 had the pleasure of seeing his silk. It was excellent, and universally 

 admired. 



"The weight of the silk in the case which accompanies this paper, is 

 TWELVE POUNDS, Sixteen ounces to the pound, and is the product of one 

 QUARTER of an acre. 



The soil on which my trees were grown is a heavy clay — three or 

 four years ago, the land would not have produced 20 bushels of corn 

 to the acre. The two previous seasons, the lot on which iny experi- 

 ment was made had been very moderately manured — the present sea- 

 son it was covered with what might be considered a good coat of marl 

 and barn-yard manure mixed. 



The 20th to the 23d of April last, I planted a half acre lot with Mo- 

 rns Multicaulis roots, cuttings, and layers. 'J'he roots were of the 

 previous season's growth, taken from trees that did not exceed 2.^ feet. 

 The top was cut off within two inches of the root, and the roots were 

 laid horizontally in the row, about ten inches apart. The cuttings 

 were from the tops of these trees, with one bud to each, and were 

 planted six inches apart in the rows. The layers were small trees, six 

 to eighteen inches long, and were laid continuously in the row — the 

 root of one touching the top of another. The rows were 2i feel apart. 

 The length of the lot, as planted in trees, is 288 feei, and the width 

 75 feet. I expected to have had roots sufficient to plant half of this 

 lot, or a quarter of an acre — they planted, however, only 2G feet in 

 width, and 288 in length. In making out my quarter of an acre, there- 

 fore, I was obliged to include eleven feet and eight inches in width 

 from the layers — so that the dimensions of the lot was 288 feet in 

 length, and 37 feet 8 inches in width. 



I regretted that I had not roots for the whole quarter of an acre, as 

 the roots afforded much more leaves than the layers. Owing to close 

 planting and the nature of the soil, the trees produced were small — sav 

 30 



