THE CULTIVATOR. 
143 
to the ground, and buried the tops in earth till spring, 
for cuttings and layers, in order to increase our trees 
more rapidly, and we have succeeded this season 
far beyond, our expectations. Our trees will now 
number about 20,000, and an equal number of cut¬ 
tings. 
No tree or shrub that we have been acquainted 
with, is more tenacious of life or easier cultivated, 
or can be more rapidly multiplied than the morus 
multicaulis, and we consider the kind we have will 
endure our winters as well as our forest trees in ge¬ 
neral, under similar circumstances. It is to be de¬ 
sired that all our farmers commence the cultivation 
of the morus multicaulis, without loss of time, and 
we do think they would if they were more informed 
in reference to its worth, and ease with which it may 
be cultivated. 
One of the letters accompanying the late report, 
say it is no more to cultivate an acre of land with 
the mulberry, than with corn. If each farmer would 
devote only one acre of land to the morus multicau¬ 
lis, it would yield him from 100 lbs. to 300 lbs. raw 
silk a year, in proportion to the fidelity with which 
the cultivation and feeding is performed. But as¬ 
suming the lesser quantity, (100 lbs. from an acre,) 
it would yield a greater profit than any other product 
from the soil. 
If the farmer can be induced to believe that these 
estimates are correct, he would not fail to com¬ 
mence with the morus multicaulis, and we have es¬ 
timations of this description so often repeated, and 
from sources that ought not to be doubted, we can 
hardly question but that the farmers will wish to 
embark in this enterprise, if they can know where 
the best kind of morus multicaulis can be found.— 
It is truly a scarce article, although many thousands 
have been imported, and hundreds of thousands 
grown in this country, yet the demand has not been 
supplied, and it is doubtful whether it will be for 
some years to come. The more that is known of its 
worth, the greater is the demand ; although it mul¬ 
tiplies rapidly it cannotfkeep pace with the call. 
We can now spare a'few thousand trees and cut¬ 
tings, to those who first apply ; and if any of your 
numerous subscribers wish a few hundred of each, 
the sooner they let us know it, the more sure they 
may be of accommodation. We have multiplied 
them so fast, that we .will afford them considerable 
lower than we ‘had^^?pay when we purchased in 
A writer in the Farmer and Gardener, advises, as 
the result of experience, to purchase the mulberry 
in the fall of the year. He says, this mulberry is 
so tenacious of life, that if it is kept through the fall 
and winter buried in the ground to the depth of 9 or 
12 inches below the surface, it will be just as fresh 
in ,the spring as when first taken up out of the 
.ground ; and then his trees or cuttings are on hand, 
° and he can have the benefit of the entire season of 
growing, without that danger of delay others have 
suffered who put off their purchase until spring of 
the year; and the opportunity we have had has led 
us to the same conclusion. 
We have fed a few silk worms every year since 
w a e commenced the cultivation of the mulberry.— 
We do not discover any necessity for the use of the 
hygrometer or thermometer. We find this worm to 
be an animal of life, and wants food for its support, 
and Leeds a rational proportion of attention, like 
other animals, and the better they are attended to 
the better will be the result. 
Our second crop this year are now winding their 
cocoons in very good order. Yours, respectfully, 
S. E. GIBBS & SON. 
1 Troy, September 14, 1838. 
Merchant Mills , Nelson Co. Va. ) 
Sept. 10, 1838. 5 
I Sib —The drought in this region is distressing. 
Our clover fields would burn freely. Our corn crop 
i will be considerably short of half an average crop. 
Our tobacco crop is nearly a failure ; and added to 
all, on the morning of the 4th inst, we had a frost 
that killed vegetation entirely, in low frosty situa¬ 
tions. “ We are rather in a bad box here.” 
WM. MASSIE. 
Turnip Culture. 
Vergennes, Sept. 4, 1838. 
1 Worthy Sir — I perceive much said in the Cul¬ 
tivator, on the subject of raising the English turnip. 
T here state my method, which for five years has 
not failed. About the 20th June I go into my sheep 
I pasture, and plough a piece of sward land, run a 
: fence round it, and yard my sheep, 250 in number, 
six or eight nights, from sundown until sunrise.— 
By the 4th of July I sow the seed, harrow it over, 
follow the harrow with a hoe, and turn all the ^reen 
clods ; then yard the sheep several nights, until the 
ground is trod hard ; then sow with lime, plaster or 
ashes, or any or all of them mixed. When the I 
plants come up, if the fly appears, dust it over with 
the above articles in the morning, when the dew is 
on them ; continue until the rough leaf appears, 
when the work is done, except thinning the plants. 
I prefer a light dry loam. Such land will produce 
three crops of corn, wheat, flax, or what you please, 
in succession, with plaster. I take up a piece, and 
stock down one each year; by this process you 
rarely discover a fly, and if the field is surrounded 
with grasshoppers, none will enter. 
REUBEN WHEELER. 
Ketch Mills, Sept. 10, 1838. 
Dear Sir—I wish you to have the goodness to 
answer the following questions, relative to the mul¬ 
berry : 
1st. What is the present price of the Brussa mul¬ 
berry, and in what proportion is the annual increase 
in good land ? 
Answer .—From 25 to 50 cents. 
2d. How does its habits differ from the morus 
alba, and the multicaulis? 
A. It is believed to be more hardy than either,—leaves in¬ 
termediate size. 
3d. Where can it be obtained ? 
A. At the Albany Nursery. 
4th. Have you confidence in the prospect that the 
culture of silk will be a permanent business in this 
country ? 
A. Yes. 
5th. What is the prospect for the price of the mul¬ 
berry tree next season ? 
A. There will probably be very little variation in the price 
of the best varieties. 
6th. What legislative enactments have been pass¬ 
ed of late in Pennsylvania, for the encouragement 
of the culture of the mulberry ? 
A. A bounty has been offered on silk fabricated in the state. 
Respectfully yours, &c. 
HENRY ELLSWORTH. 
To Jesse Buel, Albany, N. Y. 
Crops. 
Johnsonsburg, Sept. 14, 1838. 
Dear Sir— Winter wheat came in first rate, al¬ 
though there was not as much sown as formerly, on 
account of the Hessian fly having destroyed much the 
year previous. There were no poor pieces, but a 
great many good. There is a worm, however, dis¬ 
covered to some considerable extent—as to country— 
not, however, having been very destructive this year. 
Winter rye-straw very fine—expectations before har¬ 
vest, great—not realized however—much of the grain 
shrunken—not more, if half a crop. Oats light.— 
Spring wheat—some—very few pieces tolerable—the 
remainder absolutely poor —some say the fly injured it 
early, and the worm is found in much of it. The la¬ 
test sown the best—the most of it much shrunk— 
rusted. Corn never looked finer or grew faster than 
it did here the forepart of the season, and the pros¬ 
pect was a super-abundant harvest. The drought, 
however, has hurt it some, but still our farmers say, 
there will be more corn in fifteen miles around, than 
there has been in any for five years past. Potatoes 
very poor—next to nothing. Buckwheat, on the low 
ground, cut by the frost, and seriously injured ; on 
high ground, good—will be half crop, if not more. 
Pumpkins very few, and but few apples. Hay, rea¬ 
sonable quantity. The second crop of clover, for seed, 
very little—drought and grasshoppers ruined it.— 
There is a good deal of old corn in this county and 
Sussex—scarce any grain of any other kind, (old.) 
We shall be very far from starving. 
We suppose the worm in the wheat is the grain 
worm, and many think it was brought here in the 
summer wheat. * The most of the spring wheat was 
brought from near Utica, N. Y. last year—something 
like 250 bushels for seed—the most of it was sound, 
and the crops were good. A great deal more was 
sown this year, and the worm is in a great deal of it. 
Could the worm be brought in that way in the seed, 
or has it, in its peregrinations, reached us, and will it 
destroy all our wheatl I see nothing to save us yet, 
unless it be the quick lime, of which you appear to 
have some doubt. I fear that we shall be scourged 
heavily and severely, as this is a good wheat section. 
We wish all the information all the world can give 
us on this subject. 
How long does this worm continue in any place ! 
Is it a passing traveller, or does it delight to sojourn 
a long time in a place ! It has just made its appear¬ 
ance here. Will it be likely to do much damage 
next year! Will you please to invite all the informa¬ 
tion that can possibly be obtained on this all impor¬ 
tant subject. Our farmers are preparing to sow large¬ 
ly this fall, as their wheat crops were so fine. I 
tremble for them. I fear the worm will be destruc¬ 
tive. 
There is a great deal of limestone in this section of 
country, and a great many low places, marshy, boggy, 
&c.; there are many large beds of carbonate of lime, 
said, by geologist Rogers, who surveyed our state a 
year or two since, to be a deposition from the water. 
It appears to be a bed of stiff morter. Much of it, 
Mr. R. says, contains 50 parts lime, 38 of carb. acid, 
the remainder sand, &c. Do you think this would 
require the action of heat to make it valuable as a sti¬ 
mulator. It has been used some, and always to a 
disadvantage, and I think always injudiciously, as too 
large quantities were applied in a place, so that ve¬ 
getation was destroyed, by being thrown up to dry; 
and when dry it will become, by a little beating, very 
fine. There are millions of loads of it within ten miles 
of this place. But I must transgress no longer. 
Yours, respectfully, R. BYINGTON. 
P. S. Can Green’s cutter be had in the city of 
New-York, or where! [Yes—at Thorburn’s.j 
[Mr. Byington’s questions in regard to sheep, will be an¬ 
swered by letter.] 
EXTRACTS. 
Dry Rot. 
THE PROPER SEASON FOR CUTTING TIMBER. 
[Abridged by the Baltimore American from Sillimatt’s Journal .) 
“ The marine establishment of our country has no 
more fatal enemy than what is termed the dry rot in 
timber, and we know of nothing which would be pro¬ 
ductive of greater practical benefit than the invention 
of a method by which it may be prevented. The 
writer of an article in Silliman’s Journal, for April 
last, presents some valuable facts connected with the 
subject, the deductions to be drawn from which may 
be productive of highly beneficial results. After ad¬ 
verting to the superiority of the timber of ancient 
times over that of the present day in point of durabi¬ 
lity, as a matter ascertained, the writer proceeds to 
assign for it a reason which, he thinks, is to be found 
in the time of the year at which the wood is cut. An 
opinion has long prevailed that the winter is the pro¬ 
per season for cutting ship timber, but if the views ot 
the correspondent of the Journal be correct, this long 
received notion is erroneous. To prove this, he ad¬ 
duces facts that have come under his own observa¬ 
tion, which go to show that so far from its being pro¬ 
per to cut the wood intended for ship building, in the 
winter months, the more remote the time of cutting 
is from mid-winter or December, the better. He 
states, that in the year 1810 he had under his direc¬ 
tion the preparation of the timber for a freighting ship, 
and that he caused it to be cut during the month of 
December of that year. At a subsequent period it 
was ascertained that additional pieces were required, 
some of those cut in the first instance not being fit 
for the purpose. At the time when the last cutting 
took place the leaves were full grown and the bark 
would peel. In July, 1811, the vessel was launched, 
and in the following autumn was sent to sea, and af¬ 
ter the declaration of war was despatched to Middle- 
town, Connecticut, where she remained until the 
peace in 1815. In the spring of the latter year, when 
she was to be fitted out for service, on examination 
it was found that the timbers which had been cut in 
December were so much affected by dry rot, as to 
render rebuilding to a great extent indispensable, 
whilst the pieces prepared when the trees were in fo¬ 
liage were perfectly sound. Such was the perfect 
condition of the timbers prepared in the summer, that 
the spikes which had been inserted appeared, on be¬ 
ing drawn out, perfectly bright—those which had 
been driven into the winter cut portions being oxy- 
dized to a great extent. The ship sunk some years 
afterwards at sea, a miserable hulk, in consequence, 
as the writer thinks, of the rottenness of the portion 
of her bottom which had remained untouched at the 
time she was repaired. 
“A case so striking induced our aut hor to believe that 
the common opinions about winter cutting were erro¬ 
neous, and caused him to make some experiments in 
order to test the cause of the dry rot, and being doubt¬ 
ful of the correctness of the botanical theory, accord¬ 
ing to which it is supposed that the sap recedes to the 
roots during winter, he took, in June, 1815, some 
pieces of oak cut in June, which he placed over a fire. 
He found as the heat increased, that on the ends of 
the sticks there appeared a wet circle describing the 
exact thickness of the alburnum , or portion of wood 
outside of the heart, and that steam rushed violently 
from the tubes of that part, whilst there was but a 
slight appearance of vapor over the heart wood. In 
December of the year he tried a similar experiment, 
and found the steam to issue from the heart wood, 
whilst the alburnum remained perfectly dry. From 
these experiments it appeared evident that in summer 
the sap is in the alburnum, and in the winter in the 
heart wood, whither it had been conveyed by some 
process of nature not understood, and not in the roots 
as had been supposed. Subsequent observations have 
proved to the writer, that when growing trees are 
trimmed in summer, the rot which ensues begins in 
the alburnum, whilst in those trimmed in winter, the 
