VOU XIII. NO. 46. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



368 



with sugar and spices, like unripe gooseberries 

 for pies and tarts, which fruit it very much re- 

 sembles in flavor. It may be used in the spring, 

 and till midsummer. Medical men ascribe to it a 

 salutary influence upon health, particularly to 

 children, when used in this way. The seed ri- 

 pens about midsummer, at whicli time it may be 

 sown. — Cultivator. 



MULBERRY TREEl. 



Directions for sowing the seed, and rearimr the 

 plants, of the White Mulberry Tree : prei)ared in 

 Jjursuance of a resolution of the New York State 

 Agricultural Society. 



1. Prepare a good piece of garden soil, by dig- 

 ging and pulverizing it ; lay it out in beds three 

 or four feet broad, and rake it off smooth. Do 

 this early in May. Sow from 12th May to the 1st 

 June. 



2. With a hoe, stick, or other instrument, pro- 

 ceed to make shallow drills across the bed thus 

 prepared, from twelve to fifteen inches apart, and 

 scatter the seed in the drills as thick as you would 

 onion or parsnip seed ; then cover half an inch 

 with fine mould, and press it moderately down 

 with a hoe ; or wlien the first drill is sown and 

 covered, place upon it a narrow strip of board and 

 stand upon this board to sow the second drill, 

 upon which, when sown, place the board in a like 

 manner, and sow the third drill and proceed thus 

 until the whole is completed. The pressure of 

 the earth upon the seeds is to bring it in close 

 contact witli them, that they may be kept moist, 

 and germinate readily. If the weather be dry, or 

 the soil very light, an occasional watering at eve- 

 ning will be beneficial. 



3. The only further care required, the first sea- 

 son, will he to keep the ground free from weeds 

 and the soil moderately loose. 



4. Strong plants of one year's growth may he 

 transplanted in April into nursery rows ; or the 

 whole may be left to grow a second summer in 

 the seed bed ; the ground, as before, being kept 

 from weeds, and occasionally stirred. 



5. After two summer's growth, all the strong 

 and healthy plants should be placed in nursery 

 rowf, which may be done thus ; the good ground 

 being prepared, as for a crop, draw a line and pro- 

 ceed to open a trench, of suflicient breadth and 

 depth to admit the roots freely, leaving the side 

 next the line straight and ]>erpendicular. Having 

 assorted the plants, and cut off the bruised, and 

 shortened the top roots, a man proceeds to lay 

 them in a trench, in their proper position, the heel 

 of the plant towards the line, and at the distance 

 of a foot apart : while another man with a spade 

 or the planter with a gardener's trowel, throws in 

 earth to hold them in their places. The trench 

 is then to be filled, the plants set upright, and the 

 earth trod about them. The other rows are 

 planted in like manner, three feet apart ; the 

 ground to be kept clean during the season. 



6. After standing two years in nursery, the 

 ])Iants will have acquired a sufficient size to plant 

 out in the ground where they are to stand ; and if 

 intended to be grown in hedges, or as bushes, they 

 may be taken earlier, even at two years old, from 

 the seed bed. For hedges, plant the same as for 

 nursery rows, at eighteen inches, the ground hav- 

 ing been previously prepared by an ameliorating 

 crop, as potatoes. The same precautions are 

 necessary with mulberry as with other fruit trees, 



inten<led for standards, as to distance and planting. 

 A broad and deep hole, partially filled with good 

 surface mould, will always repay for extra labor. 

 When intended to be cultivated as bushes, they 

 may be planted thick and left untrimmed, so as to 

 occupy the entire ground. Tlie midberry is gen- 

 erally grown in the latter way in India and some 

 parts of Italy. It facilitates the gathering of the 

 leaves, and affords an earlier product. 



The nntlberry grovvs well on almost any soil, 

 and particularly in one which is stony. Upon 

 poor, dry soils, it afibrds the best material for 

 silk. An ounce of seed will give some thousand 

 plants, and require a bed four feet broad, and 

 forty to fifty feet long. J. Buel, Cor. Sec. 



Mbany, March 15, 183-5. 



Chinese methoo of cultivating the mul- 

 berry. — The Chinese have various methods for 

 cultivating the unilberry, all of which may he ad- 

 vantageously adopted in this country. One method 

 is as follows : — In the spring, they sow the seed, 

 in well prepared ground, in drills or by broad 

 cast. The next year, when the plants are cov- 

 ered with foliage, they mow them down, in the 

 same manner that farmers mow small bushes in 

 their pastures, and feed the worms. Those mow- 

 ings are followed until the stock becomes .so stinted 

 and exhausted as to be unable to send forth shoots, 

 when they sow another piece of ground for the 

 ensuing year. This crop can be daily made, ex- 

 cept after very dry weather, in different portions 

 of the ground, and each plant will bear to he top- 

 ped three times at least before the mounting of 

 the silk worms. 



This method has several important advantages 

 over all other methods. The leaves are gathered 

 with trifling labor and expense — the same area of 

 ground will produce more foliage — it enables the 

 culturist to commence the making of silk in the 

 coiuse of one year — tenants from year to year, as 

 well as owners of the soil, can secure a yearly 

 crop of silk, and the quantity of silk can be in- 

 creased or diminished according to the demand of 

 the market or of the manntacturers. 



This method can, doubtless, be advantageously 

 adopted in this country, subject, however, to such 

 modifications as the variableness or vicissitudes of 

 our climate require. Dr Pascalis, an eminent and 

 experienced silk culturist, suggests the propriety 

 of sowing in the latter part of the summer, and 

 also to gather and dry carefully the foliage before 

 using. — Silk Culturist. 



The silk Culture. — The culture of the mul- 

 berry tree, and the production of silk, appears at 

 this time to be drawing the attention of the people 

 of this state, and many have already made consid- 

 erable progress in preparations necessary for its 

 continued and successful pursuit. It is unques- 

 tionably worthy of their attention, and we believe 

 the day is not far distant when silk is to become 

 one of the staple productions of the Northern 

 States. A fair experiment proves that the climate 

 is favorable, and that it may, at little expense, be 

 made to every family a safe, convenient and highly 

 lucrative employment. 



Many gentlemen in this vicinity have this spring 

 arranged, and others are arranging their mulberry 

 orchards, and the interest which it engages affords a 

 safe assurance of the complete success of the un- 

 dertaking. 



Individuals introduced the business several 

 years since — more perhaps for the curiosity of the 

 thing than any hope of profit — but the imperfect 

 experiments which have been thus tried, show 

 that each thrifty tree at five years old will produce 

 one dollar! — JV. H. Statesman. 



An industrious wife. — A married lady, of 

 about tvvcntyone years of age, in a town in this 

 county, besides taking the whole care of her fam- 

 ily, braided in as many successive days, (Sundays 

 and one week of ill-health excepted) one hundred 

 palm leaf hots, which she brought to this town, a 

 few weeks since, and sold in a lot for forty dollars. 

 The stock cost her six cents apiece, so that the 

 nett gain of her labors has been thirtyfour dollars. 

 Praise upon a married lady is, however, rather 

 posthumous, for her fate is fixed ; but if our single 

 damsels will exert a like industry, the story of their 

 deeds might not be told in vain. — Ports. Join: 



Vaccination. — The discovery of vaccination, 

 as a preventative of that scourge the small pox, 

 was one of the greatest blessings ever conferred 

 upon man. Its absolute efficiency is now estab- 

 lished beyond doubt. The Report of the British 

 Vaccine Institution goes strongly to this point ; as 

 it appears by it, that the deaths by small pox in 

 London, the last year, weie only 324; being 4000 

 at least less than the annual average of deaths by 

 that disorder before vaccination was discovered, 

 though the population of that city was then more 

 than one third less than it is at present. There 

 were vaccinated, the last year, at the institution, 

 11,571 poor persons; and 83,191 other persons 

 out of the institution. — Essex Register. 



Large subscription. — The New York Jour- 

 nal of Commerce, of yesterday, says: "We under 

 stand that at the business meeting of the Anti 

 Slavery Society, held in that city a few days since, 

 the enormous sum offonrtsen thousand dollars was 

 subscribed in aid of the society's funds. One gen- 

 tleman gave 13000, two others .¥1200 each, and so 

 on downward, according to the several abilities or 

 zeal of the gentlemen present. We cannot but 

 admire this princely liberality, prompted, as it is 

 no doubt in many cases, by the best of motives, 

 and intended for the best good of the race, both 

 white and colored. 



Chalk. — It is stated in the last number of the 

 American Magazi;'e, that a quarry of pure chalk 

 has been discovered by Col. Dodge, of the U. S. 

 Army, near the Missouri, a mineral which had not 

 before been discovered in our country. Professor 

 Silliman, in his lectures, just closed in this town, 

 mentions that a mineral had been discovered near 

 the Rocky Mountains, which at first was supposed 

 to be chalk ; but on examination it proved to be 

 white clay. This is probably the quarry alluded 

 to in the American Magazine. 



On Thursday forenoon of last week, as Mr 

 Wetherbee, of Dedhani was proceeding on his 

 customary route with Ids horse and milk-cart, 

 when near the Warren bridge, Boston, a person 

 on the sidewalk, thinking, probably, that the horse 

 was coming upon him, extended out his umbrella, 

 which struck the horse in the neck ; and although 

 the skin was not ruptured, his neck swelled in 

 ■ ucli a uianuev that he was obliged to be left at a 

 stable in the city, where he died the same even- 

 ing. — Briggs' Bulletin. 



