THE CULTIVATOR. 
211 
in 
New Publication. 
Weight of leaves consumed in August, 701 lbs. and 
September, 332 lbs. 
Total weight of leaves gathered,. 1,164 lbs. 
Total number of worms fed,. 32,000 
Producing nine bushels cocoons; 
Yielding (so far as reeled,) 1 lb. of silk per bushel; 
Weight of cocoons,.. 95 lbs. 
Waste silk and floss,... 1 lb. 
Twenty-seven thousand of the worms were of the two 
crop kind, requiring 4,000 to make a pound of silk, and 
consuming 144 lbs. of leaves. The remaining 5,000 
were of the long crop six weeks worms, 2,500 of which 
produced a pound of silk, and consumed 90 lbs. leaves. 
It was my intention to have fed the long crop worms 
entirely, as they are known to be much the most pro¬ 
ductive of any other kind, but they could not be pro¬ 
cured. 
Business now calling me away, the feeding was dis¬ 
continued, and the trees were immediately removed 
from the ground, having attained an average height of 
4k feet, well rooted and with heavy limbs. 
The produce of the one-eighth of an acre, as above, 
it appears is nine bushels cocoons, or nine pounds silk; 
being at the rate of 72 lbs. per acre, from the feeding 
between the first July and the 10th September. It is 
easy to see, that had the 1,164 lbs. leaves been fed to 
worms of the six weeks kind, the yield would have been 
13 lbs. of silk, or nearly—and from the rapidity with 
which the new leaves were developing when the trees 
were removed, it is presumed that had they remained 
during September, enough more might have been added 
to have swelled the product, so as to have made the crop 
at the rate of 125 lbs. per acre. 
During the period of feeding, the safety and even ad¬ 
vantage to the tree of frequent defoliation was fully 
proved. The trees from which this experiment was 
made, were stripped of their leaves four different times, 
yet at no time were they inferior to others that were 
untouched; on the contrary, it was remarked, that 
where the leaves were removed, the limbs shot forth 
with greater vigor—care being taken to leave the ten¬ 
der leaves at the ends of the branches. 
The very great advantage of this species of mulberry 
over standard trees, was manifest; while such trees are 
difficult of access, and from the small size of the leaves, 
requiring much labor to gather any quantity, it was easy 
for a child to take from the Morus Mullicaulis 15 to 20 
lbs. in an hour. 
The plan of retarding the hatching of the eggs by 
keeping them in an ice-house, was found perfectly suc¬ 
cessful ; the worms which wound the finest cocoons 
were thus kept back until the 3d of August. 
It may be useful to new beginners to know, that the 
large six weeks worm, either white or sulphur coloured, 
is altogether preferable to the two crop; for, not only 
are they more productive of silk, but from their supe¬ 
rior length of thread, the reeler is able to produce silk 
of better quality, and with less labor. 
The convenience of a shrub tree, where the farmer 
wishes to change his crop, may be seen from the fact, 
that with the use of a plough, the trees on this section 
of land, 4,800 in number, were turned out of the ground 
in 30 minutes. An hour more was sufficient to cart 
them from the field. 
Every one who takes up the culture of silk, is-sur¬ 
prised at the ease and certainty with which it is pro¬ 
duced ; and of this experiment it may be observed, that 
none of the persons who took care of the trees, ga¬ 
thered the leaves, or fed the worms, had ever seen a 
a tree or a silk worm before. 
I am not acquainted with the comparative merits of 
the Morus Mullicaulis, and other kinds of the mulber¬ 
ry; but large as has been the estimate of some culti¬ 
vators, of the produce and value of the former, I be¬ 
lieve its astonishing power of reproducing foliage, its 
tenacity of life, and the great ease with which it is mul¬ 
tiplied, have never been overrated. A friend informs 
me, that a field of roots, deprived of their tops last fall, 
remained in the ground during winter, and that from 
the new shoots, which started as early as any other ve¬ 
getation, he was able to feed from one to two months 
earlier than from others planted the following May.— 
From these collected facts, we may form an idea of the 
quantity of leaves, and the consequent weight of silk 
that may be obtained from the Morus Multicaulis, when 
it shall have attained greater age, even in this latitude. 
I am not able to name the cost of raising silk; but 
an intelligent culturistof my acquaintance, from a proof 
of three successive years, rates it at $2 per lb. exclusive 
of the cost of trees and the tillage; respecting the lat¬ 
ter, I am of opinion the labor bestowed on a field of 
mulberry, need not be more than on a field of Indian 
corn. 
It appears, therefore, that nearly all the labor of 
raising silk, viz: plucking the leaves, feeding the worms, 
and reeling it into sowings, may be performed by the 
females of a family, and thus the product be considered 
a clear gain, like that of any other collateral branch of 
farming. The growing of silk needs but to be looked 
into, to be appreciated ; and if 100 lbs. can be produced 
the first year of planting, worth $5 the pound in raw 
silk, or $9 when in sewings, what other crop, it may be 
asked, can be named coming near it for profit? 
I will only add, gentlemen, that it is cheering to see 
the interest the American Institute has taken in this 
all-important subject, and to express the hope, that the 
coming exhibition, from our silk growers, and the in¬ 
creased patronage of the Institute, may give to it a fresh 
interest. Yours respectfully, J. DANFORTH. 
Hartford, Sept. 19 th, 1838. 
We have received from the respected author, W. H. 
Ellsworth, of Lafayette, Indiana, a pamphlet of some 
200 pages, entitled, “The Valley of the Upper Wabash, 
Indiana, with hints on its agricultural advantages;” il¬ 
lustrated with a map, engravings of labor saving ma¬ 
chines, &c. Mr Ellsworth is a gentleman every way 
competent to the task he has undertaken, and his book 
has conferred a signal favor on the northern part of the 
flourishing state of Indiana. Hitherto the northern 
part of that state has been a terra incognita, and while 
the stream of emigration lias flowed along its borders 
to Michigan and Chicago, few comparatively, owing to 
difficulty of communication, have found their way into 
that fertile section of the west, the Wabash Valley.— 
That difficulty is now overcome, or will be so in the 
course of the next year, by the completion of the Erie 
and Wabash canal, which commences near Toledo, at 
the mouth of the Maumee, and terminates at Lafayette, 
the head of steamboat navigation on the Wabash. 
Mr. Ellsworth has drawn his picture of that section 
Of the great west, in strong and bright colours, but per¬ 
haps not stronger than facts would fully justify. It is 
a country in which corn, the sugar beet, and the mul¬ 
berry, can be cultivated with as great success as in any 
part of the United States, and its general agricultural 
advantages, can scarcely be exceeded, when fertility of 
soil and ease of cultivation are considered. The excel¬ 
lent report made by Mr. Ruggles to our legislature at its 
last session, has furnished Mr. Ellsworth with valuable 
matter for his appendix, and he has also furnished ex¬ 
tracts from the letters of other gentlemen, on points 
that had not fallen under his personal notice. Mr. Ells¬ 
worth gives tables and statements showing conclusively 
that the great thoroughfare to the west, both for travel 
and trade, lies through New-York; but at the same 
time demonstrates that this great state must not relax 
its exertions in the cause of internal improvement, if 
she would maintain her present high vantage ground. 
We may refer to Mr. Ellsworth’s book hereafter, in the 
mean time we cordially recommend it to the notice of 
emigrants to the Mississippi Valley.— Genesee Farmer. 
An Address 
Delivered before the Rockbridge Agricultural Society, at 
its Annual Fair, Oct 1 1th, 1838, by George D. Arm¬ 
strong, A. M. Professor of Natural Philosojihy and 
Chemistry, in Washington College, Lexington, Fa. 
Communicated for publication in the Farmers' Register. 
Gentlemen of the Agricultural Society —The subject 
which I have selected as affording a theme suitable for 
the present occasion, is—the value of natural science to 
the farmer. The practical rules of agriculture, and the 
best methods of cultivating the great staples of our 
country, would have afforded a more appropriate sub¬ 
ject, had I felt myself competent to the task. But with 
my imperfect acquaintance with those matters, any at¬ 
tempt to communicate information to the members of 
this society, must have proved worse than useless. The 
importance of agriculture to the prosperity of our coun¬ 
try, and the honor which is due to the independent 
American farmer, would have afforded a theme in the 
highest degree grateful to my feelings; but its discus¬ 
sion could not have been of any real value. In such a 
country, and in such a state of society as ours, where 
the farming part of the community are acknowledged 
to be “the bone and sinew of our strength,” that class 
upon whom more than upon all others, our national 
prosperity depends, the poor tribute of my praise, could 
neither make them more honored in fact, nor to feel 
themselves so. Precluded as I am from the discussion 
of either of these subjects, which would have been most 
appropriate to the occasion, I will be pardoned for se¬ 
lecting a theme, which in other circumstances I should 
have left untouched. 
The system of agriculture pursued in this section of 
country has, within a few years, undergone a change 
for the better. Whilst a country is new, presenling a 
deep rich soil, which has never been vexed for the sup¬ 
port of man, it makes comparatively little difference in 
what manner it is tilled. All that is necessary is, to 
bury the seed in the earth, and in due time to gather 
home the golden harvest. But if a careless system of 
agriculture be pursued for a time, the soil becomes gra¬ 
dually exhausted. Instead of gathering an abundant 
crop almost without labor, the farmer is compelled “to 
eat his bread in the sweat of his brow.” From year to 
year, whilst the amount of his necessary labor is in¬ 
creased, the return for those labors becomes more and 
more scanty ; until at length a point is reached at which 
the only alternative left him, is to change his system of 
cultivation, to emigrate, or to starve. There are por¬ 
tions of our southern country which have nearly reach¬ 
ed this point—and the tide of emigration is fast sweep¬ 
ing off their old population to the new countries of the 
west and southwest, those lands of promise. Accus¬ 
tomed for many years to a certain routine of farming 
operations, they either would not, or they knew not 
how to change it for a better. The valley of Virginia, 
possessing as it does a soil which it is difficult if not im¬ 
possible entirely to exhaust, has never beeome impo¬ 
verished to such an extent; yet, even from the valley 
of Virginia, not a few have sought a home in the dis¬ 
tant forests of the west. Far be it from me to call in 
question, either the policy of such a movement, or the 
patriotism of those who have made it; doubtless they 
have found a richer soil; and having carried our free 
institutions with them, wherever they have gone, they 
still possess all that which most endears his native stat Q 
to the bosom of a Virginian. But those who remain 
behind, have a work to perform. By long cultivation, 
the soil has become so much exhausted, that it is neces¬ 
sary for our systems of cultivation to be improved, if 
we wish still to see “ smiling plenty reign in the home 
of our childhood.” Instead of making it the one ab¬ 
sorbing question, how can I get the largest return from 
my lands this year ? our farmers must inquire, how can 
I get the largest return in a series of years? how can I 
permanently improve my lands? This I suppose every 
one is ready to admit; but then the question arises, 
how is this change for the better to be effected? in what 
way are our lands to be improved ? in what respects 
ought our systems of cultivation to be changed ? It is 
not difficult to mention some way in which lands may 
be improved, and some particulars in which our systems 
of cultivation might be changed for the better; but to 
give a correct and full answer to these questions, to state 
in what manner lands may be permanently improved to 
the best advantage, and how our systems of cultivation 
may be changed, so that a given portion of land shall 
yield the largest return, with most certainty, least labor, 
least detriment to the soil, is a task which it is impos¬ 
sible to perform at the present day; and we can hope 
to do it only after long-continued and careful study of 
the subject. 
It is at this point that natural science may be advan¬ 
tageously introduced to assist us in our labors. I know 
that in time past, while men have acknowledged the 
importance of applying science to the arts, and in fact to 
almost every thing else, they have doubted the value of 
its application to agriculture. Is this a reasonable doubt ? 
What do we mean by natural science ? As I understand 
it, we mean nothing more nor less, than our knowledge 
of nature arranged and generalized. Our knowledge 
on all subjects is, in the first instance, a knowledge of 
individual facts. After a stock of facts has accumu¬ 
lated, we perceive that many of them are of the same 
character; these we class together, and include them 
under a general statement. Again, we observe that 
some of these facts bear to others the relation of cause 
to effect, and we arrange them in accordance with this 
observation. This once accomplished, our knowledge 
has become science. By this process, the form, and not 
the nature of our knowledge is changed. Scientific prin¬ 
ciples are nothing more than human knowledge packed 
up in a portable form. Founded as they are upon our 
observation of nature, their application to the affairs of 
life, is one of the very best methods of testing their 
truth. 
To the arts, and to almost every other business of life, 
natural science has been applied with the happiest re¬ 
sult; and is there any thing which forbids the hope of 
its being applied to agriculture with equal success?— 
There are departments of physical science, which ap¬ 
ply as naturally and as directly to the business of the 
farmer, as mechanical or chemical philosophy do to the 
business of the artizan. Such are mineralogy, geology, 
and vegetable physiology. One great object of mine¬ 
ralogy and geology is to enable us to determine the cha¬ 
racter of soils, to ascertain the elements which enter 
into their composition, and the proportions in which they 
severally enter. No one has ever doubted that the dif¬ 
ference between a fertile and barren soil, lies in a diffe¬ 
rence in their composition. There are some combina¬ 
tions of the elements of soil, which seem particularly 
adapted to the growth of plants, whilst there are others 
which will scarcely support a scanty vegetation. A 
piece of land may be rendered barren, either by the ab¬ 
sence \ff some one or more of the elements of good soil, 
or by the presence of some noxious principle. If the 
former is the case, it is to the interest of the possessor 
to supply the deficiency; if the latter, to remove the 
noxious principle. But how shall he set about this 
work, unless he know whether it is the absence or the 
presence of an element which renders his land barren, 
and also what that element is? Lime and vegetable 
matter are our two most common manures. To make 
it a general question, as has sometimes been done, whe¬ 
ther lime or vegetable matter is the best manure for 
land, is very much like making it a general question, 
whether fire or water is the best agent for doing work. 
Unless the nature of the work to be done is specified, it 
is impossible to answer the question. For smelting iron, 
fire is the best, and water is good for nothing; for re¬ 
moving a stain from linen, water is the best, and fire is 
good for nothing. So it is with respect to manuring; it 
is necessary that we should know the nature of the soil, 
before we can determine the proper method of improv¬ 
ing it. It is (as I have already mentioned,) one great 
object of mineralogy and geology to enable us to ascer¬ 
tain the nature of soils; the former, teaching us to dis¬ 
tinguish them by their external characters, the latter by 
their position. 
Let this suffice for mineralogy and geology—I wish 
to direct your attention mainly to vegetable physiology; 
a department of natural science, which- has hitherto 
been little valued and little understood; and yet one 
which applies more directly to agriculture than any other. 
Under the title of vegetable physiology, is comprehend¬ 
ed whatever is known respecting the structure of plants, 
and the history of vegetable life; embracing our know¬ 
ledge of the nature of the organs of plants, the offices 
these organs perform, the manner in which they per¬ 
form these offices, and the changes which they naturally 
undergo, or which they may be made to undergo by the 
art of man. Its object is to lay open the machinery of 
vegetable life, and to explain the manner in which that 
machinery operates. In order the more distinctly to il¬ 
lustrate the application of such knowledge to practical 
