THE CULTIVATOR. 
165 
vania. The plaster stone here is of a dark blue colour. It is usually sold 
on the banks of Cayuga lake in the stone, tor $1.25 and $1-50 per ton. 
In Pennsylvania it is worth about $6 per ton, and the cost of getting it 
there and vending it, varies trom $2.50 to $3.50 per ton. At the nulls in 
Cayuga and Tompkins counties, it is sold, when ground, tor $2 and 
per ton. In Seneca county, on the Seneca river, there are extensive 
quarries of plaster which have only recently been opened. This plaster 
is of a light grey colour. It is sold at the mills on this river, for $3 per ton, 
when ground. The quarries on this river are said to be inexhaustible, as 
veins have been discovered of the plaster rock, extending halt a mile trom 
the river Much plaster is sent from this river near Seneca Falls, and like¬ 
wise from Cayuga county, to the country above the Seneca lake, and tneie 
ground for use in the counties south and south-west. It is sold, when 
ground, in Tioga and Steuben counties, for $5and $6 per ton. The con¬ 
sumption of the country around and above Seneca lake, cannot be less 
than six or eight thousand tons per annum. In the county of Ontario and 
town of Phelps, there are many quarries of gypsum. There is ground and 
sold in this town probably 6,000 tons annually; price $3 per ton. A very 
considerable income is afforded by these plaster beds to their owners. 
The proprietor of a single bed in Cayuga county, it is said, was offered and 
refused $80,000 for the bed on his farm. 
I have not heard of gypsum being found at any great extent in this state, 
west of Ontario. Upon Grand river, in Upper Canada, it is said to abound. 
I have seen in Sandusky county Ohio, quarries of the species called ala¬ 
baster, very beautiful, and white as Parian marble. 
The v consumption in this part of the state has been estimated for the few 
past years, to increase one-third annually. When the sleighing is good, 
farmers are known to come for it from the distance of seventy or eighty 
miles. As the intelligence of our farmers increases, and as their exhaust¬ 
ed lands require aid, the demand for this valuable manure will augment. 
It is fortunate that in our great wheat growing region, there is at hand so 
cheap and so useful a mineral. It is not doubted now by well informed 
farmers, that by sowing plaster and clover seed annually, an annual crop 
of wheat shall be produced, without any dimunition of yield. 1 he in¬ 
stances are too numerous to admit of the facts being controverted. 
Seneca Falls, Dec. 28th, 1835. S. J. B. 
I transplanted last winter, in February, about fifty white pines; thirty 
of which are now flourishing. I am satisfied that the depth of winter is 
the best season for transplanting all evergreens; you may then take them 
up while the earth is frozen to their roots, and avoid bruising or injuring a 
single fibre. I have uniformly failed before in removing pines at all other 
seasons. S. J. B. 
Conductor's Note .—To facilitate this mode of transplanting, which we com¬ 
mend, when the plants are at hand, go with a spade, before the ground is fro¬ 
zen, and cut the roots, and open the ground, at the required distance from the 
bole or stem, and when the ball of earth which encloses the plant is frozen, it 
may be taken up without trouble, and removed on a sled or wagon. Holes 
for their reception should also be dug before the ground is frozen. 
SILK CULTURE. 
Mr. Btjel —We are happy to find you are not weary of well doing, and 
each succeeding number of your very interesting paper affords us some¬ 
thing new, and brings full conviction of its usefulness by the statements 
of facts reduced to practice, without which “ nothing can be perfect.” 
Had we been favored with such a publication fifty years ago, and conti¬ 
nued to the present time, wo no doubt, should have arrived at greater per¬ 
fection in all the variety of mechanism and farming, together with all the 
minute affairs of employment, which are inseparably connected with the 
business of life and convenience. Less prejudices, fewer objections, giv¬ 
ing up our traditions to, and the incredulity which still remains on the 
minds of many would have had existence! “ But better late than never.” 
The prospect is good, your paper is highly valued and will be liberally sup¬ 
ported on the ground you proceed, and for one, I am of opinion you will 
add much to its interest in giving a few remarks on the cultivation of the 
mulberry and silk business. I had given up presenting myself to you on 
the subject, until Agricola came forward in your last number, which gave 
me a desire to assist him a little; or, should I not be able to help, I hope 
I may not hinder; and as it is possible many will commence rearing the 
worms the coming season, who may be unacquainted with the process, to 
those I would offer a few hints from my own experience, (small as it is;) 
I find its advantage over all theory. I have raised a few silk worms two 
seasons, which both hatched on the 22, 3d and 4th of May, and from a 
few small leaves of a number of plants set in the garden where they came 
forward soonest, I kept them alive till kindly supplied occasionally from 
two miles distance, and notwithstanding the severe frosts and drouth dur¬ 
ing spring and summer before last, they prospered well, and my silk was 
called beautiful, of which I send you a sample. I advise those who would 
avoid unnecessary labor in dressing off the tables, that attention is neces¬ 
sary for their health and quality of silk. 1st. To observe they are several 
days in all getting out, and if we take pains to place all of the 1st day’s, 
2d and 3d, &c. by themselves on different places, we shall know which 
will moult first, and all in course will be of equal age, in each parcel, over 
which I erect materials for their winding after the fourth moulting, I be- 
stow'ed much less labor on 1200 of this summer, than those of last of 600, in 
consequence of a machine invented by my boy, of some thin slips of boards 
fastened at each corner, and studded with short points or pegs, half an inch 
apart, crossing it with twine sufficiently tight to bear up the worms when 
grown, and I placed my fresh leaves on this thread riddle; they immedi¬ 
ately come up from their wilted rubbish, and are nice in a short time; the 
offal then is soon cleared if none are set lor skinning; if so, they must 
remain quiet, and will need no food till some time after they are out of 
their old dress. This simple machine saved me more than half in keeping 
them clean, and properly separated, for as soon as they are up on the new 
leaves, then carefully move the frame or. a clean place. But after all my 
care I missed my figure to my sorrow, for I had procured a large quantity 
of leaves in a wet day, and I did not get them dry enough, which proved 
fatal to about 200 full grown worms; or, I cannot account for their loss so 
sudden, as they prospered well through all the change our climate is sub¬ 
ject to. I must own I was surprised to see them prosper on so few leaves, 
and those from shrubbery; they differ greatly from those raised in my fa¬ 
ther’s house in Connecticut, years ago. I remember they were white and 
short, and the cocoons were an orange colour; but these are black and 
brown, and some of a clay white; the last colour are those I raised the 
summer past, whose silk is not so clear and brilliant as that I made from 
the darkest colour summer before last, but I am not able to say which will 
be the best to raise; it remains for some better informed than myself to 
decide; but this I am fully convinced of, that the native black mulberry 
will not only support the worms, but will make handsome cocoons, as it 
was proved to a demonstration, by a family in this town, who had no other 
food. I had enough of the kind to last mine a week, on which they fed 
well, and many would desert the white Italian, so tender and fresh, for 
those large, thick, rough leaves of the native tree; but I do not test the 
silk until it is reeled. But all I have seen here of the kind of cocoons 
are of a light straw colour, and long and pointed at one or both ends, and 
the worms long and very ordinary. Having spun my subject thus, I ought 
to begin to apologize, and leave before I weary the Editor’s patience; but 
if he will bear with me a little longer I will just mention to those who 
have silk to reel, spin and twist, to be sure to keep it wet during the 
different processes, as it helps to connect the fibres, and makes it more 
firm and smooth; and had we the simple French reel and doblair in our 
houses, we could reel it for a foreign market, or elsewhere, and 
then should we lay a foundation for future prosperity, which DeHomegue 
speaks of in his essay, where he in his enthusiasm says, America might 
be what France now is, in point of wealth, that no devastation by sea or 
land can impoverish her, for he found our advantages over the old coun¬ 
tries in the quantity as well as quality, having reeled on his superb French 
reel eight pounds of our cocoons, which made as much as twelve pounds 
of Italian or French. And now, Mr. Editor, permit me to give you my 
humble opinion, and you may give it to whom you please, that twenty 
years rolling round will present these United States a beautiful silk grow¬ 
ing and manufacturing country. I risk no more in saying it than the 
prophet Evans, who foretold twenty years ago how our canals, our rail¬ 
roads, and swift flying steamers, should send our friends from north to 
south, from east to west. It is done. The world jeered him; they scoff¬ 
ed at a Fulton, at a Clinton—they may do the same now. No matter, it 
harms nothing; only let our enterprising men lend a hand; the work is 
half done; they will accomplish it, and I shall be happy to see others pros¬ 
per. I expect nothing more than my labor for my pains. I wish not to 
reach beyond the limits of domestic concerns, and would be as willing to 
do without silk as any one, but since we will try to wear it, let the ladies 
be willing to raise it at home, that we may save a million of money, bread 
stuff', &c. which is sent to other climes for this one luxury. I hope to be 
informed, through your paper, how the filosille, or floss, is best manufac- 
factured. Small as my subject may appear, we must have nothing lost, 
for like the thousands of small streams that enter at last into the vast ocean, 
so may all the tributaries jointly meet at length in one complicated whole, 
and in the end prove a blessing to the poor, enhance the prosperity of ail 
classes some way or other, throughout our country, as well as it has those 
of other climes. Yours, respectfully, 
Greenfield, JVov. 22, 1835. G. B. W. 
MINOR’S PATENT PUMP. 
Mr. Buei,—A very superior and cheap article of the above descrip¬ 
tion, was sent me last fall, by the manufacturers, Messrs. H. Warren & 
Co. Jordan, Onondaga county, which I placed in a cistern in my yard, the 
operation of which I have been more pleased with than any other lift pump I 
have ever seen in use. It is very light and easily removed; the wearing or 
operating parts of them being of cast iron, and the composition with which 
the wooden pipe or tube is saturated, renders them durable, and obviates 
the evils so often charged on leaden pipes as being injurious to health. 
The pump is intended to stand on the platform of the well or cistern, 
even with the surface of the ground; the part exposed is beuatifully turn¬ 
ed and painted. About two feet below the base, and above the working 
box, is a small metallic tube, which lets off the water and prevents it from 
freezing. 
The one I have, stands on a curb eighteen inches above the platform 
