86 



T H E N E W GENESEE FARMER, 



Vol. 1. 



The X, B, C, of Silk-Culture. 



There will be hundreda of individuals in Virginia, 

 who will feed silk-worms during the next season, eith- 

 er on a large or email scale: still, there will be a far 

 greater number to whom it would be fully as conve- 

 nient, but who will be deterred by different considera- 

 tions from attempting the experiment As we leel 

 assured that every one who will make a, fair trial will 

 be pleased with the result, and that eacti small trial 

 will induce more extended operations, we are anxious 

 to persuade as many as possible to make experimentu, 

 no matter on how limited a scale of operations. With 

 this view, we will offer a few suggestions, or smaller 

 matters of advice to beginners, which may possibly 

 help to smooth away some supposed difficulties. — 

 There are no important difficulties if proper care be 

 given. 



For a small beginning, and for success, it is not ne- 

 cessary to have the morus multicaulis, nor even the 

 white mulberry, if the experimenter has (and who in 

 the country has not !) enough leaves of the native 

 mulberry tree. It is true that this is inferior as food 

 to the white mulberry, and that again as much infe- 

 rior to the multicaulis. But the worst nf the three 

 will serve well enough to make a successful rearing. 

 Therefore, the want of the best, and by far the most 

 proper and economical kind of food for large opera- 

 tions, need not prevent a beginning, and doing well, 

 on even the worst kind. 



For such small operations, it is not necessary to 

 have any shelves, hurdles, stoves, or other of the ar- 

 rangements suitable and requisite for a regular busi- 

 ness. A common dining table will afford enough sur- 

 face to feed one thousand worms to their full growth; 

 and a table may be easily and effectually secured from 

 the invasion of rats and mice, and ants and other in- 

 sects, which very often destroy the worms and the 

 hopes of the experimenter. The table is bo secured, 

 by being placed a foot or two from any wall, and far 

 enough from any approach, whence rats can leap tloicn 

 npon it, and the legs of the table being set in tin-pans 

 of water. Two such tables, connected by rough 

 planks, laid from one to the other, would afford a sur- 

 face sufficient for f)000 worms, which would be enough 

 for a tirst trial. Thus the second, and what is deemed 

 a great difficulty, may be removed. 



But supposing that these and all previous obstacles 

 have been obviated by such or better means, and the 

 worms hatched for a rearing, there still remains an- 

 other difficulty which almost every young culturist 

 brings upon himself, and which causes so much unne- 

 cessary trouble and loss of worms, as to weary and 

 disgust many a beginner, before the commencement 

 flf the time when much care or labor is really want- 

 ing. The young worms are fed so lavishly, that nine- 

 teen-twentiethsof the food, (if not much more,) re- 

 mains unconsumed, and forms a great accumulation 

 of litter, which soon needs removal. Again, to save 

 trouble, (as it is thought,) the leaves are usually given 

 whole. If the leaves are very young and tender, (as 

 they ought to be for very young worms,) they speedi- 

 ly contract in drying, and each, as it curls up, encloses 

 the worms which may be feeiiing on it. The worms 

 being so supernbundnntly fed, have no inducement to 

 move, until after being thus imprisoned, and the leal 

 has become too dry to be longer fed on. To make this 

 • result the more sure, the young worms eac only the 

 tender, green part of the leaf, leaving the numerous 

 and closely crossing fibres like fine net-work. By the 

 time that the leaf is dry and unfit for food, it thus forms 

 a net, or sack, from which the worm cannot always 

 escape, when impelled by its renewed appetite. Thus 

 many worms ore concealed or damaged, and will suf- 

 fer, and many will even die in their confinement, un- 

 less searched for and relieved; and that operation, 

 with the cleaning away the great quantity of litter in 

 and among which tbey are enveloped, will, in the first 

 two ngea, give more trouble, and cause more loss, 

 than ought to be met with during the whole rearing. 

 Now all this trouble to the feeder, and injury to ond 

 loss of worms, may be avoided by simply cutting the 

 leaves into fine shreds, and sprinkling them on thinly. 

 Then, even, if greatly excessive feeding be not avoid- 

 ed, it will do no harm. The worms are not restrain- 

 ed by the breadth or weight of the leaf, and they can 

 easily climb to the upper surface, as is always their 

 disposition. The unconsumed shreds xoon dry, which 

 is a great advantage for all which must remain in 

 waste. The dried litter is loore and open as any bed 

 can be, and when quite dry ai d s.vect, (as it will be 

 usually,) need not he removed until after the end of 

 the second age, at about ten or twelve days after the 

 hatching. But it is very easy to remove this litter. — 

 By feeding the worms at first in narrow atrips.or in 

 mall squares or circles. and sprinkling the fresh food at 



the outer edges of the space, the worms will crowd to 

 the fresh food, and soon leave naked the greater part of 

 the old litter, which may be taken up in masses and 

 separated from time to time, and thrown away, with- 

 out picking off or disturbing a single worm. Such 

 will be the course of things even with the most waste- 

 ful feeding, (and it is always given wastefuUy to 

 young worms;) but if tlie. excess of food be lees, even 

 this small amount of trouble will be still more reduced. 

 It is not designed that these suggestions should 

 serve as full directions for feeding, even through the 

 two first ages; nor by any means to substitute the lull 

 directions to be found in most treatises on silk-culture. 

 The young culturist ought, of course, to read and con- 

 sider these, though it will not be necessary to follow 

 each rule. The object aimed at here, is merely to re- 

 move early and unnecessary obstacles, which serve 

 either to deter from beginning, or to discourage after 

 beginning, nearly all who are inclined to make a trial. 

 These remarks apply to no more than the two first 

 ages. The feeding through the third, fourth, and fifth 

 ages, requires much more care, labor, and cost; but 

 still will not be difficult to those who have gone prop- 

 erly through the earlier feeding. Every treatise (of 

 which several are in previous volumes of this work,) 

 will furnish rules of conduct, which, if modified and 

 corrected by the feeder's judgment, according to exis- 

 ting circumstances, will serve to conduct him to a 

 successful result. 



But by success it is not meant that the experimenter 

 who feeds 1000, or even 10,000 worms, will make a 

 net profit from his expenditure, and his care and trou- 

 ble for the time. Such an expectation would be most 

 unreasonable, from any business so small, and yet re- 

 quiring such frequent and careful attention. Perhaps 

 50,000 worms, with proper facilities and method, 

 would not require more than twice as much labor or 

 time or attendance, as 5000 only; and the mere was;e 

 of the food of 1000, as usually bestowed, might feed 

 5000, and yet save labor (in clearing away the litter,; 

 instead of causing more therein. If the young feed- 

 er loses very few of his worms by accidents or disease, 

 and generally obtains very good cocoons from all oth- 

 ers, and finds no great or insuperable difficulty in any 

 part of the operations, then it may be deemed a suc- 

 cessful issue, and indicating, with sufficient assurance, 

 a net profit upon hie next and sufficiently large opera- 

 tions. 



There is one caution necessary to be added. It is 

 all-important to have eggs from a healthy stock of 

 worms, and that have been well kept during winter. 

 Whoever has to purchase eggs, incurs great risk of loss 

 on this score. Eggs from a sickly stock will be sure 

 to produce a sickly and worthless progeny; and even 

 if from healty stock, still improper managment in 

 keeping, and especially exposure to too great and too 

 frequent alternations of cold and heat, will cause the 

 worms of eggs so treated to be unhealthy. From such 

 causes, induced either by ignorance or by fraud of the 

 salesman, nearly all the eggs in this market la.^t year 

 were worse than worthless. Though the danger will 

 be less this year, still theie is enough ground for fear 

 to make every buyer very cautious. Many beginners 

 at rearing silk-worms, have been discouraged by their 

 mishaps proceeding solely from this cause; and all 

 would, and very reasonably, have been thus discoura- 

 ged, and made to consider the business hopeless, if 

 other experiments had not been made with good 

 eggs, which served to show the cause of difference. — 

 If disease from hereditary taint, or because of diseased 

 eggs, begins to show among silk-worms, it is best at 

 once to throw awav the whole; for they will seldom 

 be worth saving. But in this excellent climate, and 

 with proper care in feeding and cleaning, there is lit- 

 tle dancer of disease from any other source than he- 

 reditary taint, or bad keeping of eggs. 



a Colt by Kimluess. 



Bieakin; 



Some good people who raise colls are not aware 

 that they are thinking animols, and have feelings, pas- 

 sions, and oflections very much like human beings. — 

 They cannot talk — that's all. People who do not ap- 

 preciate the character of horses, are apt to treat them 

 like brutes, without love or mercy, and without any 

 appeal to their glorious intelligence. "The horee 

 knoweth his owner;" — and he knows much more, — 

 he knows when he is treated as a Christian's horse 

 should be — and in respect of treatment the Turk and 

 Arab have much the advantage of us in civilization. — 

 Those pagans make friends of their horses— they love 

 each other, and in the sandy desert or the wide plain, 

 they lie dowH side by side, and each is equally ready 

 to resist the approach of an enemy. 



It is not often so with us. The Colt is left to grow 

 lip to manhood wild in the pasture, with very liitle ac- 



quaintance or sociability with his master. As soon as 

 be is thought strong enough to work, he has a saddle 

 or harness slapped upon him, so hard as to nialtc him 

 tingle again. He is put into some strong cart or wag- 

 on without understanding what is wanted, and being | 

 bewildered in his ignorance, and exasperated at such ] 

 rough handling, it is generally the case that he exeru 

 his strength to get out of the scrape and avoid his ene- 

 mies, by plunging, kicking, throwing himself down, 

 and sundry other such rile tricks, (os they are called,) 

 OS would naturally occur to a poor beast who thought 

 himself villanously abused. While this is the opera- 

 tion in the mind of the unsophisticated colt, the hoTse- 

 (irea/teris swearing at his' vicious obstinacy, laying on 

 the licks with the string or the butt of the whip han- 

 dle, and doing bis best to draw blood at every stroke. 

 His intention is to subdue the beast to obedience. He 

 may succeed, but it will only be by destroying his no- 

 ble spirit, and rendering him a -tame, passive beast ol 

 burthen, working only os he is forced, but without am- 

 bition or good will. The man is the most ignorant 

 brute of the two. He is destitute of all proper know- 

 ledge of the animal "who knoweih his owner," and 

 should be beaten with many stripes himself 



The fact is, the colt should be treated with unvary- 

 ing kindness, except when he is manifestly vicious, 

 contrary to his own knowledge, after having been 

 fairly taught. When he is taken up for brealting, he 

 should be kept hungry, and be fed from the hand of 

 his master; while all the little tokens of praise, fond- 

 ness and approbation, which are as gratifying to a 

 horse as to a woman, should be liberally bestowed up- 

 on him. No act of rudeness or unkindncss should in- 

 spire him with fear; — and in a short time he will coma 

 to his master as to his best friend. Let him feel that 

 he is safe in the hands and care of man, and he will 

 place confidence in that attention which is bestowed, 

 and with a light heart will exert himself to please hia 

 rider. Bestow upon him the whip, and jerk him 

 about with the halter and bridle, and his temper will 

 rouee to resistance, or sink to stupidity. 



A horse may bo taught, like a child, by those w^o 

 have won his affections; but the method of teaching 

 is by showing distinctly what you wont him to do, not 

 by beating him because he does not understand and 

 perform at the outset. Judicious arrangement is re- 

 quii'ed in the course of instruction, for these creatures, 

 like men, have very different intellectual capacities 

 and tempers; but all may be mastered by kindness, 

 while the best, the most high spirited, the most gene- 

 rous, will be ruined by beating. 



To illustrate this, which we meon to enlarge upon 

 hereafter, we will relate a little circumstance that oc- 

 curred during a tour to the White Hills. Having a 

 horse — a fine light grey saddle poney, we undertook, 

 with a friend, to ride to the summit of one of the 

 mountains. Federal — that was his name — and he be- 

 longed to Niles — would have done any thing for me, 

 and he and I had become well acquainted, ond he wos 

 a most noble hearted fellow. Federal clambered up 

 according to my directions. I thought I could see the 

 beet way, and guided him accordingly. We gotot last 

 upon the peak, where was a level of some yards 

 square, and Federal, who had never been up so high in 

 the world before, as we slacked the rein, turned three 

 times round to look at the prospect, ond then set up 

 a scream of delight. It was not a neigh nor a whin, 

 ner, nor any common mode of talking for a horse, but 

 it was regular hurroh, as much -as to soy "O ! thun- 

 der ond lightning ! Aint this glorious 1" 



After a while we turned to descend, and I gave Fed- 

 eral his own way. It seemed at times rather a tick- 

 lish job; but he managed it well. The little rascal 

 stopped now and then and made a survey as carefully 

 ae could be done by a civil engineer. He turned and 

 tacked, and worked ship, like an old sailor among the 

 breakers; and being careful and surefooted, he came 

 down safe os a tortoise. But we brought up at last 

 against o fence — having taken a different direction 

 from that liy which we ascended. We rode at the 

 fence fairly, but Federal stopped short. "You fool," 

 said I, " con't you jump V Tried it again — no go 

 1 stopped moment, and thinks I to myself this horse 

 bos never leaped a fence in hie life. I felt sure he 

 would have tried his best for meat ony time, and we'd 

 hove broken his neck sooner than have refused — if he 

 had known exocdy what to do. I talked kindly to 

 him — coaxed him — patted his neck — and ae eoon ae I 

 eaw his head raised obout two or three inches, and hifl 

 ears pricked up brightly, and felt the muscles of his 

 side swell under the saddle, I knew he had caught the 

 idea — that was all he wanted — I gave him the hint to 

 try it, and over he went, like a swallow, at least two 

 feet higher than was necessary. The little scamp 

 i meant to make a sure job of it. He was no sooner 



