58 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 14, 1827. 



From the Ncwburyport Herald. 



SILK WORMS. 



The following st.iteiiiGnl taken from anoldiuim- 

 berofthe Massachusdts .Magazine, was politely 

 handed to us by a gentleman for publication, and 

 we insert it with the greatest pleasure. — 

 We hope it will call the attention of the farmers 

 of this section to a subject which is beorinning to 

 excite, in the middle states, a great deal of inter- 

 est and inquiry. The statement itself appears to 

 be fair and satisfactory, and should induce to a 

 trial of the success with which the raising of silk 

 may be prosecuted. 



Expenses and prof is of raisin/^ Silk Worms. — 

 One hundred trees of two or three years' sjrovvth, 

 will feed an amazing number nf silk worms, rate 

 them at 0/. Gs. M: 



the land they are put in is a mere trifle ; tlioy can 

 be planted in hedge rows, and improve the ground 

 in which they grow. Any vegatable or grass will 

 thrive well under them; indeed by keeping the 

 ground loose about their roots they will thrive 

 best, say the room that they take up is worth an- 

 other dollar, , 0/. 65. Oil. 

 The worms thrive best in mere sheds almost. A 

 tight room is not the thing, a hut any thing of 

 rough and slight shelter is the best. An unfinish- 

 ed garret ; the corner of a barn enclosed for tlie 

 purpose, will answer ; but suppose it wore neces- 

 sary to run up a rmrdl building for the purpose, 

 you may raise many thousands in one that every 

 farmer may build for himself, and it will not cost 

 him more than '21. 8i\ Oil. 

 31. Qs. Od. 



Ten dollars is then the capital required to set 

 up this business. Now letus see what it will take 

 to carry it on; suppose our farmer has a wife and 

 two children ; well, about the 10th of June he 

 thinks of hatching his eggs, (they will cost him 

 nothing) and by the middle of August the work is 

 done. In tliat time his wife, children, and him- 

 self, not employed all the day long about the silk 

 worms, may raise at least 160,000 of them. Then 

 t e only thing is to reel off this silk; to be sure, 

 it will require time, patience and industry, to reel 

 oT" 1,900,000 yards of silk which these IfiO.OOO 

 w >rm3 have made ; but no money is required to 

 Jo it. The wife and children do it at their leis- 

 ure, and when it is done they have .'i4 -lb. of raw 

 silk to dispose of at three dollars per lb.; this is 

 iSl. 12s. all by the labor of his own family's hands 

 and that only during part of the year; his trees 

 re'nain, his shed stands, and his land is still his, 

 and not impoverished. 



And why will not our farmers plant these mul- 

 berry trees and busy themselves in the culture of 

 this silk ? it is for the want of thought ; but their 

 eyes will soon be opened to their interest. 431. 

 for a small family to make in one year, from a cap- 

 ital of 3^ only, with industry and attention, is cer- 

 tainly worth thinking about — where is the farmer 

 that can do better with his land, time or money. 



CURE FOR INTEMPERANCE. 

 Rxiract from •• i\!i' Tiickcnnaii's third Quarterly Report ; ad- 

 dressed to the iVmerican Unitarian Association." 



« The intemperate love of ardent spirits is in- 

 deed an affection of the mind. It therefore may 

 be, and in a few cases has been, overcome by a 

 strong and persevering action of the mind. The 

 resolution to deny the appetite has been maintain- 

 sdjtill a healthful state of the stomach has been 

 ptaducod ; and thus all desire for the unnatural 



stimulus has been extinguished. Few, however, 

 have the mental vigor wliich is demanded, for 

 success in this course of healing. With nine 

 hundred and ninety nine out of a thousand, the 

 work of theirrestoration demands theaid of medi- 

 cine, as well as of moral means. And surely the 

 encouragement to impart this aid is very great, if 

 one out of six, or even ten, may bo thus recovered. 

 But if, as 1 have no doubt is the t.uth, three out 

 of four may, by persevering effort, be thoroughly 

 cured, let the politician, let tlie philanthropist, let 

 the christain patronize the work of staying that 

 plague, which is spreading sin, and misery, and 

 death through the l.nd. 



" A word or two of the modus operandi in these 

 cases. This is very differentin different individu- 

 als. Some are far otherwise affected by the same 

 medicine, than arc others. Nor is the mere 

 strength of the action displayed by the medicine, 

 the best assurance of its success. That the in- 

 temperate may bo cured, a more healthful state of 



number of Chambers' powders. But a prepara- 

 tion has been made by Reed and Howard of this 

 city, a principal ingredient of which, I suspect to 

 be of a character which is more universally dis- 

 gusting, than are any of the iugredients in Cham- 

 bers' powders; or, at least, th.Tt this is a more 

 prevaling ingredient in Reed and Howard's than 

 in the Nc.v York prcparaUon. Their " cure for 

 Intemperance," I therefore decidedly prefer to 

 that of Chambers." 



INFLUENCE OF THE MOON. 

 The following abstract of a paper of Dr. Olbers 

 the distinguished Astronomer at Bremen, in Ger- 

 many, who discovered the planet Pullas in 1802, 

 and the planet Vesta in 1807, translated from the: 

 "-^nnales de Cbimie et do Physique," is worthy 

 the aUention of all, and especially those who wish 

 to be deluded by the absurd predictions of the 

 weather in Almanacs. 



The moon enlivens our nights, draws the earti 

 tTie'st'omrcl'ri7to"be"p7oducecV;"and'at the s^r"c | ^.||^'^|°/''°';'\|^'_^ ^^'P'^'f °"'^^^^ os 



time, a thorough disgust of the liquors with '.vhich "' " '"" '" " ""' " "" " 



they have into.xicatcd themselves. Nor is this 

 all. The disgust which is given, must for a time 

 be kept up by the same means by which it was 

 produced. Several have been strongly affected 

 by a single glass of medicated spirits, and have 

 fancied themselves, and have been thought by 

 others, to have been cured ; but have soon re- 

 turned to their old courses ; and others, who 

 haven taken half, or two thirds of the portion 

 prescribed, and who for a fortnight or thi'ee 

 weeks revolted from the thought of drinking rum, 

 have.atrain drank it. This has done much to bring 

 the work of curing the intemperate into disrepute. 

 The medicine which is given to each ono siiould 

 be of a kind, which is suited to produce in him a 

 disgust of ardent spirits; and this disgust should 

 bo kept up for 8, or 10, and sometimes perhaps 

 for 12 days.''' I have administereil a considerable 



" There are two objects to be had in view in 

 curing the intemperate of their love of into.xica- 

 ting spirits. The first is, to restore the organs 

 which have been diseased by these spirits to a 

 healthful state. The second is, to pro luce a dis- 

 gust of these spirits, as strong, and as permanent 

 as can be produced. A temporary disgust of 

 intoxicating spirits is easily produced ; and, that 

 better state of the digestive organs, which will 

 give to the patient a new enjoyment of his food, 

 a new vigor and activity, a new enjoyment of rest 

 after fatigue, and a new happiness in all his em- 

 ployments, and in all his relations. But the pa- 

 tient is not to be considered as a recovered man, 

 merely because he is brought to feel this happi- 



cillation in the earth's axis, produces the tides of 

 the sea, and a similar but less motion in the atmo- 

 sphere. Besides these demonstrable effects, many 

 have believed from time immemorial, that the 

 m.oon exorcises a considerable infinence upon 

 the health of mankind, upon animals, upon vege- 

 tation, and upon chemical products. Experience 

 only can throw light upon this subject : and long 

 and well conducted experiments have been made. 

 As to the inlltionce of the moon upon the weather 

 the result deduced from one series of nieteorolon- 

 ical observations, isalways contradicted by anoth- 

 er series. Wo cite, for example, Howard, who, 

 after careful observation, believed he had discov- 

 ered, that the barometer was usually lowest (that 

 is, the air was .Tioro dense) at the time of neir 

 moon. Cotte, on the contrary, to whom meteorol- 



havo begged with all the importunity with which, 

 a starving man wonld beg for food, to be per- 

 mitted " to stop, and to take no more" And it is 

 where this permission has ton soon been granted, 



that almost every case of failure has occurred 



The few cases in which medicine has yet been 

 administered for this object are to be considered 

 as experiments; and these have demonstrated, 

 that the work of recovering the intemperate bv 

 medicine is practicable. Nor are even failure;; 

 to be considered as exceptions. Tiiey prove on- 

 ly, that the work may be more difficult in one, 

 than iu another ; that a longer term of keeping 

 up disgust is necessary in mnny cases, than was 

 at first tliought to be requsite; and that physicians 

 should have the charge of this great means of 

 doing good, that patients may be kept in subjec- 

 on, and in endurance, till they may be safely rc- 



ness. Thereare cases iu which these resulls, have 



been obtained by takino- medicated spirits only i '"'^''''- If" shall be committed to judicious men, 

 for two, or three days. But the good effects, in | "'''''^ "° '^°"''' whether this work will prosper, 

 these cases, have been of short duration. I have I ^"' ''"'' ^^ ''"''' '" ""^ "nskilled, and to empirics, 

 indeed good reason to suppose, in all the cases in I'' '^''" ^""^ '^^'" '"'° ''iscredit, andcometo nought, 

 which those who have taken medicated spirits Tl'ore are stages, also, in taking a course of medi- 

 have not been thoroughly disgusted with them, '='*'<''' *P'"*^' '" '^''"■'' "'^ P"""" ^'°^""^ ''°wn sys- 

 either that the medicinal agent employed was not'"'"' °'^"'° «^°"''rmed drunkard requires rest, and 

 so well suited to produce a strong disgust in the ^ °"'" "edjcal applications than are given for the 

 patient, as might have been produced by some cure of his intemperate appetite, which 110 other 

 other medicine ; or, which is by far the morol"'"" » Phys'cmn is competent to prescribe. 1 

 common cause of failure, the disgust has not been i ^^°"^^ ""' «-illingly have done what I have in this 



kept up long enough to secure its permanence , business, had I not been assisted with the advice. 



Hero then, the jtidgment, and I will add, the „„., ■"'d the occasional visits, of a medical friend, tc 

 Ihonty of the physician is wanted. Some of tho.se i '''''°'". ' an^ni^'ch indebted for his services on these, 

 whom I have attended, after two or three days , °'^''''^"'"^' 



