vr>i,. XVII. ivo. ao 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



155 



iiy destroyed; while others of the same parcels, 

 but treated with less care, hatched without loss. 



Without intending to make any invidious com- 

 parison, and promising that there were many placi's 

 ■where the silk culture was said to be thriving-, 

 y\t\rb T did not visit, I have no hesitation n say- 

 ing I hat there was more doing at Burlington, New 

 Jersey, considi^ring how recently the business has 

 been started there, than at any other place which 

 came under my observation. A considerable num- 

 ber of persons were engaged in feeding worms as 

 well as in raising trees. A few e.xtensive coco )n- 

 eries had been erected, one of which was large 

 ennugh to accommodate about a million of worms ; 

 and several others from one to two or three hun- 

 dred thousand. The soil in the vicinity of Bur- 

 lington, is light and sandy, and well adapted to the 

 growth of the multicaulis. Indeed the greater part 

 of New Jersey is admirably suited to the purpose ; 

 and the business is so rapidly spreading, that in a 

 few years, that state will probably be much in ad- 

 vance of any otlier. Within a few years the im- 

 provements in tlie construction of cocooneries, 

 iiave contributed greatly to the facility of feeding 

 worms. The plan of those at Burlington, struck 

 me as being rather superior to any I saw elsewhere. 

 The necessity of handling the worms is entirely 

 dispensed with by the use of hurdles of net- work ; 

 at the same time that the cleansing of the shelves 

 and the removal" of the litter are more easily effect- 

 ed. When it is time to change them, another 

 hurdle is laid on the one containing the worms, and 

 fresh leaves are sprinkled over it, which are always 

 cut up by running them through a cylindrical cut- 

 ting box. In a few hours, tlic worms attracted by 

 the fresh leaves, get on the upper hurdle, when the 

 lower one, containing the litter, is removed. In 

 this manner, a large number of worms may be 

 cleansed in a day, by providing e.xtra hurdles. A 

 better fixture for the accommodation of the worms 

 in spinning, has been latterly introduced. On the 

 lower side of the shelf immediately above, which 

 is not more than twelve or fourteen inches distant, 

 strips or lathes, about two inches wide and three 

 inches from each other, are fastened at right angles 

 to the range of shelves, to which the worii^s mount 

 l)y very simple ladders, and spin their halls along 

 the junction of the strips and floor. This mode 

 adds greatly to the convenience of gathering the 

 cocoons, and the floss is removed from them free of 

 the litter which attends the use of brush or dried 

 leaves. A room thirty feet wide, ivill admit of four 

 ranges of shelves, three feet wide, leaving an aisle, 

 between each range, and also between the outer 

 ranges and the walls, of three and a half feet. 

 The number of shelves in each range will be in 

 proportion to the pitch of the room; say si.x shelves 

 for a room, nine or ten feet high. Each hurdle is 

 three by four feet, and will accommodate a thou- 

 sand full-grown worms. On this plan, a room of 

 a hundred feet in length by thirty feet in width, 

 with a pitch of nine or ten feet, will accommodate, 

 without crowding, about half a million of worms 

 at a time. But in a cocoonery, near Frankford, in 

 Pennsylvania, which was not of much more than 

 half these dimensions, si.^; or seven hundred thou- 

 sand worms were fed in June last, which spun well. 

 They were, however, evidently too much crowded, 

 as was shown by the small size of the cocoons ; 

 and had not the season been of the most favorable 

 character, the whole brood would have been in 

 danger of being swept off" by an epidemic. In a 

 small room at New Haven, in a house occupied by 



I a Frenchman, which did not exxced ten feet square, 

 j he had successfully fed forty thousand worms, with- 

 I oiit the appearance of any disease amongst them. 

 I saw a number of the cocoons, which were large 

 and firm. 



I Many persons have amused themselves, and the 

 j public too, by making calculations of tlie great 

 profits of the silk culture. It may be no difficult 

 , matter to state with tolerable certainty how many 

 j good cocoons will yield a pound of silk ; but I 

 ■ think an error has been fre<iuently committed by 

 [ estimating the prod'ict per acre. Of mulberry 

 ( leaves, as well as everything else, the crop will be 

 j very variable, and d?pend on the quality of the land. 

 If worms can be preserved exempt from disease, 

 . and good cocoons can be obtained from them, the 

 number that an acre of ground will support, at the 

 : usual prices of land in our country, is a matter of 

 : very subordinate interest. It is only important 

 j when land is worth from one hundred to three hun- 

 dred dollars per acre. \'\ hen the valiie does not 

 exceed five or ten dollars, as is the case with most 

 of our lands, il is better to estimate the profits of 

 the culture by the number of worms that may be 

 fed, than by the quantity of land that it will require 

 to supply them. 



While so much is doing in some of the states to 

 the north of us, for the advancement of tlie silk- 

 culture, scarcely anything has yet been attempted 

 in Virginia. The attention, however, of some in- 

 dividuals, has been directed to the subject ; and an 

 interesting experiment in feeding worms has recent- 

 ly been detailed in the " Farmers' Register," by a 

 gentleman of Brunswick. A very large cocoonery 

 has been fitted up at Fredericksburg, which will 

 probably be filled with worms next year. Other 

 gentlemen are making arrangements to enter upon 

 the culture. During the ensuing season, it is 

 hoped tliat interesting results, may be established 

 by various persons. But, unfortunately, almost 

 every tree grown in Virginia and North Carolina, 

 with the exception of those retained to propagate 

 from another year, has been bought up, and will be 

 taken to Pennsylvania or New Jersey. The Vir- 

 ginia and Carolina trees have a decided superiority 

 in the northern markets, and are sought after with 

 avidity ; a fact of which the cultivators here are 

 perhaps ignorant. Southern trees arc mostly pro- 

 duced from cuttings, while chose of northern growth 

 are raised from what are called laytrs — tliat is to 

 say, a whole plant, both root and stein, is laid hor- 

 izontally in a furrow, and covered over with ea-th. 

 The young shoots sprout up so tliickly that they 

 make a spindling growth. Planis from cutting, on 

 the contrary, having more distance, throw out a 

 number of side branches, and furnisli a much great- 

 er supply of wood, which, besides that it is better 

 matured by our southern sun, adds considerably to 

 the market value. It would be desirable to know 

 what number of trees have been grown in these 

 two states during the present season. It will pro- 

 bably not fall much short of half a million ; and 

 next year, the number will no doubt be two or three 

 times as many. But as long as we send them 

 abroad, we are doing nothing towards the advance- 

 ment of the silk-culture in our own state. And if 

 there be any state in the union that would be more 

 benefited by the introduction of this culture, allow- 

 ing it to be, as is contended, both practicable and 

 profitable, or whose soil and climate are better 

 adapted to it, or where it can be prosecuted with 

 greater economy in reference to labor, I should be 

 at a loss to point it out. We occupy that position 



in regard to climate, which is too far north to admit 

 of ours being a planting state ; and too much to 

 the south to be a first rate grain-growing or grass- 

 growinp-;,- country. We have extensive tracts of 

 impoverished land in which the mulberry will flour- 

 ish without difficulty, and where notliing else will 

 grow. Our dry and long continued summers are 

 eminently favorable to the health and prosperity 

 even of suicessive crops of the silk- worm. We 

 have in almost every family a number of unprofit- 

 ; ab'e hands, either too young or too old to be put to 

 j constant employment ; and the more intelligent por- 

 I tion of our coUred population, remarkable as they 

 'are for their tractableness and powers of imitation, 

 I would soon learn to conduct all the operations of 

 the cocoonery with neatness and skill. 



Many of the states to the north of us have en- 

 couraged the introduction of the silk cult\ire by 

 legislative bounties ; and I am convinced the wis- 

 dom of this policy will be justified in due course 

 of time. If from causes already pointed out, but 

 little has yet been accomplished in the production 

 of the article thus encouraged, yet the ground-work 

 has been laid, and the superstructure will be erect- 

 ed upon it The seed has been sown, which will 

 produce, some ten, some twenty, and some possi- 

 bly a hundred-fold. It will, however, necessarily 

 be a work of time. It may be another generation, 

 and yet another perhaps, before, before it is estab- 

 lished on a duruble basis. But with a climate like 

 ours, and with a species of mulberry superior to 

 any hitherto known, the energies of the Anglo- 

 Saxon race will eventually command success. The 

 mental resources, the quickness of perception, the 

 determined perseverance, which constitute the dis- 

 tinguishing attributes of this people, will enable 

 them to triumph over every difficulty, and achieve 

 all but impossibilities. 



T. S. PLEASANTS. 



Goochland, Sept. 15. 



From the N. Y. Commercial Advertiser. 



IMPORTANT TO FARMERS. 

 I think, Messrs. Printers, that we have had 

 enough in all conscience of pufling and blow- 

 ing about family Ravels, Tree play actors, men 

 singers, and women singers, Italian fiddlers, 

 and rope dancers, live elephants and monkeys. 

 (By-the-by it is a very prevalent opinion at 

 Cow Bay, Cow Neck, Oyster Bay and Ilallet's 

 Cove, that if all those drones were turned out to 

 fell trees, grub up brush and hoe corn, we would 

 not need to import peas-meal and rye-flour from 

 Germany — things which feed the sense of sight 

 only.) Now we, some of your clod-hopping sub- 

 scribers, think ourselves entitled to half a column 

 of your paper to speak of things which feed the 

 taste, and give nourishment to the body corpo- 

 rate- 

 Mr Jefferson says the man who i akes three 

 blades of grass grow where only on? grew before, 

 is more the friend of man than jjti. who conquers 

 kingdoms. I think if Mr J. had always preached 

 such sound doctrine, he would have been the great- 

 est philosopher of the age. Seeing, then, that this 

 proposition about the grass is self-efident fact, 

 what think you should be done to the man who 

 makes three ears of corn grow ivhere only one 

 grew before .' inasmuch as grass feeds the horse, 

 and corn the man. But to come to the point at 

 once : 



