77 
TFIE CULTIVATOR. 
efficiently received, in the tariff conventions at Harrisbnrgh and 
New-Yurk, to protect tlie < ommon interests, as was asserted and 
believed, of the w>iol grower and wool manvfarturer. 
Give men power, whether in pecuniary or political affairs, and 
they are prone to abu-e it—by making it subservient, first, to sel¬ 
fish views. They soon come to think, that what was given to them 
for the public good, they have a right to use for private gain;—and 
whenever this feeling becomes ascendant, it grows and strengthens 
with age, until it supplants, or smothers, some of the best emotions 
of the heart. 
Silk Companies, like most other monied associations, are formed 
to make money —to mane capital more productive, and with less 
personal risk, in a corporate, than it is likely to become in a private 
business And it generally happens, that some counterbalancing 
good is held out to the public, as a consideration for corporate pri¬ 
vileges. But we confess we cannot discover any thing of this sort 
in the case under consideration. The business of raising the mul¬ 
berry and producing silk cocoons, is as much a farm— a family bu¬ 
siness, as milking cows and making butter, <t rearing and shearing 
sheep; and we should think that associated capital, and corporate 
powers, were about as necessary to the pro-ecution of one as the 
other. Now our fear is, that when corporate and private interests 
come in competition in the silk, as they arc found to do in many 
other kinds of business, the weaker will fall before the stronger in¬ 
terest—that private enterpriseWill be paralyzed, or made subservi¬ 
ent to corporate cupidity. In a business where all can compete, 
individually, upon equal grounds, we hold it to be wrong to destroy 
this equality, by giving to a part corporate privileges, to the mani¬ 
fest prejudice of the rest. All chartered companies are a sort of 
monopoly—aristocratic in their nature and tendency, and are only 
salutary, under a republican government, where the object to be 
attained is of manifest public utility, and beyond the reach of ordi¬ 
nary individual capital and enterprise. We do not object to com¬ 
panies for manvfacturing silk, though we verily believe that no 
good is likely to grow out of associations lor producing the raw 
material. 
the gooseberry; 
Is among our choicest garden fruits, and is one of the earliest 
specie^ which is fit for tin table. But in many locations it is sub¬ 
ject to mildew, which not only blights the fruit, but the anticipa¬ 
tions of the cu'tivator. Mildew, according to Darwin, is a plant 
of the fungus kind, which vegetates without light, or change of 
air, in the same manner as the generality of mushrooms; and pe¬ 
netrates with its roots the vessels or plants to which it adheies 
Wyilich says it is a topical disease only to be cured by a topical 
remedy. We have iieard, and seen somewhat ourselves, of the ef¬ 
fects of topical remedies, in which lime, salt or sulphur have con¬ 
stituted the preventive or cure of this disease, not only upon the 
gooseberry, but upon the grape, wheat, &tc. 
In the grape houses about Boston, and in our own grape house, 
sulphur is efficaciously employed, in its dry state, dusted upon the 
young fruit, to prevent mildew, or to check it wnere it has already 
appeared. Here nei her wind- or rain occur to wash or blow it oft', 
an 1 one or two applications suffice for the season. It may be ap¬ 
plied out doors in a liquid form, by first mixing the sulphur with 
milk, wrh which it incorporates—and then diluting freely with wa¬ 
ter, sprinkle it upon the leaves and fruit with a white-wash or oth¬ 
er brush. 
A weak brine, or salt, scattered about the roots of the gooseber¬ 
ry and grape, in May, is said to operate as a preventive. Before 
we were aware of it, we perceive! our gooseberry crop affected 
with mildew, when the fruit was about the size of peas. We im 
mediately applied a weak brine; and three days afterwards, dusted 
the bushes with lime. The disease was checked, and the berries 
have continued to swell, and appear healthy. Whether the salt 01 
lime was separately or jointly beneficial, we are unable to say; bui 
the remedy seems to have proved effectual. In the application of 
either of these substances, care must be taken not to apply them 
in excess, lest they should destroy the plant as well as its parasyte. 
Salt is best applied to vegetation in a liquid form, as it is then more 
equally distributed. Lord Manners applied it with great success, 
in the proportion of one ounce of salt to a gallon of water. Two 
ounces to a gallon proved hurtful to vegetation, but the second 
year the herbage where it was applied was abundant. All the land 
on the coast is treated with sea water in China and Hindustan. 
The utility of salt, in preventing or destroying mildew, lias been 
announced, by the Rev. E. Curtwr ght. of London, as a discovery 
of great importance to agriculture. He declares it to be »n ab¬ 
solute remedy for the mildew in wheat. His directions are: take 
“salt one part, water eight; with this mixture let the diseased 
grain besprinkled; in three or four days the mildew will vanish, 
leaving only a discoloration on the straw, where it had dried off. 
Two hogsheads of the mixture will suffice for an acre. The best 
mode of applying it is with a white-wash brush, having a tin col¬ 
lar made water tight, to prevent the mixture dripping down the 
operator’s arm, and running to waste. The operator having a pail 
of the mixture in one hand, with the other dips the brush into it, 
and makes his regular casts, as when sowing broadcast; in this 
way he will readily go over ten acres a day.” 
T. A. Stoughtenburgh, Esq. of Johnstown, has an east and a 
west high tight fence to his garden. His gooseberries on the east 
fence, he informs us, which do not get the morning sun, have been 
uniformly free from mildew; while those on the west fence, the 
soil at hoth being similar, are covered and spoilt by mildew. This 
has happened for years. In the compact part of Albany, in the 
small enclosures, excluded by buildings from the morning sun, the 
gooseberry is seldom affected with mildew. 
THE CURRANT, 
Like the gooseberry, should lie in every farmer’s garden. The 
fruit of the red and white varieties are nutritive and pleasant, and 
aff rd, in many ways, nice dishes for the table. Like the goose¬ 
berry it is propagated by cuttings, and requires no great space or 
labor to make it profitable in tin- family and for the market. 
Propagation. Take thrifty we 1 ripened shoots of the preced¬ 
ing season’s growth, and cut them 12 to 18 inches in length, and if 
it is desired to make them trees, or to grow them on a single stem, 
gouge out all the eyes with a sharp knife, except three or four up¬ 
on the upper extremity, which are designed to form the branches. 
Cut the lower end "square at a bud; it will sooner granulate, and 
'brow out roots;—and when planted, insert two-thirds of the cut¬ 
ting in well dug ground. The cuttings are best when taken off in 
autumn, soon after the leaves full. They may be put out then, or, 
what is better, kept till spring, in a cellar, or buried in the ground. 
Thus every man may procure cuttings in autumn or winter, to be 
planted in spring. They may be planted where they are to stand, 
or in a nursery bed, to be removed after one or two years. They 
may be planted in rows 10 feet apart, and 4 feet in the rows. 
The Cvltwe consists in digging the ground about the bushes in 
the spring, keeping down weeds, thinning the wood, and cutting in 
the long shoots. 
The fruit maybe used for culinary purposes while green; and, in 
its ripe state, is converted into wine, jelly, and is used extensively, 
in various ways, for the table, with other food, in which forms it is 
gently 'axative, emollient, and sometimes anodyne. The jelly is 
grateful and cooling in fevers, and no ! ess so as a conserve at ta¬ 
ble; and the wine affords an excellent summer drink, especially 
with the addition of wate r . Diiections for making the jelly and 
wine will be found under the head of household affairs. 
Sorts. —There arc two varieties of both red and white, termed 
the common and Dutch kinds, the latter growing on lower bushes, 
and affording larger fruit, than the common kind. The Champa gn 
■s another kind, distinguished principally by its pale colour. Mr. 
Knight has produced a sweet kind, not yet introduced into our cul¬ 
ture. _ 
COMETS. 
An elaborate and instructing article upon the approaching; comet , 
has appeared in the Edinburgh Review, from wdiich it would seem 
that two comets are expected to pass the earth’s orbit the present 
year, which bear the names of the astronomer- who first calculated 
the period of their return. The first is called Encke's comet , whose 
neriod round the sun is 1200 days. It appeared in 1825, 1829 and 
1832, and its return is expected about this time. It is considered 
by our anther as a planet, revolving in our system betw een the or¬ 
bits of Jupiter and Mercury. 
The other is termed Halley's comet. Its revolution is computed 
at 75 years. It appeared in 1531, 1607, 1682, and 1758. It is ex¬ 
pected to be visible in Europe in the latter part of August or begin- 
