HAT RIGGING. 
273 
vored with a letter from the president of one of the 
mGSt ancient and eminent literary institutions of our 
country, who expresses his opinion of the progress 
of silk culture as follows : “ I am gratified to find 
a renewed and more general interest excited at 
the present time. If this awaking up to a scien¬ 
tific and practical consideration of the subject is 
not soon crowned with signal success, I am satis¬ 
fied it will not be for want of enterprise or skill in 
our countrymen, but merely from the high price 
of labor, compared with the scanty wages given 
in other silk-growing countries ; even this consid¬ 
eration, though it may retard for a while the com¬ 
plete success of this department of productive in¬ 
dustry, will not prevent its ultimate triumph.” 
The above is the opinion of one of the most scien¬ 
tific men of the age, and who in early life, was 
himself a silk-grower. His opinion accords with 
that of many others of high consideration in the 
United States. 
While viewing the flourishing condition of one 
of my mulberry patches, you asked with what it 
had been manured ? and received for answer, 
ashes and the deciduous foliage. The foliage you 
thought could be gathered for making paper, and 
answered, that there would be sufficient defective 
foliage left to manure the land. The foliage is 
richer than any stable manure, and stable manure 
should never be applied to the mulberry. I have 
not had occasion the last 5 or 6 years to use even 
ashes as a manure, but keep the land in good tilth 
by frequent hoeing. If you found these mulber¬ 
ries more flourishing than others you had seen, it 
may be attributed in a great measure to frequent 
hoeing and dressing with the decayed mulberry 
foliage. 
The soil is a light sandy loam, and previous to 
its being stocked with mulberry would not yield 
the value of $10 in any crop, and now my feeder 
says, if his worms do well, he hopes to take $800 
for the crop ! A parr of this lot being stocked with 
Alpine, Broosa, and Asiatic mulberry of 6 to 10 
feet in height, in rows 3 feet apart, and having 
grown so vigorously as to shade each other, and 
liable to have spotted leaves, to avoid this, and 
procure more, larger, and better foliage, I have cut 
away or headed down every other row within 3 or 
4 inches of the ground, and from the stumps have 
sprung up a multitude of thrifty sprouts now fit 
for use, and the leaves three times larger than the 
leaves on the standard trees, so fresh and tender, 
that it is hoped, in some measure, that they may 
answer the purpose of seedling foliage so highly 
recommended by M. Frassinett, who has the fol¬ 
lowing encomium on seedling foliage: that 100 lbs. 
of such foliage, is worth near 200 lbs. of old leaves 
to make the same quantity of cocoons—in fact 
worth nearly double the quantity of other foliage. 
I have caused considerable bark to be stripped 
from the Asiatic trees cut away for manufacturing 
purposes, and M. Rouviere of Lyons, has proved 
that the bark of young shoots, submitted to the 
same process as hemp, yields abundant silk fibre 
to make beautiful tissues. I should advise silk- 
growers to preserve the shoots—have them barked 
in the best way, and the silky fibre rotted, carded, 
spun, and wove. M. Rouviere asserts, that it will 
be not only fine and strong, but take the most 
beautiful colors. Of the bark, ropes and nets are 
made in the Morea, and may be used with great 
advantage in the manufacture of paper, together 
with the foliage. 
The Canton and Asiatic seed sown this year are 
in a flourishing condition for plantation use, exclu¬ 
sive of several mulberry plantations which will 
be for rent or growing silk on shares next spring. 
Up to the first of July, worms have been uncom¬ 
monly healthy; the probable effects of more open 
ventilation than in former years. 
Mr. Dabney, consul at Fayal, now in Boston, has 
two millions of worms at present on feed. S. 
Whitmarsh, at Jamaica, has 360 of what he calls 
cre&lized native eggs in constant feed, which go 
through the whole course to the cocoon in 24 days. 
The eggs hatch in 10 days after being laid. He 
has received the Silk Report, and made such im¬ 
provement as to save, in all, nine tenths of the 
usual labor. The silk cause at Jamaica occasions 
great interest in England for its prosperity and suc¬ 
cess. 
D. Stebbins. 
Northampton , Mass., July 1844.. 
HAY RIGGING. 
Transverse View of Hay Rigging.—Fig. 56. 
Above I give a rough drawing of a kind of hay 
rigging in use in this place, which, for cheapness,, 
convenience, and efficiency, surpasses any I have 
ever seen. 
Figure 55 represents a ladder 14 feet long, in¬ 
tended to be set edgewise on the bolsters of a 
wagon ; the bottom edge being of light wood, say 
3*^ inches in diameter, and the top smaller, with 
the rounds or slats projecting about 4 inches. Let 
there be two such ladders placed slanting with the 
tops outward, and braced in the maner of figure 
56> by pieces of boards with 3 inch holes to fit on 
the ends of the ladders, the tops being connected 
by horizontal pieces, and the bottoms likewise, and 
a piece connecting the top of one side with the 
bottom of the other, and secured by a wooden pin. 
A square staple should be put in the bottom of 
each ladder about the middle, through which to 
put a slat, and the bottom of the rigging can be 
formed of one or more boards resting on this slat 
