VOL. Xw. NO. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



115 



consists of seventeen convex rows of iron plates 

 on each inclination of the roof. Tljey are made 

 of|iiecrs of sheet iron riveted finidy together like 

 the holier of a steam engine, and form as many 

 grooves or gutters which carry off the water. 

 They are traversed outside and within hy iron 

 hars, which are anchored in the walls, and thus 

 hold the whole roof as well as the upper part of 

 the house compactly together, on the principle of 

 the chain bridge. By wedges inserted in the mid- 

 dle junction of the hars outside, the roof may he 

 at any time made sti!l more firm and water tight. 

 It will hear any weight of snow, and the whole 

 structure is less in weight than ordinary roofs.- 

 Balt. Jimer. 



Rail Road Iron. — Bills have passed Parlia- 

 liauieiit this season for eleven hundred miles of 

 railroads, which wiil require a total of two 

 hundred and ninety thousand tons of Iron, to be 

 supplied within the next four years. When this 

 is taken in conjunction with the demands for rail 

 road iron from the United States, it is obvious we 

 shall have to be thrown ujion our own resom-ces, 

 and commence the manufacture at our own works. 

 We think we liave iron of as good quality as any 

 in England.— jV. 1; Star. 



Sufficient iron n.ight be made in Pennsylvania 

 to sujjply the wants of the Union. The moun- 

 tainous tracts hoimding on the Juniata and its 

 tributaries abound with ore of the best quality ; 

 and the iron manufactured from it equals, if in- 

 deed it does not greatly excel, any that is brought 

 from foreign countries. The great difficidty here- 

 tofore has been, that it could not be manufactur- 

 ed cheaply enough to compete with the English 

 article. 



To MAKE HARD WATER SOFT. — We take the 

 hard water from our well, and into one bucket we 

 ])ut one ounce of the carbonate of soda, which 

 dissolves immediately when the water is warmed, 

 and it becomes at once as soft and harmless as the 

 purest rain water. 'J his article is for srile at any 

 of the apothecaries or druggists, and costs 13 cents 

 per pound. — Mer. Jour. 



PACTS AND OBSERVATIOKS. 



The following is from nn old number of the Memoirs 

 of the Massachusetts ^Igr. Society. 



The attention necessary to be paid to raising 

 and feeding Silk worms, would form an agreeable 

 and lucrative employment to those who are [daced 

 above manual services. There is no part of .Amer- 

 ica wherein the silk worm cannot be supplied with 

 proper feed: as mulberry trees will thrive with 

 very little care, even in the coldest. We are in- 

 forjned that in 1789, no less than 5400 pounds of 

 silk were raised in the cold and sandy territory of 

 Prussia. Perhaps no country possesses greater 

 advantages for this purpose, than America; and 

 should this manufacture ever be actively pursued, 

 it will not be extravagant to expect silken stuffs 

 as cheap as any cloth made in America. 



To shew with what ease and convenience the 

 worm may be fed, the following directions are 

 extracted from some sensible letters, written hy 

 Mr. Joseph Clarke, of Northampton, and commu- 

 nicated hy the Hon. Jatnes Winthroji, Esq., of 

 Cambridge. To these gentlemen, the Society re- 

 turn their thanks, and will be obliged by any fur- 

 ther communications to improve the agriculture 

 and manufactures of our country. 



Extracts from Mr. darkens Letters. 

 About ten years ago, I set over an acre of land 

 with small mulberry trees, ten feet apart; they 

 flourished exti-etnely well, and in three or four 

 years, they formed a perfect forest. From these 

 I used to gather my leaves ; but 1 soon found the 

 troublf. and expense was too great ; for I was 

 obliged in the latter part of feeding, to emjiloy a 

 great many peojile, or the worm must starve ; 

 having observed those trees, wh'ch were acciden- 

 tally broken do\v"i spronted anew and luxuriant- 

 ly tlie following ys^'"i determined me on another 

 method. I had "^ small enclosure of very ricli 

 ground, about six rods square, which in the spring 

 of the year 1793, T ploughed and manured well. 

 Here I sowed tny mulberry seed in rows, 'ike 

 carrots or parsnips in a garden, at suitable distan- 

 ces from each other for weeding and hoeing o^- 

 tween them. The seed came np well, and '''^ 

 plants were kept quite free from weeds that su"i- 

 mer ; in doing which, you must lie very cnrefu!> 

 as the plants are exceeding tender; in this first 

 weeding the fingers must he principally used. — 

 The next spring before they began to sprout, with 

 a scythe, I cut down all the hushes within two in- 

 ches of the ground, and carefully weed them. 

 This method answered my most sanguine exj)ec- 

 tations ; for by the middle of July, when the 

 wortns devour the most leaves, they had grown 

 ii[) three feet in height,and being cut with a sick- 

 le, furnished me with abundance of leaves, in a 

 cheap, easy and expeditious manner. The same 

 tnethod has been pursued with these trees or bush- 

 es ever since ; so that you see there is no neces- 

 sity for sowing the seed annually. A field once 

 sown, will, for aught I can see, last a thousand 

 years, if it be well taken care of. IMy mtdberry 

 trees are more flourishing this year, and yielded 

 more food (or the worms than they ever did be- 

 fore. This I attribute chiefly to the manure I put 

 on them the last spring; notwithstanding they 

 were cut down last July, they are now (October) 

 about three feet high. My worms were hatched 

 out the 24th .of June, and continued eating just 

 four weeks. They have consumed upwanls of 

 three thousand i)ounds of leaves, and the trouble 

 of gathering them has been but little, compared 

 with the whole business. A man can reap 3 or 

 400 weight within an hour; the expense and 

 trouble are therefore trifling. I perform about 

 three quarters of the business myself. The quan- 

 tity of silk ])roduccd is about ten pohnds ; as to 

 the quality I can in no way so well inform you 

 as by sending a skein of sewing silk,* which I 

 pray yon to accept. 



The idea that water is injurious to silk worms, 

 is totally unfuiindeil. I\Iy worms this year have 

 been chiefly led on wet leaves, gathered early in 

 the morning, and as they grow dry in the course 

 of the day, were sprinkled with water.f I have 



used in one day three pails full, in sprinkling the 

 leaves, for I think it invigorates the worm in sul- 

 try weather. Hot water for the purpose of killing 

 the chrysalis that is within tlie cocoon to [irevent 

 his making his making his way through, and spoil- 

 ing the silk is never used. Hot water is only 

 used when the cocoons are wound off" into skeins. 

 To kill the chrysalis, the cocoons are put into an 

 oven, about as warm as when a woman takes out 

 her bread ; or they are exposed one or two days 

 to the fierce rays of the sun. The last method is 

 best as there is no danger of injuring the silk, as 

 may be the case in the former way. Should the 

 oven be a little too warm, S])read your cocoons on 

 a table in the sun for two days succcssi\ely ; If 

 you suspect they are not effectually killed I t them 

 be out another day. They must be carried in at 

 night, they must liot be wet ; if you wish 

 to know whether the chrysalis be dead, 

 take one of the thickest of the cocoons and cut it 

 0|ien ; if you cannot perceive any lite, you may 

 conclude they are sunned sufficiently ; should you 

 perceive any signs of life, sun them another day. 



"This Silk will bear a comparison vi'ith the best im- 

 ported Silk. 



t This candid statement destroys the idea of water 

 being injurious to the silk worm, an opinion that has 

 been long established and is still maintained in some 

 late publications. To remove all doubt, (if any can 

 possibly remain) the following mode is added, which 

 will not only confirm Mr Clarke's assertion, but teach 

 us to prepare a stock of food ftr our worms, should any 

 accident deprive them of the mulberry leaves, or should 



Berks Cohntt Silk. — We have recently ex- 

 amineil a specimen of Sewing Silk, the first ever 

 manufactured in this county, and it was of siicli 

 a quality, and the manner of its production so 

 creditable, that it did our hearts good. It wis 

 the entire (irodi ction of a young lady near Reaii- 

 ing, one of Berks county's fairest (laughters, who 

 reared and fed the wornis, sjum the silk froiy tho 

 cocoons, and doubled and twisted it into skeins, 

 all with her own liands. Here new is the exam- 

 ple set to our young ladies, and we are persua- 

 ded they are about to imitate it, as a large quanti- 

 ty of nndberry seed has gone into different parts 

 of the county from this jilace. How irresistible 

 would be the charms of the youi;g lady, when 

 dressed in the fabric of lier own hands' produc- 

 tion, and how eagerly would the beaux press for- 

 ward for her hand 1 — And well might they seek 

 such wives, for they would be worth having. — 

 Reading Press. 



The field of Waterloo is now converted into a 

 large manufactory of sugar from the beet root, 

 several Belgian capitalists having established 

 works on the spot. The soil in that neighbor- 

 hood is said to be excellent. It has been well 

 mamircd with human gore, and must produce uo 

 other than the blood beet. 



Two females were severely injured on Friday 

 evening by the ex])losion of spirit gas while at- 

 temjiting to trim the lamp in which itjwas burn- 

 ing. We wonder how many warnings will 1 o 

 required before people will abandon the use of 

 this dangerous fluiil. 



they be hatched before the trees have produced any. — 

 Gather in tlie autumn, before the frosts conunencf, and 

 in dry weather, the leaves of the r.-«lberry tree, which 

 must be dried in the sun, by spreading them on lager 

 cloths, reduce them to powder, and lay tliem up in a 

 dry place ; when it :s necessary to feed \vitli this pow- 

 der, let it be moistened with water and spread round 

 the worms, who wili immediately feed upon it. Other 

 food has been prepared to fped with, such as Lettuce, 

 Endive, &c.; hut we are assured by a peison of jireat 

 e'-xperience, that the silk produced by any oilier food 

 than mulberry leaves is of an inferior quality, and the 

 worms arc sickly. 



