THE CULTIVATOR. 55 
or planting the second row m the intervals between 
the trees in the first row—-thus, ******* Ground 
may be still further saved, by planting- in clumps, of 
five trees, the centres of which to be sixty feet apart, 
and four trees at ten feet from the centre, on each 
* 
side, thus, * * *. This leaves large intervals unob- 
* 
structed by shade; the fruit is gathered more readi¬ 
ly, and the trees mutually protect each other from the 
wind. Hogs and other farm stock are like men, in re¬ 
lishing acid as well as sweet apples. The nutrient pro¬ 
perties of the apple are not diminished by the presence 
of the acid. The roots of a tree conform to the shape 
of the branches, and generally extend under, as the 
branches do horizontally over the ground. 
Children belong to the Republic. 
Thus taught the Spartans, and thus we should 
teach. As the twig is bent, so will the tree incline. 
If we sow tares, we cannot expect to reap wheat. 
Children are the materials—the wood, brick and mor¬ 
tar, if we may so express ourselves—which are to 
compose our temple of freedom; and if these mate¬ 
rials are bad, or unsound, dilapidation will ensue, and 
the beautiful fabric will ere long fall to the ground. 
If children are brought up in idleness, they are too 
o'ten useless to themselves, and become a tax upon 
society. If they are not taught to do good, they will 
learn to do evil. If they are brought up in ignorance, 
they are in a manner unfitted to discharge the high 
duties which devolve upon freemen. If the mental 
soil is not cultivated, weeds, and brambles, and 
thorns, will spring up spontaneously, to the great an¬ 
noyance of the community. As every man's vote 
weighs alike in the political scale, it were well for 
all that every man had enough of good sense and in¬ 
dependence to cast his vote honestly. And the best 
way to insure this, is, to lay a good foundation ol use¬ 
fulness in youth—to teach the hands to work, and 
the mind to think. “Reading,” says lord Bacon, 
“ makes a full man, and thinking a correct man.” 
Every citizen is in a measure dependent, for the pre¬ 
servation of the great blessings of freedom—security 
for his person and property,—upon the suitable edu¬ 
cation of the rising generation. 
Children in our Factories. 
It has ever been urged against large manufacturing 
establishments, that they tend to impair the health 
and deprave the minds, of the numerous children who 
are usually employed in their manipulations. The 
evil became so apparent and alarming in Great Bri¬ 
tain, a few years since, as to call for official investiga¬ 
tion ; and on inquiry it was ascertained to be worse 
than was apprehended. Thousands of miserable vic¬ 
tims of oppression, were found growing up in igno¬ 
rance and vice, alike disgraceful to themselves, and 
dangerous to the community. And from being com¬ 
pelled to labor twelve to sixteen hours in twenty-four, 
in confined apartments, and fed on coarse and scanty 
food, they were generally in a sickly condition, and 
many had died from hardship and want. Parliament 
applied a prompt, though in the opinion of some, not 
a sufficient corrective. It excluded children under a 
certain age from these establishments ; restricted the 
labor to ten hours in a day of the younger class to be 
employed, and we believe made some provision for 
their being educated. 
This evil has also produced a legislative investiga¬ 
tion in Pennsylvania ; and the committee appointed 
to examine into the matter, we are sorry to say, have 
reported a state of facts disreputable to our country, 
and have proposed suitable correctives. The report 
is accompanied by the testimony, on oath, of a large 
number of operatives and employers. It states, among 
other things, that no particular attention is paid to 
the education of the children employed in the manu¬ 
facturing establishments ; that of all under eighteen 
years of age, not more than one-third can read or 
write ; that the long hours of labor, (generally twelve 
hours per day,) close confinement, and vitiated air, 
have proved extremely injurious to the health of the 
children employed, those under twelve comprising one- 
fifth of all the operatives in these establishments. 
The report recommends, that hereafter, no child 
under ten years of age shall be employed in these fac- 
r tories; that children in factories not able to read, 
: write and keep accounts, shall be sent to school at 
least three months in every year ; and that children 
under sixteen shall not be allowed to labor more than 
ten hours a day. “The destitution of education,” 
says the Commercial Herald, “and moral culture, 
| among the factory children, is astonishing. In the 
majority of instances children enter and grow up in our 
™ es ' without being able to spell, read or write. 
With broken constitutions, from excessive labor in 
youth, harassed with disease, and brutalized with 6a- 
tyage ignorance, they reach manhood fit instruments for 
ythe purposes of demagogues, and ripe for every sort of 
crime and violence.” “ Where children are thus 
raised in ignorance,” says Mr. Heastings, one of the 
witnesses examined, “ and so totally devoid of the ne¬ 
cessary improvement of their mental faculties, it is 
not to be wondered at that mobs and murders are so 
common in our large towns and manufacturing dis¬ 
tricts, where the people are kept in ignorance, anc 
regarded but a little superior to the beasts that pe¬ 
rish.” 
We have referred to this subject, in the hope of 
turning the public attention to the matter in our own 
state, where, if the like evil exists, it becomes the in¬ 
terest and the duty of all good citizens to see it prompt¬ 
ly corrected. 
Smut .—The fact is well authenticated, that after 
the seed of smut has been destroyed by steeping the 
seed in pickle, the virus may be again communicated 
to the seed grain, so as to affect the crop. Bauer 
took some kernels ot wheat, which had been purifiec 
with salt and lime, and inoculated them, as it may be 
termed, with the dust of smut brand, that is, by press¬ 
ing some of this dust into the suture or crease of the 
grain, and the product was smutty. This dust, or 
seed of smut, may adhere to a bag, to a barn floor, or 
indeed may be left in the soil, and, as we believe was 
the case with Capt. Greene, noticed in our last, 
brought in contact with the sown seed by water in the 
soil. 
Sail Petre .—Great efficacy has been ascribed to 
this salt, applied in steeps for seed corn. We cited 
a case in our last, from Senator Johnson, of its great 
efficacy in the steep for seed wheat. In our March 
number we stated the experiment of Hart Massy, 
Esq. where the nitre seemed to have added vastly to 
the product, and served as a complete protection 
against the worm. A correspondent, whose favor is 
now before us, says—“ Seed corn soaked in a strong 
brine of salt petre was found a certain preventive 
against the ravages of the grain worm [wire worm, 
or grub, we suppose] last year. Have you tried it?” 
In our noviciate in farming, being desirous of making 
some experiments with salt petre, we desired a mer¬ 
cantile friend, going to New-York, to buy us a small 
parcel of crude, cheap salt petre. He bought us a 
bag of 200 lbs! We placed it in our garret, and we 
have used of it for fifteen years, at the rate of a pint 
for half a bushel of seed, in the steep of our seed 
corn. So far as our recollection serves us, when ni¬ 
tre has been used, for we think it has been partially 
omitted in two or three instances, we have been very 
little troubled with the wire or grub worm. We have 
ascribed great potency to tar, in protecting the seed 
from birds and insects ; but we have now our doubts 
whether our exemption from their ravages should not 
be imputed, at least in part, to the nitre employed in 
the steep. We particularly refer to this subject now, 
in'the hope of inducing satisfactory experiments in 
the current month. The oxygen, of which the nitre 
is principally composed, has a salutary and powerful 
influence on the germination of seeds ; the impregna¬ 
tion of the grain with this salt may render it offensive 
to the worm, while it cannot fail to impart some ferti¬ 
lity to the soil. We hope that experiments may be 
made in this matter, and that we may be favored with 
the results. 
The Grain Warm .—We beg to call the attention 
of the reader to the communication of C. in our last 
number. It asserts two facts in regard 'to the grain- 
worm, at variance with received opinions. 1. That 
the insect is viviparous —not oviparous —that is, that 
it does not produce eggs, but brings forth its young in 
a living state ; and 2, that it is not the offspring, or 
maggot, but the parent, or fly, which causes the 
mischief. From the high character of our corres¬ 
pondent, as an entomologist, we are disposed to pay 
a respectful deference to his opinion. We hope the 
matter will receive further elucidation the coming 
season. & 
The least of the lugs .—We would also ask the at- 
attention of the reader to another communication 
from “ C.” under the above head. It involves mat¬ 
ters of deep interest to the farmer. The insects of 
which it treats are supposed to produce the ergot in 
rye, quack grass and spear grass (poa pratensis.) 
The alarming epidemic which prevailed in New-Eng- 
land in 1811-12, has been imputed to the deleterious 
effects of the ergot in rye of the preceding season. 
And at this time a great mortality pervades the west, 
among cattle, which is believed to be caused by the 
ergot of the grasses we have named. There is not 
the shadow of doubt but that ergot is poisonous to 
men and brutes ; that it abounds upon the plants we 
have named, much more in some years than in others, 
and that without special care, it enters into the food of 
man and beast. Threshing and thoroughly cleaning 
rye, divests the grain of most of the poison; but 
means are seldom taken to separate it from the food 
of the brute. We have seen fields of spear grass, 
which is wont to crowd out and take the place of 
other grasses, as meadows and pastures increase in 
age, seemingly covered with ergot. The best pre¬ 
ventive we know of in this case, is to alternate crops 
where it can be done, and to give such high culture 
as will ensure the growth of what are termed the 
cultivated grasses; and where this cannot be done— 
or where the lands are doomed to perpetual meadow 
and pasture, to top-dress them with dung and com¬ 
post—to seed and scarify them, that the healthful 
grasses may be maintained and perpetuated. 
Morus Multicaulis .—We would also invite the at¬ 
tention of silk growers to the communication of Pro¬ 
fessor Ives, in.our last. His experiments go to show, 
that the morus multicaulis, which has made no little 
noise, and induced some extravagant speculations, is 
not a distinct species, but merely a variety of the 
common white mulberry. It is a peculiar trait in the 
American character, to believe, without examination, 
and upon the slightest authority, whatever promises 
to administer to our cupidity. We have stood alone 
in admonishing the public, that the multicaulis, and 
even the white mulberry, was too tender for our 
northern winters, and in advising to cultivate them in 
stools, so that if the tops were killed, a surer depen¬ 
dence might be had upon the new annual growth 
which might spring from the roots. And we very 
much fear, that unless the Brussa proves more hardy 
than the multicaulis, or even the alba, and we have 
reason to believe that it will, we must, in the north, 
either resort to our indigenous hardy species, the M. 
rubra, or come short of our expectations in being able 
to produce our own silk. 
The Brussa Mulberry. 
Six thousand plants of this species, or variety, of 
the mulberry, belonging to the estate of the late Da¬ 
vid Ruggles, Esq. of Newburgh, were sold at auction 
on the 7th April. The sale was well attended, and 
the plants, though many of them small, went off at an 
average price of about thirty cents. There were sam¬ 
ples of cocoons and of manufactured silk, fabricated 
from this mulberry, both of which were highly admir¬ 
ed. The wood of this plant, although the trees were 
closely planted in nursery, appeared perfectly ripened 
and fresh, even to the terminal points, and wholly un¬ 
injured by the cold of winter; and the impression 
seemed to prevail, that it is hardy enough to with¬ 
stand our northern winters. Brussa, from which this 
mulberry derives its name, is in Asia Minor, at the 
foot of Mount Olympus, which mountain is capped 
with snow during most of the year. Brussa silks 
are distinguished in the bazaar of Constantinople 
as pre-eminent for beauty and excellence. We anti¬ 
cipate great national benefits from the introduction of 
this valuable plant. 
When attending the above sale, we were presented 
with one hundred plants of the mulberry, by Mr. Ni¬ 
cholas Haight, of New-York, which were imported 
late in the spring of 1837, from Smyrna, as the Brus¬ 
sa. On ^comparison they seem to be identical in va¬ 
riety with those sold. Mr. Haight has 10,000 on 
hand for sale. See his communication. 
Mr. Whitmarsh, of Northampton, presented us, at 
the same time, a bundle of plants of his Canton mul¬ 
berry. They are evidently different from the Brussa, 
and we should think not so hardy. We hare planted 
the two kinds presented to us, and those we purchas¬ 
ed at the sale, along side of each other, and hope, 
another year, to speak more satisfactorily of their 
rardiness and relative properties. 
Cattle Husbandry. 
Although we have been in the habit of appropriat¬ 
ing a large portion of our paper to tillage husbandry, 
and have particularly urged the alternation of crops, 
and the cultivation of roots—yet we are aware, that, 
in many portions of our country, and even of New- 
York, which has been denominated the grain-growing 
state, cattle and sheep husbandry must ever consti¬ 
tute the most important and profitable business of the 
: arm—that meat, wool, and the products of the dairy 
must form the great staples of trade. The lands de¬ 
nominated pine lands, comprising sands and sandy 
oams, are particularly adapted to"alternate husband¬ 
ry ; and even upon these, it is desirable to rear as 
many cattle as can be well fed, as the best means ol 
preserving or improving their fertility. Our valleys, 
particularly of the larger streams, as the Hudson, 
Mohawk, Susquehannah, Chemung, Genesee, &c. 
are adapted, generally, to the culture of grain, as is 
also the northern section of West New-York. In 
these, at least, for the present, cattle seem to be but a 
secondary object. But the hilly district lying west of 
the valley of the Hudson, south of that of the Mohawk, 
and the basins of the small lakes, and north of the 
New-Jersey and Pennsylvania lines, is peculiarly 
adapted to cattle and sheep husbandry, as is also 
much of that north of the Mohawk valley, and east of 
the Seneca river. These districts may be made to 
furnish the bread-stuffs necessary for the subsistence 
