404 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



JUi:.Yl,183C. 



CULTURE OP SILK IN TURKEY. 



I offer to the [jiiblic oxtracts of a letter written 

 recently by Charles Rhind, Esq. to a gentleman 

 in this city. It is replete with interesting inform- 

 ation on the mulberry and the culture of sill^. Mr 

 Rhind is well aequaintcd with Turkey ; he was 

 the i)rincipal negotiator of our treaty with the 

 Sultan, and is a gentleman possessing a highly 

 cidtivati'd mind, uniLed to acutencss of observa- 

 tion. He says -'In that country (Turkey) the 

 production of silk is confined to cities or the 

 larger towns, in the vicinity of which the mul- 

 berry tree is chiefly cultivated ; those trees belong 

 to the farmers or proprietors of the ground, who 

 do not rear the worm themselves, but during the 

 crop-season, the leaves are collected by tliem daily 

 and carried into the city and sold in the market 

 in the same manner as fruit and vegetables, in 

 such quantities as purchasers may require. At 

 the commencement of the season almost every 

 family clear out all the rooms in the house except 

 one in which they live during the crop season : 

 the worms being produced they purchase a quan- 

 tity of leaves and strew them over the floor of 

 each room, leaving a small space next the wall, 

 that they may walk round and distribute the 

 leaves ; they then place the worms on the leaves, 

 who readily attack them, and then daily throw on 

 such a quantity as experience teaches them will 

 supiily the want of the worms, and this they re- 

 peat until the worms are ready to rise and wind 

 the cocoon, without ever reinoving the oflal or 

 Biems, and frequently the i)ile of collected matter 

 will reach the height of three or four feet. When 

 the worms shov/ symptoms of winding they plant 

 branches and brushes immediately over the col- 

 lected mass, the worms rise on these, the cocoons 

 arc formed and collected, and the rooms are then 

 cleared out and the reeling is commenced. This 

 manipulation is performed in the most clumsy 

 maimer ami with thfi rudest machinery imagina- 

 ble, notwithstanding which they produce the 

 finest silk in the world. For upwards of thirty 

 years I have been of opinion that the culture of 

 silk would in time, be the most !mp<jrtant of our 

 agricultmul productions next to cotton. Wiien 

 last in Turkey, by means of an American gentle- 

 man who is resident in Brusa, I olitaincd a quan- 

 tity of the genuine seed of the Morus alha (white 

 mulberry) of Brusa, the great silk district situated 

 at the foot of ftlount Olympus, (where the best 

 silk is ])roduccd,) the climate of which rcscnd)les 

 our own, being almost in the latitude of New York. 

 The seeds which I brought have flourished here, 

 and in three years more will produce fruit suffi- 

 cient to supply the state, and probably the United 

 States with seed from a native stock of the present 

 blood, as a jockey would term it, for I am of 

 opinion that the Morus multicaulis, Chinese mul- 

 berry, is too delicate for our climate, although it 

 might succeed in Florida ; but those 1 brought 

 we know to be geimine and hardy, and they will 

 flourish in our latitude." 



Remarks — This information of Mr Rhind's is 

 important in several respects. It is highly proba- 

 ble that the mulberry sued which we may soon 

 expect from him, will produce trees more genial to 

 our climate, and better adapted to the «'orm, than 

 those now in this coimtry. The Turkish method 

 of rearing the worm in cities and country villa- 

 ges, is worthy of our imitation and adoption. 

 How many persons there are unemployed who 

 might in this way earn large sums of money an- 



nually, and thus live in comparative comfort. It 

 would be very profitable to farmers living near 

 the cities and villages, to cu'.tivate the mulberry 

 and supply the market. The Turkish method of 

 rearing the worm is disgustingly filthy, and ought 

 to be avoided, the worms should be jdaced on 

 shelves properly constructed, in tiers rising from 

 two to eight feet, filling all parts of a room ex- 

 ce|)t sriace enough to allow the attendants to feed 

 them and remove the ofliiil and filth which when 

 accumulated, must injure the worm. Mr Rhind 

 proves the fact that our climate is adapted to the 

 production of silk of a superior quality, and he 

 very justly appreciates the high importance of the 

 cullui-e of silk, and is not mistaken in considering 

 it the most injportant of our productions next to 

 cotton, and I doubt much whether he need have 

 excepted cotton itself — Correspondent of the Alba- 

 ny Journal. 



CULTURE OP SILK. 



From the result of several years' experience, I 

 ventin-e to assert, that the culture of silk is ono of 

 the most lucrative branches of agriculture, and is 

 very light and jileasant employment. Nearly all 

 the labor of feeding and tending the worms may 

 be performed by small children, that are useless 

 at most other employments. The reeling, twist- 

 ing, coloring, and manufacturing sewing silk is a 

 simple process, and as easily performed as wool or 

 flax, Tliis may be demonstrated by the small 

 sjieciuien I send you, which was wrought upon a 

 common reel and wheel by one who had not the 

 advantage of experience, and who had never seen 

 a cocoon before. One hundred pounds of leaves 

 will produce one pound of sewing silk, and a 

 child from nine to twelve years of age, will gather 

 seventyfive pounds of leaves in a day, this is call- 

 ed a day's work for a child in Connecticut. At 

 this rate, the same child will feed as many worms 

 as v/ill produce twcntyseven pounds of reeled silk 

 in six weeks, worth from four to seven dollars 

 per pound, the price being regulated by the good 

 or bad reeling. The reeling of this quantity will 

 occupy the attention of a woman three weeks, and 

 wdl be produced from a half acre of land. A<;- 

 cording to this calcidation, which I think is not 

 exaggerated-, two children from nine to twelve 

 years old, in six weeks, and one woman in three 

 weeks, from an acre of land, will make fiftyfour 

 |)ounds of reeled silk, worth say five dollars per 

 pound, which amounts to two hundred and seven- 

 ty dollars. I presume that by planting one field 

 with the Italian mulberry, more may be made an- 

 nually from them, by feeding silk worms with the 

 leaves, than can be made by the usual mode of 

 farming on a plantation of one hundred acres. 

 We have long been in the habit of sending vast 

 amounts to the Indies, and Europe, to purchase 

 silk, and at the same time of sending the widows 

 ai,:d orphans of our country, who are left in |)ccu- 

 niary embarrassments, to alms bouses. I think 

 every man who feels an interest in the pros|)erity 

 of this country, should lend his assistance to put 

 a stop to such proceedings, and thus contribute his 

 mite to a great national good. I would, therefore 

 advise with humble defcren'ce, that every farmer 

 procure trees, which may be |)lanted by walls, on 

 side hills, and by the side of high ways and by- 

 ways, in lands too stony to till, or too barren to 

 produce ; — they should occupy the places of use- 

 less shrul)S and forest trees, as Lombardy and 

 other poplars, paper mulberry, &c., the Italian 



mulberry being more ornamental than any of' 

 them, of speedy growth, and very tenacious of 

 life. I have shown that the business may be at- 

 tended to by women and children ; consequently 

 upwards of twelve njillions of dollars may be 

 saved in this country amuially, without diminish- 

 ing in value our other ];roducts. The time of 

 feeding worms is from the tenth of May, until 

 about the twentieth of June, a season of the year 

 when a barn is not much used, and by trial, the 

 worms are found to produce as nmch silk and as 

 good in a barn as in a Laboratory scientifically 

 constructed. Many of the worms in New Eng- 

 land are attended in barns, without the trouble ot 

 Thermometers or Barometers. 



The Italian mulberry is of very speedy growth, 

 and may be propag.ited so speedily that the manu- 

 facture of silk in this coimtry may be commenced 

 much sooner than has been anticipated. The 

 genius and enterprise of our citizens is equal to 

 the task of inanufacturing silk superior to the im- 

 ported ; when once in operation their zeal and ac- 

 tivity will enable them to compete with the world 

 in the culture. I venture to assert, without fear 

 of contradiction, that there is not a country on the 

 globe having soil and climate so well adapted tc 

 the growth of the Italian mulberry, and constitu- 

 tion of the silk worm as the United Slates. The 

 tenacity of life is indeed wonderful in those trees. 

 I transplanted moie than 8000 between the 4th 

 and 28th of June last, and although so very late 

 in the season, I think not 100 died. The tree is 

 perfectly hardy, also in regard to heat and cold : 

 among upwards of 300,000 seedling plants, I havf 

 not discovered one that has been injured by tht 

 severe fro.sts of the past winter, while nearly all 

 my other trees have been more or less injured 

 thereby. The Chinese morus multicualis as wel. 

 as many native trees are entirely killed. 



What a proud day will that be for Pennsylva- 

 nia, when her daughters will appear in silk ol 

 their own manufacture. I presume that day ife 

 not far distant. — Penn. Reporter. 



^•<S2a5£<3WS.l£'^mSB 



OJS THE PRESERVATION OP POTATOES OVEIR 

 THE YEAR. 



As the best mode of preserving potatoes until 

 the produce of the next year's crop should be 

 brought into use, is a matter of considerable im- 

 portance, I beg to refer to vol. '22d, p. 135, of the 

 Transactions of the Society for the encourage- 

 ment of Arts, &c. where is detailed the following 

 method adopted with success by M. J. de Lanccy. 

 Guernsey. 



M. De Lancey says : " Early in March, 1803,i 

 I observed iny winter's stock of potatoes, which 1 

 had dug in Oct. 1802, sprouted from the mildness 

 of the weather in this island. It occurred to me 

 that by putting them under ground vegetation 

 would be retarded. I accordingly took indiscrim- 

 inately from my pile about three dozen and in my 

 court yard dug a hole two feet and a half deep, 

 under the protection of a southwest wall, where 

 the rays of the sun prevail for a few minutes only 

 during the day, at any season of the year. Then, 

 with three pantiles, one at bottom, I laid most ol 

 my potatoes in the hole, and placed the other two 

 tiles over them in form of tlie roof of a house, 

 They not containing all, I threw them carelessly 

 into the hole, having no great confidence in my 

 experiment, covering the place over to its usual 



