NOTICES OF FARMS, &c 

 Mr Calvin Haskell's Farm, Harvard, Mass. 

 Wa notice the farm of this ofentlomgn on account 

 of the experience he has had in the mnlberry and 

 silk line. This farm is well situated for the raising 

 of trees and the prodnction of silk, boing located 

 on high ground with a western aspect; the jioil a 

 good black loam, pretty free from stones, with a 

 fine smooth surface. It is a well known fact that 

 the frosts hold off in the autumn two or three weeks 

 longer on high ss\ells of land than in the valleys ; 

 consequently the young wood of the trees is better 

 ripened and prepared to stand the winter without 

 injury. The principal varitnies cultivated by Mr 

 Haskell, are the coumion white and a variety rais- 

 ed from seed of the raorus inulticaulis. He pur- 

 chased two of the last named trees soon after their 

 introduction into the country, planted them out and 

 suffered them to remain through the winter; these 

 survived two winters and perished the third ; but 

 the third season they produced 30 or 40 berries : 

 these wei-e saved with great care and planted the 

 following season (]83(),) from which were raised 

 about 500 trees, with leaves of various sizes and 

 shapes, but generally resembling the mother plant, 

 and in many cases a very near approach to it. The 

 result has been that he is in possession of a variety 

 to all appearance hardier than the parent, and equal- 

 ly valuable in point of weight of foliage. Asa 

 proof of its hardiness, part of the trees have been 

 fully exposed for two winters^ — even the roots were 

 made bare in some cases, and they did not suffer so 

 much as those placed in the cellar. So well satis- 

 fied is he of this, that he intends to plant out an 

 acre the next season for 'feeding worms, to remain 

 undisturbed through the li'inter. They are propa- 

 gated with as much ease as the parent tree. He 

 has trees over six feet high from the layers this 

 year, and about 15,000 of this variety. We often 

 hear it said that the morns inulticaulis will become 

 acclimated eventually ; but experience, as far as 

 our own observation goes, and the opinion of a 

 number of cultivators of good aithority, proves the 

 reverse; that by continued propagation by cuttings 

 or layers, it becomes more tender. We see an ex- 

 ample of this kind in the worthless Lomhardy pop- 

 lar, which was in every body's ground twentyfive 

 years ago. It was easily propagated from the cut- 

 ting, and in no other way were the trees produced : 

 the consequence has been, that it has completely 

 run down and enfeebled. The only prospect of ac- 

 climating the inorus multicaulis, in our opinion, is 

 by raising a few generations of plants from seed, 

 and probably Mr Haskell has made some approach 

 to this desired result. 



For feeding worms he has depended principally 

 upon the white mulberry: of these he has about 

 3000, mostly cultivated in hedges, about four feet 

 distant from each other in the row, and from five to 

 nine years old. Until a more hardy variety has 

 been thoroughly tested, we io not think it wise to 

 reject the common white, surely not for the multi- 

 caulis. Selections may be made from a lot of seed- 

 ling white mulberries, which have leaves nearly as 

 large as those of the Broussa. 'I he be.^t varieties 

 of the Broussa to all appearance now, will super- 

 sede the white. As near a% we can learn, what is 

 called the Alpine is only a superior variety of the 

 Broussa: we have not been able to find any other 

 diflTerence; if there is, v.'e should like to know 

 wherein the difference consists. Mr Haskell has 

 now been a producer of silk for five years, but has 



labored under great disadvantage until the present 

 season, in consequence of not having a suitable 

 place for feeding his worms : last year they were 

 very much injured by. keeping them in a hot garret 

 not well ventilated. He has now erected a conve- 

 nient cocoonery, 35 feet by 25, two stories high — 

 each story containing four tiers of shelves with six 

 in a tier, and capable of accommodating 500,000 

 worms. He will have of this year's raising from 

 150 to 1.'5 lbs. of cocoons, and might have produc- 

 ed more if he had been disposed ; but the plan he 

 adopts is to spare his young trees and not strip tiiem 

 too close, as he considers it poor economy to do 

 this until they are well established.. He calculates 

 that 1000 worms will make four pounds of cocoons, 

 and that it requires from 10 to 12 lbs. of cocoons for 

 1 lb. of reeled silk. He raised this year three 

 broods of worms : the first hati.-hed out the first of 

 June ; the second the middle of June, and the third 

 the first of August. The last brood however, did 

 not succeed well, as they sufl^ered from the cold 

 nights ; for the future he intends to have none come 

 out later than the middle of July, so that the worms 

 shall all have finished their work by the first of Sep- 

 tember. Mr Haskell does not devote himself ex- 

 clusively to his farm, as he is engaged in trade. — 

 He supplies his customers with sewing silk of his 

 own manufactuie, which is generally preferred to 

 the imp<.rted. From the success which has attend- 

 ed his first efforts and the prospect before him, Mr 

 Haskell feids encouraged to pursue the business, 

 with the assurance that it will prove a profitable 

 one in the end. 



Some of our readers may think we have occu- 

 pied loo much of the paper of this and the last week, 

 on this subject; but it has been our desire to re- 

 cord what has fallen under our own observation 

 for the encouragement of others. There has been 

 so much misrepresentation, hnmbuggery, and de- 

 ception practised upon the subject, that we have 

 been seriously afraid our farmers would become dis- 

 gusted and give it up in despair. We trust this 

 will not be the case without further trial. It is 

 grati^"ying to learn that considerable is doing the 

 present season in the silk uusiness in New England, 

 independent of raising trees fiir sale, and that those 

 who have experimented and devoted themselves to 

 it the longest and of course ought to be the best 

 judges, are fully persuaded of its final success. The 

 great excitement which now pervades the country 

 in relation to the sale of trees is an unnatural one 

 raised by speculators, and will probably end in the 

 disappointment and ruin of multitudes or we are 

 much mistaken. Those whoso object has been to 

 raise silk, and have not made their calculations to 

 become suddenly rich, will, we think, have their 

 anticipations fully realized; but letthem have pa- 

 tience, and not be in too much haste to keep worms 

 until their trees will bear sufficient foliage without 

 stripping them to death. 



Improvements of the farming inttrest in Pepperell. 

 For twenty years past we have been somewhat 

 acquainted with the state of agriculture in this and 

 the neighboring towns. In this place we spent 

 twe've years of our life: having been absent from 

 it for the last eight years, we were in a situation, 

 on a recent hasty visit, to form some estimate of 

 the progress of agriculture in this part of iMiddle- 

 sex county. To a resident who has his eye con- 

 tinually upon the slow march of improvement around 

 him, it will not appear so conspicuous as to those 

 who have been absent. We noticed in comparing 



the present appearance of the farms with ndiat they 

 were 20, 15, or 10 years ago, that a marked and 



decided change for the better has taken place 



The improvements consist in better husbandry, 

 more comfortable and better finished dwelling hou- 

 ses and barns, a greater abundance of shade and 

 ornamental trees, together with a general appear- 

 ance of independence and thrift. In saying this, 

 we would not be understood that there is no chance 

 for improvement left : very far from that ; the far- 

 mers have hardly begun to look up, comparatively 

 speaking. The surface of the town is agreeably 

 diversified with hills and valleys, and well watered 

 by the Nashua on its southern border, the Nissitis- 

 set running through it, and other living streiims of 

 minor importance, giving life and beauty to the 

 scenery, otherwise interesting and pleasant. 



The upland soils are mostly brown color, inter- 

 mixed with aririllaceous slate, the decomposition of 

 which gives fertility to it, and when stimulated 

 with a due proportion of manure, gives large re- 

 turns, and is highly favorable fiir corn, wheat and 

 other grain, as well as for all sorts of fruit. 



We find that much more wheat has been raised 

 of late years than formerly. We were told by one 

 gentleman that he raised last year 28 3-4 bushels 

 to the acre, and this year the produce will probably 

 be greater: as it had not been threshed out he 

 could not give us a statement of the present crop ; 

 but when this is done, an account of his mode of 

 cultivation with the quantity raised may be expect- 

 ed. On another farm we were shown a field of 

 fine ruta bagas, part of them having been manured 

 with bone manure and the remainder with ashes : 

 those manured with the bone manure were the most 

 luxuriant. Many of the farmers have commenced 

 the cultivation of roots for their cattle and hogs, a 

 thing unknown a few years since: no doubt, as 

 they see the beneficial effects of roots upon their 

 cattle and farms, their cultivation will be more gen- 

 eral and on a larger scale. We were informed 

 that an extraordinary crop of rye was raised the 

 present year on some light intervale land. The 

 land was prepared by first sowing a crop of clover 

 seed, which produced a good burden, and to the as- 

 tonishment of his neighbors, the proprietor ploughed 

 itin and sowed his rye. Probably they thought 

 him almost insane to waste so fine a crop of clover, 

 but he had read of such an operation before if he 

 had never practised it. 



On another farm we examined an orchard which 

 had been set out about 18 years : the soil a dry, 

 slatoy one. The owner was of opinion that trees 

 planted in cultivated ground were forced ahead too 

 fast and more liable to decay, and had taken an 

 opposite course and kept his land down to grass. 

 The trees were very healthy and vigorous — had 

 been taken good care of, and a small space round 

 the body of the tree kept clear of grass. To com. 

 pare them with .Mr Phinney's, noticed a few weeks 

 since, reared in cultivated ground, and as to soil 

 about on the same footing as to fertility, and plant- 

 ed nearly the same time — we should say it was 

 best to keep the ground cultivated: how they will 

 compare twenty years hence we cannot say ; but at 

 the present, Mr Phinney's are twice or three times 

 as large and produce four times the fruit. It is 

 true, however, that while Mr Phinney lost quite a 

 number of trees by the severity of the cold winters, 

 those we now examined stood unharmed. This 

 orchard had been ploughed up and planted with 

 corn the present season, and has produced a luxu- 

 riant crop; probably from 50 to tlO bushels per 



