4,4=4: 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
advantage. We need to do businesson a larger 
scale to make farming pay better. "We must 
have faith in our calling, and invest capital as 
liberally as the merchant or manufacturer does 
in his. There is much less risk in our business. 
We can afford to make our ventures larger. 
As a matter of fact the farmers who make the 
most money in this country are those who em- 
ploy the most help, and most wisely direct it. 
In England they will often spend more capital 
and labor in manuring and working an acre 
of land, than we do in its purchase with 
the expense of manuring and working added. 
At this season, when we sum up results and 
forecast the future, let us plan to use more labor. 
Silk Culture in California. 
BY THOMAS A. GABEY. 
[Since the following communication came to 
hand, we have received from Mr. Prevost a 
neat and useful hand-book on Silk Culture, and 
from Mr. Garey, through the politeness of Mr. 
T. B. Austin, several hundred cocoons of re- 
markably large size and fine appearance. The 
fact that perfectly healthy eggs can be raised in 
California is of importance to every one who 
uses silk, as the disease that prevails among the 
silk-worms of Europe has alreadj' produced 
great distress in the silk-growing regions. — Ed.] 
The cultivation of the Mulberry and feeding 
of silk-worms was commenced in this State 
by Mr. Louis Prevost, of San Jose. Being well 
acquainted with the requirements in soil and 
climate for the successful culture of silk, he be- 
came satisfied that this climate was peculiarly 
adapted to the business. After a few years 
spent in observation, he was induced to try the 
experiment of importing silk-worm eggs, hav- 
ing already planted Mulberry trees preparalory 
to the enterprise. After a number of unsuccess- 
ful and discouraging attempts to import eggs, 
he at last succeeded in obtaining some in good 
order from China, and from these date the first 
silk-worms of California. It has required 
years of labor, and the expenditure of thous- 
ands of dollars by this indomitable spirit, to 
establish this business on a respectable basis. 
An old and deep-rooted prejudice, growing 
mainly out of the "Morns multicaulis" ex- 
citement, had to be uprooted. State and coun- 
ty fairs regarded the enterprise with a sus- 
picious eye, and paid but little or no attention 
to his exhibitions of cocoons, while at the same 
time they awarded premiums to many things 
ot no practical importance whatever. 
But faith and perseverance at last prevailed, 
and the present exhibition of silk cocoons from 
all parts of the State, at the Mechanics' Fair in 
San Francisco, attracts an attention from visit- 
ors truly wonderful. Old and established preju- 
dices are disappearing, and the people begin 
to see and understand that the failure of this 
business in the Atlantic States was entirely at- 
tributable to climatic influences. 
We have a soil unsurpassed for the produc- 
tion of the several varieties of the Mulberry re- 
quired for the successful feeding of the silk- 
worm. We have a climate unequaled for its even- 
ness of temperature, with an entire absence of 
explosive electricity and showers of rain during 
the feeding months. As the result, our worms 
are perfectly healthy, each worm making a 
cocoon, with no percentage of loss from any 
cause whatever. 
Mr. L. Prevost, the pioneer, has from time to 
time sent eggs to different parts of the silk- 
producing districts of Europe, from which con- 
tinuous good reports have been received. And 
in consequence of the disease among silk- 
worms in those countries, they are compelled 
to import all their seed or eggs. The California 
eggs have established a reputation far exceed- 
ing the most sanguine expectations of Mr. Pre- 
vost. The consequence is, he now has standing 
orders for all the California eggs produced. 
As the production of silk is an exceedingly 
profitable business, and the production of eggs 
vastly more so, the people of this State are be- 
ginning to engage in this business with a thor- 
oughness characteristic of California, and in a 
few years we will be able to supply the Old 
World with eggs of a better and healthier qual- 
ity than can be obtained elsewhere. Now for a 
few items and figures in relation to the profits of 
the business, which have been demonstrated by 
practical tests by myself and many others. Ac- 
cording to our simplified silk culture, one 
hand, man or woman, or a boy or girl 8 to 10 
years old, can feed and attend, from the hatch- 
ing of the eggs to the cocoon and laying of 
eggs, 100,000 worms. The cocoons produced 
will weigh about 333 lbs., worth, at lowest rates, 
$1.50 per "lb., amounting in round numbers to 
about $500. The time occupied six weeks. 
But by producing eggs, we find a much bet- 
ter return. For instance, we select one-half the 
crop, (for we select the very best only for eggs,) 
500,000. It requires 100 pairs of cocoons that 
weigh a pound to produce an ounce of eggs. 
Consequently, we have 250 ounces, worth at 
present from $8 to $16 per oz., but putting 
them at the lowest probable wholesale rate, say 
$4, they amount to $1000. Add to this $150, 
the value of the cocoons from which the moth 
has emerged, and $250, the value of one-half the 
crop unfit for the production of eggs, and we 
have in the sum total the handsome sum of 
$1350, the result of the labor derived from one 
hand, six weeks. This may appear at first 
glance chimerical, but when we take into con- 
sideration the pressing demand for eggs for ex- 
port to countries where they must have them, 
and that California is about the only place 
where they can be obtained, it can be seen at 
once that this is no fancy sketch. It is practi- 
cable to feed a limited quantity of worms upon 
Mulberry plants, the first year from cutting, so 
rapid is the growth of the tree in this soil and 
climate. Here we have an industry within the 
reach of our small farmers, which can be prose- 
cuted without any detriment to the ordinary 
course of farming. 
We fear no competition, for our market for 
silk is the whole world. And if all the farmers 
of California could enter into this business with- 
in one year, it is my opinion it would not lower 
the price of raw silk one cent per pound. 
With a general dissemination of the knowl- 
edge of the advantages of this as a silk-growing 
country, it is evident that in a very few years 
the State of California will rank with any of 
the silk-growing countries of the world. 
River and Pond Mdd for Top-dressing. — 
We recently visited a luxuriant pasture in the 
Valley of the Bronx, and supposed from the 
appearance of the grass it had been recently 
laid down, or dressed with stable manure. On 
inquiry we found it had been well covered with 
pond mud from the adjacent river two summers 
before. The owner informed us that it was once 
a poor pasture with plenty of wild carrots and 
other weeds, and Utile grass. The summer was 
dry, and he drew off his mill pond, and carted 
out the deposits of mud, and spread them. The 
land had not been plowed or seeded. He 
thought it would cut over two tons of hay to 
the acre, if he did not prefer grazing it. The 
mud was not seasoned, but was drawn directly 
from the river bed and spread upon the land. 
Pond mud seems to act more immediately upon 
the grass than muck or peat. It is frequently 
made up of the wash of cultivated fields, and of 
decayed leaves. There are nooks and eddies 
along almost every stream where this article 
collects. Pond mud is an excellent top- 
dressing for grass lands and should be saved. 
Measurement of Farm Land. 
It is seldom necessary for a farmer's measure- 
ments of his land to be perfectly exact. Pie 
generally can pace it near enough for his com- 
mon uses, that is, near enough for estimating 
the amount of seed, manure, etc., he needs per 
acre, the length of fence he needs to provide 
for, etc. It is, however, very much more satis- 
factory, and usually more profitable, to measure 
and know much more nearly the size of the 
pieces of land cultivated. The measuring rod 
and tape are nearly as important to the careful 
farmer as the scales and half-bushel measure. 
It takes two men, or a man and a boy at least, 
to carry a chain or tape line, and a fanner i3 
often loth to take off his hands from important 
work, while he is very willing to spend time in 
walking over his fields measuring and planning 
for improvements, and for future crops, or 
estimating the yield of crops already garnered. 
William Hull, of Hill-top, Pa., saves himself 
trouble by the little contrivance which we fig- 
ure, and of which he writes as follows: 
"Take two strips of hoard, three quarters of an 
inch thick, an inch wide, 
and 5i feet long, fasten the 
tops together with a screw, 
or with shingle nails, spread 
the bottoms exactly 5J feet 
apart, and nail a strip across 
about 2 feet from the top, 
and you have a pair of rough 
compasses or dividers. Point the bottoms, and it 
is ready for use. Put your hand on top, and turn 
it as you walk along ; three spaces will make a 
rod. I find it saves a great deal of guess-work." 
It must he borne in mind that this instrument 
will give hut very little more accurate results 
than pacing unless it be moved in a direct line. It 
is hard even to walk in a straight line unless one 
has practice, and still harder would it be to car- 
ry such a measuring implement. Two points 
must always be taken, one near and one distant, 
and the near one be made to cover or half cover 
the distant one all the time. Thus a line will be 
very nearly straight. This affair, and the difficul- 
ties attendant upon its use, suggests another im- 
plement on the same principle, which the writer 
intends soon to make, thus : Take three sticks 
exactly 54 feet long, bore a gimlet hole in the 
exact middle of each, and fasten them together 
with a long screw or bolt which shall pass 
through the ends of two similar sticks, (they 
should he 3-inch pine, 2 inches wide.) The 
three which are fastened together at their cen- 
tres should now have their extremities placed 
equally distant. They will be exactly 2| feet 
apart, and should be fastened so by means of 
strips of lath, nailed on six or eight inches from 
the ends. These are then to be sharpened to 
marked points just 2J feet apart, and when 
done, we have a wheel which will measure 
one rod at each revolution, and may he pushed 
before one walking, using the two outside 
pieces as handles of a wheelbarrow are used. 
