378 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



under my observation, and it did much to recom- 

 mend the silk business to the favorable considera- 

 tion of the community. Many of the first efforts to 

 produce silk yielded a good profit, and every cir- 

 cumstance seemed to justify tlie expectation that 

 the business, if followed with energy, would gener- 

 ally secure a competence and not unfrequently lead 

 to wealth. Just at this time of the most encour- 

 aging promise, cauie the cold winter of \&'-ii, whose 

 destructive infiuence, not only upon the mulberry, 

 but upon must fruit and other trees, especially of a 

 tender nature, was too general and great to be soon 

 forgotten. From that tiirie, attention to the silk 

 business has been gradually falling off, till the last 

 one or two years, wliile the number of trees in the 

 county has greatly diminished. Many flourishing 

 nurseries have been suffered to runout; plantations 

 have been cut down or otherwise destroyed ; and 

 the impression has become somewhat prevalent that 

 the climate, soil, or other undiscovered causes, are 

 unfavorable to the growth of the mulberry tree, and 

 therefore that the silk business cannot be advan- 

 tageously pursued in tliis county. 



What is proposed in the subsequent remarks, is 

 to enumerate some of the causes which it is believ- 

 ed have united with the cold of '34 and of some of 

 the winters since, fti producing the injury which the 

 mulberry trees have sustained, and thus deeply af- 

 fecting that kind of property and working a great 

 change in the public mind in respect to the pros- 

 pect of the silk business among us. 



In enumerating these caus'es, I shall not Consult 

 any particular order, but present them as they oc- 

 cur to my mind. 



1. Tlie first I'will mention is, that a great num- 

 ber of the trees have been the offspring of wisound 

 and disordered seed. There are many ways in 

 which seed as small as those of the mulberry may 

 be essentially damaged, so that, though not entire- 

 ly devoid of tlie power of vegetation, yet so as to 

 cause them to produce an imperfect and sickly plant. 

 In the year 1S31, the writer of this sowed four oun- 

 ces of seed, apparently good. A considerable por- 

 tion of it vegetated, and yet the plants proved so 

 feeble and sickly that nearly the whole were pulled 

 up and thrown away the first and second year, while 

 very few of those that were saved made trees of a 

 vigorous growth. And I have seen other nurseries 

 dwindling away, according to my best convictions, 

 principally, from the same cause. 



Defect in the seed cannot be certainly determin- 

 ed by sight alone, and in fact will often remain un- 

 detected till exhibited in the plants the first, sec- 

 ond, and sometimes the third year ; but whenever 

 or however late, it is believed the best economy 

 would be consulted by destroj ing the trees and be- 

 ginning again. A vigorous and healthful tree will 

 occupy but little more space than a sickly one, 

 while it will yield many fold more food, and this 

 food secure a more healtliy race of worms, and these 

 in their turn yield a much larger and more valua- 

 ble produce of silk ; while the trees will be much 

 less likely to be injured by cold or any other disas- 

 trous cause. 



2. Many trees have, upon transplanting, failed, 



because taken from a nursery so much more iiighly 



manured and cultivated than the land to which they 



are removed. Most trees suffer from ^his cause, 



but it is believed that the mulberry has been a spec- 



'1 sufferer, particularly because the opinion has 



■■vailed somewhat generally, that the poorest soil 



iust as good, if not better for them, than tliat 



cher quality. But let us ask ourselves in so- 



ber sense, what it is reasonable to expect must be ed, had it not been for the premature destructio n 



the fate of a young and tender nursling taken from 

 a rich and highly cultivated garden, sheltered from 

 the wind, furnished as it will be under such circum- 

 stances, with small root, and planted out without 

 much skill, in some of the most barren of our fields, 

 devoid of all protection trom the wind ? yet such 

 is literal'y the history of no inconsiderable part of 

 the plantations which have had an existence in tliis 

 county. Could not the end have bee.i as well known 

 before as it is at the present time, when no trace of 

 their existence remains ? 



3. Another reason of the failure of the tree is to 

 be found in the fact that they have been planted in 

 soils unsuitable to their vigorous growth. Like 

 jBost other vegetable productions they may live in 

 a great variety of soils, but to live and grow, and 

 produce a rich foliage, they require a loose, warm, 

 sandy or slatey soil, tolerably deep, and with a po- 

 rous subsoil ; for if its roots have standing water 

 about them for any time, they will soon mould and 

 gradually decay, to the essential injury of the vigor 

 if not to the destruction of the life of the tree. 



4. A fourth cause of injury is, the trees have oft- 

 en stood too thick in the nursery : this prevents 

 their putting forth a sufficiently full foliage. A 

 tree cannot thrive well without a good proportion 

 of leaves, which must have opportunity to develop 

 themselves, nor will the tree be healthful unless 

 the leaves by exposure, 'enjoy air, motion, and sun. 

 But I will not enlarge here, as this subject will 

 come up under some of the following particulars. 



5. We proceed to a fifth reason, which has prob- 

 ably operated more extensively than air,' other cause 

 wliich we shall'give. This is the too close picking 

 of the leaves. Very few persons at the commence- 

 ment of the business of raising worms have an ad- 

 equate idea how many they are likely to have hatch- 

 ed from what seems a very small quantity of eggs. 

 The result often 'is, that they find themselves over- 

 stocked with worms. They very commonly -over- 

 rate the production of their trees for the first few 

 years. They are obliged, therefore, to strip their 

 trees very closely or let their worms, after they are 

 a half or two-thirds grown, die. This they are un- 

 willing to do, though it would bo altogether the 

 best policy. The injurious effects of close crop- 

 ping, no one acquainted with the physiology of veg- 

 etation can doubt. In 1834, the writer of this, 

 though liaving as many worms as could be well 

 supplied from his nursery, being desirous to ac- 

 commodate some friends in and out of town who 

 were overstocked, permitted a considerable part of 

 his nursery to be closely picked ;lhe result was,as he 

 fully anticipated, the absolute loss of many hundred 

 trees, and the no inconsiderable injury to maiiy 

 more. Most of the Tiurgeneti and plantations of 

 those friends which had been first stripped shared 

 the same fate, several were almost entirely destroy- 

 ed, and others, if not quite killed, have not yet ful- 

 ly recovered. Under a former head I mentioned 

 tha:t leaves are essential to the vigorous and health- 

 ful growth of trees, ft is equally irnportant that a 

 portion of them at least should develop them- 

 selves fully and remain on the tree till they fall 

 naturally from the branches ; and though it maj be 

 departing a little from the subject, I will take this 

 occasion to ohserve that it is almost equally essen- 

 tial to the health and life of trees, that portions at 

 least of the fruit, should remain till full maturity. 

 I am fully persuaded that most of tlie injury which 

 fruit trees have been supposed to suffer from the 

 cold of our climate, would never have been realiz- 



of the leaves from various causes, and the too ear- 

 ly gathering of the fruit. 



G. There has been a disease which has prevailed 

 pretty generally among the mulberry trees, exhib- 

 iting itself upon the leaf, and which for want of bet- 

 ter knowledge, I shall call the rust. By this name, 

 I apprehend it will be readily recognized by most 

 who have had any concern in their cultivation. - 

 This disease has made its appearance about the 

 first of July, and continued to what is called the 

 second flow of sap, when it has generally begun 

 to disappear, or in other words, has not seized upon 

 leaves which made their appearance after that time. 

 Whatever may be the nature or the cause of this 

 malady, one of its effects is similar to close crop- 

 ping. By destroying the leaf, it prevents a full 

 and perfect elaboration of the sap. Suitable food 

 is not produced for the strength and growth of the 

 tree, which in consequence becomes weak and sick- 

 ly, if it does not actually die. Whether this dis- 

 ease, as I have called it, is produced by insects or 

 is an actual malady in the plant may be known to 

 others ; I am not able to determine confidently in 

 respect to it. It has certainly proved a very seri- 

 ous obstacle in the way of producing silk, making 

 iis appearance just about the time when there is 

 the greatest call for food by the worm. Informa- 

 tion on the cause and the remedy would be of es- 

 sential -service to the community, and would be 

 very gratefully received by the writer of this. 



7. The trees have suffered somewhat extensively 

 from the web worm, (I use a term which I suppose 

 will be generally understood.) These usually 

 make their appearance and begin their work about 

 the middle of August ; perhaps some years a little 

 later. How, with the webs of these worms spread 

 over whole trees and sometimes covering large 

 portions of nurseries, the opinion could have at- 

 tained currency that there was no worm or insect 

 which would touch the mulberry^ is net easy to say, 

 and yet tliis very summer, a statement to this 

 amount has found a place in several of the most 

 popular journals. Great injury has certainly been 

 done by these worms. They destroy the foliage, 

 and thus rob the tree of proper nourishment, even 

 when they work upon trees whose leaves have not 

 been picked ; but if they take those which have 

 been disrobed of a large part of their foliage for 

 the purpose of feeding the worm, as is frequently 

 the case, tlie only wonder is that a single tree 

 should survive. Ths tree is thus deprived both of 

 the earlier and later growth of leaves ; no sap can 

 therefore be perfectly elaborated, no suitable nour- 

 ishment is provided either for the growth or life of 

 the tree ; how can it then escape .' 



I may be allowed te make an observation, rela- 

 tive to the injury which our fruit trees suffer from 

 the same cause, though produced mostly by worms 

 differing in some particulars from those which ap- 

 pear upon the mulberry. Most persons seem to be 

 aware of the damage done to troes by the caterpil- 

 lar, which makes its appearance in the early part 

 of the season, and many take some pains to destroy 

 them ; while it is apprehended that comparatively 

 few think much of the ravages produced by the 

 Wib and other worms which destroy the loliage in 

 the latter part of summer and beginning ot autumn, 

 and make very little effort to wa_rd against it, when 

 the trutli is, that the actual and permanent damage 

 done by the latter is equal and probably much 

 greater than that by the former. Keep your trees 



