knowledge, which, however convenient to others, would 
seem essential to them. There has been scarce any¬ 
thing which could be called education for practical life ; 
and those persons who, in the pursuit of any of the 
useful arts, have signalized themselves by the applica¬ 
tion of scientific principles for the invention of new pro¬ 
cesses, or the improvement of the old, have been self- 
educated men.” 
“Neither is it intended, that the education which we 
recommend, should extend to a minute acquaintance 
with the practical applications of science to the details of 
every art. This would be impossible, and does not be¬ 
long to preparatory education. We wish only that the 
general laws and principles should be so taught, as 
greatly to multiply the number of persons competent to 
carry forward such casual Suggestions of improvement 
as may present themselves, and to bring their art to 
that state of increasing excellence, which all arts reach, 
by long-continued intelligent cultivation.”* 
Our young men, destined to agricultural pursuits, 
do not, cannot, get scientific instruction in the college ; 
for the collegiate period of life is that in which they 
must acquire a practical knowledge of their business. 
It is only, therefore, by combining labor with study, 
that they can expect to profit largely by the advan¬ 
tages which science proffers. And in schools of this 
kind, not only the elementary principles of science 
may be learnt, but the application of these principles 
may be tested and illustrated in practice—and, what 
is of no little moment, the best practices in the art, 
in all its diversified branches, may be taught at the 
same time. Instead of seriously interfering with 
each other, study and labor, we have seen, being di¬ 
rected to a common object of usefulness, tend to en¬ 
lighten, encourage and animate each other. 
Children belong to the republic; that is, the pub¬ 
lic have a deep interest in the manner of their being 
brought up and educated—whether to habits of in¬ 
dustry and usefulness, or those of indolence and vice. 
They are the materials which are to constitute the 
moral and political fabric of the rising generation ; 
and every measure which has a tendency to render 
them intelligent and virtuous, indirectly benefits every 
member of the community. 
“ An intelligent class” remarks Gov. Everett, “ can 
never be, as a class, vicious; never, as a class, indolent. 
The excited mental activity operates as a counterpoise 
to the stimulus of sense and appetite. The new world 
of ideas; the new views of the relation of things; the 
astonishing secrets of the physical properties and me¬ 
chanical powers, disclosed to the well informed mind, 
present attractions, which—unless the character is deep¬ 
ly sunk—are sufficient to counterbalance the taste for 
frivolous or corrupt pleasures; and thus, in the end, a 
standard of character is created in the community, 
which, though it does not invariably save each indivi¬ 
dual, protects the virtue of the mass.” 
We shall close our remarks on this deeply interest¬ 
ing subject, with another extract from Gov. Everett’s 
essay on the importance of scientific knowledge. 
“ Contemplate, at this season of the year,” says he, 
“ one of the magnificent oak trees of the forest, cover¬ 
ed with thousands and thousands of acorns. There is 
not one of those acorns which does not carry within it¬ 
self the germ of a perfect oak, as lofty and as wide- 
spreading as the parent stalk ; which does not unfold 
the rudiments of a tree that would strike its roots in 
the soil, and lift its branches towards the heavens, and 
brave the storm of a hundred winters. It needs for this 
but a handful ot soil, to receive the acorn as it falls, a 
little moisture to nourish it, and protection from vio¬ 
lence till the root is struck. It needs but these; and 
these it does need, and these it must have; and for want 
of them, there is not one out of a thousand of those in¬ 
numerable acorns, which is destined to become a tree. 
“ Look abroad through the cities, the towns, the villa¬ 
ges of our beloved country, and think of w r hat materials 
their population, in many parts already dense, and eve¬ 
ry where rapidly growing, is, for the most part, made 
up. It is not lifeless enginery, it is not animated ma¬ 
chines, it is not brute beasts, trained to subdue the 
earth: it is rational, intellectual beings. There is 
not a mind, of the hundreds and thousands in our com¬ 
munity, that is not capable of making large progress in 
useful knowledge; and no one can presume to tell or 
limit the number of those who are gifted with all the 
talent for the noblest discoveries. They have naturally 
all the senses and all the faculties—I do not say in as 
high a degree, but who shall say in no degree ?—pos¬ 
sessed by Newton, or Franklin, or Fulton. It is but a 
little which is wanted to awaken every one of these 
minds to the conscious possession, and the active exer¬ 
cise, of its wonderful powers. But this little, generally 
speaking, is indispensable. How much more wonder¬ 
ful an instrument is an eye than a telescope! Provi¬ 
dence has furnished this eye; but art must contribute 
the telescope, or the wonders of the heavens must re¬ 
main unnoticed; and it is for want of the little, that hu¬ 
man means must add to the wonderful capacity for im¬ 
provement born in man, that by far the greatest part of 
the intellect, innate in our race, perishes undeveloped 
and unknown. When an acorn falls upon an unfavora¬ 
ble spot, and decays there, we know the extent of the 
loss;—it is that of a tree, like the one from which it 
fell;—but when the intellect of a rational being, for 
* Essay on the importance of scientific knowledge. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
want of culture, is lost to the great ends for which it 
was created, it is a loss which no one can measure, ei¬ 
ther for time or eternity.”* 
“ The design of promoting the advancement of the 
sciences, is a far nobler object of ambition,” says Lord 
Bacon, “than either private aggrandizement or patri¬ 
otism itself. The first is vulgar and degenerate; the 
second, that is, the ambition of those who endeavor to 
raise their own country in the scale of nations, is more 
noble, but has not less of cupidity: but if any one should 
labor to restore and enlarge the power and dominion of 
the whole race of man over the universe of things,— 
this kind of ambition, if so we may call it, is without 
doubt more wise and dignified than the rest. Now this 
power of man over things is entirely founded in arts 
and sciences.” 
Culture and Propagation of the Morns Multicaulis. 
The point seems to be settled, at least for the pre¬ 
sent, that in the states south of New-York, the mul¬ 
ticaulis is to supersede all other descriptions of the 
mulberry for the fabrication of silk. And even in 
our northern latitude, many persist in saying, that it 
may be cultivated with great profit, and some have 
realized large sums from their plants and buds. The 
price here is now two and a half cents per bud. But 
we ought to repeat, that the only certain mode relied 
upon for preserving the plants through the winter, at 
the north, is either to take up the entire plant in au¬ 
tumn, and bury it in the ground, or to cut it off near 
the surface, bury the top and cover the stump. It is 
contended, that the sprouts which will annually spring 
from the plant, thus cut down, will afford more leaves 
than the tree would if left to grow, while the foliage 
is much more easily gathered. Besides this, a great 
gain is effected by obtaining the tops for propagating, 
as under good management almost every bud will 
produce a plant the coming season. 
The interest has become so general in the increase 
of this plant, that directions for propagating it cannot 
fail of being acceptable to our readers; and we there¬ 
fore sit down to give these directions, not however as 
derived from personal experience, but from the prac¬ 
tice of two of the oldest and most eminent growers 
of the plant in the United States—Gideon B. Smith, 
of Baltimore, and T. S. Pleasants, of Goochland, Va. 
We extract these directions from the communications 
of these gentlemen, published in the Farmers’ Regis¬ 
ter. 
Mr. Smith directs as follows: 
“ The simplest and most common mode of cultivating 
the multicaulis is as follows:—Prepare the ground in 
the spring as for corn. Run furrows four or five feet 
apart as preparatory to planting corn. Then take the 
limbs and young wood that grew last year, cut off close 
to the tree, and lay them lengthwise, the but end of one 
limb a short distance, a foot or so, from the top end of 
the last laid down; cover the whole limb, with a hoe, 
about one or two inches deep; generally every bud on 
each limb will grow, and make a tree from three to five 
feet by autumn. The ground should be kept free from 
weeds and grass by cultivation, as in corn. About the 
last of July, it is best to take a sharp spade and sepa¬ 
rate the young trees, by driving it down midway between 
them; but this is not essential; they can be separated 
when taken up the spring [or autumn] following. The 
next spring they should be taken up and planted in re¬ 
gular form in the orchard, where they are permanently 
to remain. The best method is to plant them six or 
eight feet apart in the row, and the rows ten to sixteen 
feet apart—the rows running north and south, or north 
west and southeast. By this mode of cultivation it will 
be perceived, that eight or ten times as many multicau¬ 
lis trees may be raised on an acre of ground as corn- 
hills, and that, as the crop is ready for the market, 
(when they are raised to sell,) as early as the crop of 
corn, there is no reason for the extravagant prices de¬ 
manded for them. They would be a very profitable 
crop at five cents a tree. 
“There are other modes of cultivation which it may 
be well to describe here. When cuttings are scarce, 
and the loss of many of them is of much consideration, 
a hot-bed should be made in the usual way, and the 
cuttings started in it as follows :—Cut all the limbs and 
young wood into short pieces, with one bud on each; 
lay them flat on the surface of the hot-bed, in lines 
lengthwise, the ends of the cuttings a quarter of an inch 
apart, and the lines of cuttings two inches apart, with 
the bud uppermost. Then sift rich garden mould over 
them, half an inch deep, and put the glass frames on the 
beds. Every night and morning water them with a wa¬ 
tering pot, merely enough to keep the earth moist.-— 
They should be planted in the hot-bed one month before 
the usual disappearance of frost. In and around Balti¬ 
more, the first of April is the time, as frost usually dis¬ 
appears altogether about the first to the tenth of May, 
By the time the frost disappears, the plants will be about 
the size of cabbage plants, and may be taken out of the 
bed and planted in the orchard where they are perma¬ 
nently to grow. During the time they are in hot-beds, 
care should be taken in warm days to give them air, by 
raising the glass frames [sashes] ; and if severe frosts 
occur, to cover the glass with straw or matting; and 
when they are set out in the field they should be well 
watered, for a few days, in the evening. The practice 
of propagating as above, from single buds, was first 
* Essay on the importance of scientific knowledge. 
367 
adopted by me, and followed for many years with very 
great advantage.” 
“Another method is by layers. Instead of cutting off 
the limbs and tops, bend the whole tree down to the 
ground, and cover it. limbs and all, two or three inches 
deep, with good mould—it would be well to turn up the 
ends of the limbs, so that the points are just above the 
ground. All the buds that are on the whole tree under 
ground, will generally grow, and each one make a tree 
by autumn, when they are to be taken up and separated. 
The objection to this plan is, that the young trees are 
apt to be too crowded, and consequently do not grow as 
large as when the limbs and young wood are cut off, as 
in the first mode ; and I do not find that it is any more 
certain, or possesses any one advantage, over that mode. 
All other modes of propagating, as grafting, &c. are 
perfectly useless, and therefore nothing need be said 
about them.” 
The following is from letters of Mr. Pleasants to 
Mr. Ruffin, editor of the Farmers’ Register:— 
“ On the subject of one bud cuttings of multicaulis, I 
can give thee my experience this year, which perhaps 
may be of some value. It is probably known to thee, 
that with scarcely any exceptions, there was a great 
failure in getting cuttings to start last spring. John 
Carter is the only cultivator I know who has succeeded 
well. Next to him, I place myself—'but at a considera¬ 
ble distance in the rear. To the north, not more than 
one in fifteen or twenty grew. The failure was owing 
to a most peculiar season, for I never saw cuttings start 
better than mine did. An excessive drought, at the time 
the plants began to root, dried them up. In preparing 
my cuttings, out of some of the strongest and best wood, 
I cut 10,000 or 15,000 with one bud. The remainder 
had two buds. The one bud cuttings I planted to them¬ 
selves, in the same sort of ground with the others, and 
they were all subsequently treated alike. Taking the 
piece at large, they stand as well as the best spot of two 
bud cuttings, and much better than the greater part of 
them. They came up with great regularity, and have 
come off very evenly. 
“If the season is propitious, there is no reason why a 
cutting with one bud should not grow as well as one 
with two buds. A large one may be stuck deeper in 
the ground, and in a drought, it may be longer under 
the influence of moisture. But with early planting, I 
have no hesitation in relying upon my good one bud 
cutting; and early planting, by the way, is more or less 
important to the success of every mode. I have never 
taken up my multicaulis so early in the spring, but what 
I found the buds started, and the little rootlets in the 
act of being thrown out. The growth must, therefore, 
be checked by exposure to the air and transplanting.—■ 
From my observations, the conditions I would recom¬ 
mend (and which I rely on so fully that I intend to prac¬ 
tise them,) in order to insure success to one-buds, are as 
follows: Preserve the plants during winter in a cool 
place, not exposed to the sun. Let the ground be pre¬ 
pared, so that the planting be may commenced as early as 
the season will permit; if in February the better, and 
at all events early in March, [in Virginia.] The soil 
should not be so light or sandy as to become thirsty very 
soon. Let the cuttings be prepared by separating mid¬ 
way between the joints, and stick them deep enough for 
the bud to be covered from an inch to an inch and a half, 
according to the texture of the soil. The bottom of the 
slip will then be about two and a half inches beneath 
the surface, a depth to which the ground seldom becomes 
entirely dry in the early part of the spring—and if there 
be any choice of ground in the lot, select for single buds 
that part which lies the lowest. With these precautions’ 
and, above all, early planting, no failure can, in my opi¬ 
nion, ensue. By a strong cutting, I mean one taken 
from the larger part of the main stem, of a vigorous 
stem, and those near the base of thrifty lateral branches. 
Some days ago, I removed the earth from a number of 
my single bud plants, for the purpose of examining them 
carefully. I found some smaller than I intended to plant, 
but the trees were as large as those from the largest cut¬ 
tings. My plants will this year yield per cutting about 
forty buds, on the average, perhaps more; and the most 
of them grow on a thin shallow soil, that never was ma¬ 
nured. It is the opinion of many men of judgment, that 
the present prices will be nearly or quite sustained ano¬ 
ther year.” 
In cutting off the laterals, or branches, for propa¬ 
gation, Mr. Pleasants recommends, that the lower 
bud on the branch be left to produce a new branch 
another season. He also thinks fall planting of the 
buds will succeed best, and intends to try it. 
The editor of the Register gives some additional facts 
in regard to propagation, from Mr. Sydney Weller, of 
N. Carolina. It is well known that the wood ta the ter¬ 
minal points of some of the branches do not ripen early 
enough to render them sound and hardy, and that the 
cold of winter therefore destroys them. Mr. Wel¬ 
ler cuts the branches after the occurrence of the 
first slight frost, and buries them. The consequence 
is, that the tender, half-ripened wood matures in the 
soil, and the buds all grow in the spring. 
In propagating by buds, upon light soils, it would 
evidently be of service to tread the earth upon the 
buds, after they are covered, as we do upon garden 
seeds, with a view to render the ground more com¬ 
pact, and prevent excess of evaporation. 
Another mode of propagating is, first to take up 
the entire plant, particularly when it has grown but 
