VOL. XIII. NO. ai. 



AND HQUTICULrLRAr. JOURNAL. 



' From the Worcester Palladium. I H^lfl VV,. 1, . • . ^ 



CULTURE OF SILK. . , I " " '""^'' somewhere, that 



Tnr. first knnwlclge we have of the gvovvin-r of K'n H 1 ^'^ ' ■ "'^ T^ i"tro,l„erd an,nu.ll.v 

 ■Silk, U ,Jerive.( fro,„ Chi,.e.e history. The silk K^' ''V T '"T'' °/ Wi"dhan,, Tollan.l, an,l 

 won,, was first know,, in ihat i.art of China ,m «m'" "''"'* "'"""' l'"l'"''"i«" 



.-.nciently called Seriea, wh.re forests of the white L„,'""'"'''V^,-"°'' ''"^"^'"^ '" ""^ '^"'""■^ °'' 

 niulherrv tree grew .po.unMeonsly. Anion., the "3^°'"" /""" 'f P'-odueing from 20 to 100 



claims of antiquity put forth hv that stran.^e race T"'"^' •'""'>'• .^e Mieve that the fa,m-rs of 

 '• -■••••■ ° ' '-•"""•^'^"'■I't <^c"snier it the most lucrative part of 



tlicM- business. A knowled-e of the process of 

 raising the trees and producing the cocoons is very 

 easdy acquired. On an avcrafie 100 pounds of 

 leaves, will produce a pound and a Imlf of raw 

 silk. One full grown tree, in a healthy state, will 

 urnish a hundred pounds of leaves in a season. 

 In the silk growing towns of Connecticut, a fiirm 



165 



of men, we find it nicnlioiicd tliat more than 700 

 years antecedent to the time of Abraham, they had 

 directed their atlentinu to the culture of silk. One' 

 tif the Empresses of the Celestial Empire, with 

 the aid of her retinue of women, introduced the 

 silk worms into the apartmeiils of the imperial pal- 

 ace, and supplied them with leaws from the mul- 

 berry tree. The cocoons thus produced were found 

 to be much more valuable than those which were 

 produced in the open air. The queen and her 

 women wrought the silk which tliey cultivated into 

 garments, which they cmbi'oidered and otherwise 

 tastefully decorated. It soon liccame the common 

 apparel for all the "-aristocracy" of China. Sub- 

 sequently it became an article of commerce with 

 the western iialiniis, wherf eventually it vias grown 

 ami manufactured. The Greeks derived their first 

 knowleilgo of silk from the military expedition of 

 Alexander; and Aristotle called the attention of 

 ids countrymen to the imjiortance of tlm subject 

 it least three centuries and a half before the com- 

 riencement of the christian era. The Saracens 

 ntroduced it into Spain when they conquered that 

 ■ountry ; and as early as the middle ,of the twelfth 

 •entnry it bad become a source ot> much wealth 



the Spanish nation. 

 Italy is celebrated for its productions of silk ; 



■et it was not introduced into that country until 

 he 16tli century. In other parts of Europe its 

 irogress was more slow. Since the introduction 

 f the mulberry tree into France, near the close 

 f the lOili century, tlie French, instead of paying 

 lany millions annually to other nations, make an 

 stimaled profit of more than $7,000,000, yearly 

 n tlieir silks. 



In the colony of Virginia, considerable effort 

 'as made for the production of Silk". Mnlbeiry 

 oes, seeds, and W(M-ms were sent over and fur- 

 ished gratuitously by the British government; 

 id we find it recorded that Charles II once stated 



1 Governor Berkley that he had himself worn 

 irginia silk, and found it fully equal to that of 

 her countries. In 1661, Charles II. offered a 

 rge iiremium of tobacco to whoever should ex- 

 d in tlie culture of silk; and, three years after- 

 ards, one gentleman claimed the premium for 



month of January, "expect snow about these 

 days. The price of the time lost when it is mos 

 valuable, iu putting the exposed articles in prope 

 i-epair, not speaking of the cost of the material 

 and the interruption of business, would defray th 

 ex/iense of erecting ten such cheap sheds as woiil 

 cover thetn from the storms, protect them from 

 decay, and keep them ready for immediate use.— 

 JVat. JEgis. 



"^ t 



FRUITS OP IIVDIA. 



Extracts from Review of Transactions of Jtgr. and 

 Hort. Soc. of India in Loudon's Mag. for Sept. 

 The fleshy and pulpy fruits of Cashmere an d 



would be w t lo t the° Tl at U would 'be " Zl' ,^ '" '^''" "" "'"" ''■"''' '''^ ■— g'anate., 



H-able branch of J^rCL:^:;.:^::^^: IZ r^: :; trZt^, ^- - --y vanetie; 

 a doubt. The greatest objection to entering into oririn.' No mLll e y of E. , or^ 

 the Mismess, lias ever been the want of s.iUable diat equals the sweet vaietioTcashme^eTh 

 .^huiery with which to manuf^icture the raw ma- 1 are et:;en ripe, or tnadj^lmo w "I':- 1" i::, S^ 



),000 trees which he then had grovvin< 

 In 1735 eight pounds of raw silk were exported 

 Jm Georgia ; and for many years considerable 

 lautities were annually exported. In 1759 the 

 louy of Georgia exported upwards of 10,000 

 umis of raw silk, which brottght two or three 

 illings a pound more than the silk of any Euro- 

 an country. 



It^was introduced into Mansfield, Connecticut, 

 1760. But the Revolution came on, and there 

 IS no longer a foreign market for the raw mate- 

 ', and the colonists were not skilled in its man- 

 icture. The exigencies of the country required 

 It every man should be a soldier, or devote fiis 

 Je to such, agricultural pursuits alone as might 

 requisite to the sustenance of himself and fiun- 

 ■ The business was resumed immediately al'ter 

 ■■ Revolutiou ; and in 1789, two hundred pounds 

 raw silk were made in the single town of Mans- 



, tenal into marketable fabrics. This desideratum 

 has been happily supplied by Messrs Gay & Mose- 

 LKY, of Connecticut, who have invented and put 

 m operation machinery which works with ease and 

 facility, and produces a fabric that equals the best 

 of imported silks. 



Mr. Gay was in this town last week, for the 

 pnr()ose of inducing our citizens to establish here 

 a silk mannfactoiy. He is prepared to supply the 

 requisite machinery, and give such instruction in 

 Its use as may be necessary to the successful pros- 

 ecution of the art. He had with him some beau- 

 tiful specimens of the production of his machinery 

 from an establishment which has gone into succts- 

 ful operation at Providence, R. I. 



We are anxious to see the culture and nianu- 

 factiij-e of silk extensively established in New- 

 England, <as it will not only tend to diminish the 

 importations of fiu-eign silks, which now amount 

 to about it-10,000,000 annually, but will give to 

 the north a great staple like that of the cotton of 

 the South, aiid furnish to our whole population a 

 healthful and profitable employment : an emjiloy- 

 uient admirably adapted to females and children. 



That a branch of industry, so essential to the 

 prosperity of Massachusetts, may he successfully 

 established among us, we hope to see the subject 

 brought before our Legislature at an early day of 

 us approaching session, that the [.atroiiage of the 

 government may be applied in such a manner as 

 shall promote every effort towards the attaiumeiit 

 of success 



CARE OF FARMIISG TOOLS. 



A TOPIC not yet sufficiently enforced on the 

 attention of farmers, is the wasteful negligence 

 evinced in the exposure of agricultural implements 

 to the injuries of the seasons. The sleds curlin.r 

 and cracking by the side of the wall in summei^ 

 and the cart half buried in snow and seasoning in' 

 the winter storms, are symptoms of waste and^ex- 

 travagance, which ripen into a consumption, to be 

 hastened to premature termination by the visits of 

 the sheriffs. The whole secret of wealth consists 

 in economy, and the prudent care of those small 

 nils which without great vigilance, are slipping 

 tlirough the chinks of the best woven purse ; and 

 It may be considered quite as safe to predict that 

 none of these slovenly gentlemen will be pros- 

 perous, as to write in the style of the calendar 

 soothsayers, through the printed pages of the 



An immense quantity of oil and oil cake is made 

 from the walnut, and the wood of the tree is said 

 to equal that of Britain for gunstocks. It is calcu- 

 lated that Cashmere would supply as much walnut 

 oil as would furnish gas enough to lieht all Britain 

 It appears that .the cucumbers and nielons grown 

 in the floating gardens of Cashmere, are neither 

 very large nor very well flavored. At a distance the 

 smaller gardens appear like havcocks ; one melon 

 orcucumbergrowingon the summit, and spreadinjr 

 down the sides ; the larger are like narrow ridge, 

 ol dung made up for growing mushrooms, with 

 rows of cucumbers or melons along the top. Float- 

 ing gardens of great extent are sometimes stolen 

 during the night, and being towed a considerable 

 distance, and anchored along with others of a sim- 

 liar character, it is difficult Ibr the owner to recoe- 

 nise his property. 



Method of treating Grape Vines at Bombay. The 

 chief thing worthy of remark is the mode of givint 

 lliem a kind of artificial winter. This is done by 

 laying hare the roots after the rainy season, so as 

 to check vegetation. They are laid bare about 

 the 7lh or lOlh of October, and are allowed to re- 

 inain exposed for 15 or 16 days. The vines are 

 then pruned, ami in about a week afterwards it is 

 ollser^ed that the buds are beginning to break • 

 lue roots are then re-covered with the soil mixed 

 with manure, and water is given to them every 

 morning and evening till the fruit attains its full 

 growih. They are afterwards watered every third 

 or fourth day, till the grapes are completely ripe. 

 It thus appears that the length of the winter given 

 10 the vine m Bombay is about 26 days, which 

 may perhaps aftord a useful hint to the British 

 lo.cuig gardener. It does not appear that the 

 lirodnct of the vines in Bombay is very great, but 

 the gardeners have no diflicultv, by means of win- 

 termgdiflerent plants in succession, in having ripe 

 grapes every day in the year. 



.Vango and Peach Trees. " No fruit in India is 

 held 111 such estimation by the whole mass of its 

 population, from Delhi to Cape Comorin, as the 

 mango." The peach, though a fine fruit, is com 

 paratively little valued. The mango is allowed to 

 be extremely wholesome and nutritions. There 

 are a great many varieties of mangoes to be found 

 in the orchards of India ; but, like the peaches in 

 the American orchards, they have been generally 

 raised from seeds sown on the spot, and the ma- 

 jority of them are of very inferior quality. 



