4 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
eask carried by two men, by means of poles, and scattered over the sur¬ 
face with shovels or long handled dishes. Two thousand five hundred 
gallons of this liquid are applied to an acre of flax. 
Division 3.— Rye soil —Silex eighty-four; alumine fourteen; oxyde 
of iron two;—somewhat similar to the preceding, but more abounding 
in sand ; the crops much the same. Rape, manured with liquid manure, 
yields forty bushels of seed the acre, which sells for $32. The expense 
of manure, plants and labor about $33—leaving a profit to the cultiva¬ 
tor of nearly $50. Rape belongs to the cabbage (brassica) family, and 
is cultivated principally for the oil expressed from its seeds. The oil 
is used in lamps, and for various domestic purposes, and the cakes, from 
which it is expressed, are employed, as already stated, as manure. We 
do not know that this plant has been cultivated in this country, although 
it seems it might be profitably. Should any one ask for information, 
we shall cheerfully hereafter detail the mode of culture, and of express¬ 
ing and purifying the oil. The rents here average about $5.30, and 
the taxes $1.50 per acre. The liquid manure from forty-four head of 
cattle, upon one farm, sufficed to manure in the best manner twenty-one 
acres annually. Our Rev. author dwells with great emphasis upon this 
species of manure, and earnestly recommends it to the notice cf his 
countrymen. The horses are in the finest condition. They perform all 
the farm labor. They are kept in the stable in summer and winter. 
Their straw and hay is always cut, and their grain always given to them 
in the form of meal, and generally mixed with their drink. Their daily 
food, in winter, is fifteen pounds of hay, ten of straw, and eight of oats: 
in summer, clover is substituted for hay. In this way every grain of 
corn is converted into nutriment. A farmer will work fifty acres with 
two horses, and maintain them in excellent condition. 
Division 4— Wheat soil —Silex sixty-three and a quarter; alumine 
thirty-five; oxyde of iron three-fourths; carbonate of lime one-half; 
vegetable fibre one-half—a good sand loam. The crops and course here, 
are: 1. wheat with dung; 2. clover with ashes; 3. flax with urine; 4. 
wheat with short dung and sweepings ; 5. potatoes with farmyard dung 
or night soil; fi. rye with urine; 7. rape seed with urine; 8. potatoes 
with dung ; 9. wheat with manure ; 10. clover with ashes; 11. oats with¬ 
out manure; 12. flax with urine ; 13. wheat with duns; and 14. beans, 
beets or tobacco, with dung or rape cake. Turnips are also grown, but 
are taken as a second crop, after rape, flax, wheat or rye. 
The Clover crop, is managed most successfully; “indeed, upon the cul¬ 
tivation of this plant, hinges apparently, the whole of the farmer’s 
prosperity. It is here, and every where, except when vetches are sown, 
the summer support of all his stock. Here are very few pastures. 
The clover cut and carried to well littered stalls, becomes an abundant 
source of manure cf two descriptions—the urine being conducted, by 
channels, to the urine cisterns—and thus the cattle are made profitably 
subservient to the production of their own nourishment. Without clo¬ 
ver, no man in Flanders would presume to call himself a farmer.” 
When seed is to be taken, the first crop is used for soiling, after which 
the plants are permitted to mature their seed. The seed is threshed at 
the barn, and then sent to the mill to be cleaned, for which a time of 
frost is chosen. They seldom fail to roll their clover, and to manure it 
with ashes, at the rate of forty-five bushels to the acre. 
Division No. 5— Potato soil —Silex sixty-five and a half; alumine 
thirty-two and a half; oxyde of iron two—inferior to the preceding. 
The crops flax, rye, potatoes, oats, buckwheat; secondary products, 
rape seed, turnips, carrots, wheat and clover. In the best parts the ro¬ 
tation the same as in the preceding district; in the inferior ones rye is 
substituted for wheat; potatoes made to commence, and buckwheat to 
terminate the rotation. 
Division No. 6—Rye soil— Silex ninety-one ; alumine eight ; oxyde’ 
of iron one—rich sandy loam. Chief products, wheat, rye, rape seed, 
flax, oats, potatoes and buckwheat; secondary produce, turnips, clover 
and carrots. The rotation very similar to No. 2. Carrots are sown 
with oats, flax or rye. Where intended to be raised as a first crop, the 
ground is ploughed after harvest, which buries the stubble. It then 
lies till spring, when it is ploughed eleven or twelve inches deep, and 
about twenty tons of manure spread on the acre. The seed is sown 
broadcast, at the rate of three pounds per acre, and covered with a har¬ 
row, in the month of April. The produce is about one hundred and 
sixty bushels to the acre. About twenty-five pounds of carrots are 
given to a horse with oats, in twenty-four hours, in place of hay. 
Average seed in divisions, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6—wheat two bushels to the 
acre ; rye one and one-fifth bushels ; oats two and a half bushels; flax 
two bushels; rape one quart; potatoes fourteen and a half bushels. 
Average produce —Wheat twenty-three bushels the acre ; rye twenty- 
eight bushels; oats fifty-two bushels; flax seed six and a half; rape 
thirty-two bushels; potatoes three hundred bushels; carrots one hund¬ 
red and sixty-two bushels. Rent $4 to $5.75 per acre; land tax one- 
fifth of the rent; price of land $100 to $140 per acre; farms from seven 
to one hundred and seventy-five acres ; labor eleven cents per day with 
board. 
THE SILK BUSINESS. 
We have promised to give directions for the culture of the mulberry, 
and the management of the silk-worm—and we shall now proceed to 
redeem our promise. In the meantime we will recommend, that every 
person who designs seriously to enter into the business, should either 
purchase one of the half dollar publications which have recently come 
from the press, or subscribe for one of the dollar periodicals, which are 
specially devoted to this business. Either of these will afford all the 
instructions, in a compact and handy form, necessary for the perfect 
management of the business. We shall be obliged to be somewhat 
brief; for were we to publish all that is written upon this subject, it 1 
would engross our whole paper. 
We will remark in the outset, that we do not doubt but the silk busi¬ 
ness will succeed in our country, and that it will ultimately become a 
matter of great national concern. Yet we believe that many who em¬ 
bark in it will fail to realize their golden dreams; and that when the 
fever has passed its crisis, it will be found to depend for success, like 
every other money making undertaking, upon the knowledge, prudence 
and economy with which it is managed. We are an enthusiastic, and 
often an inconsiderate and fickle people. When the fever of public feel¬ 
ing is excited upon any great subject, be it turnpikes, banks, canals, rail¬ 
roads, or the culture of silk, we are apt, for want of prudence and 
forethought, to permit it to assume a dangerous type, that baffles, the 
counsels of reason, and sometimes terminates in extreme lassitude and 
prostration of strength. Local rivalship and private interest, the spi¬ 
rit of speculation, and the aggrandizement of party, are so profusely 
employed to stimulate the patient, and to deaden him to a sense of dan¬ 
ger, that it is a long time, after they cease to operate, before he is re¬ 
stored to a sane state of mind, and a sound healthy condition of body. 
And though he does apparently recover from the shock, we have seri¬ 
ous fears, that these repeated attacks are imperceptibly underminding 
his constitution. We have seen the turnpike bubble burst.—Few of 
these roads are at this day productive—many have been abandoned- 
much money has been expended upon them—and still the public is not 
greatly benefitted.—for in general they are not enough better than com¬ 
mon roads to make up for the tolls they exact. Had the number been 
limited to one-third, or one-fourth, and these well made, the interests 
both of the stockholders and of the public would have been much bet¬ 
ter subserved than they now are. They have besides led to the culpa- 
jble neglect of our public roads. We have seen that several of our 
banks have turned out to be mere bubbles;—and, if we mistake not, 
some of our canals, and many of our projected rail-roads will in the end 
prove to be not much better—public sacrifices at the shrine of private 
gain. We profess to be the ardent friends to public improvements of 
every sort; but we insist that prudence, which is wisdom applied to 
practice, is as commendable, and as necessary, and as much a virtue, 
in the management of the public concerns, as it in the management of 
one’s private concerns. What individual has ever been renowned for 
his wisdom or for his justice, who lavished upon one or two favorites, 
the patrimony which belonged equally to his whole family ,—or who, to 
benefit his children, has encumbered his farm with an enormous debt. 
We would neither creep nor run, if we meant to make haste in a long 
journey. 
No sooner has the silk business become a theme of public favor, than 
we see capitalists, or speculators, clubbing their means, and already 
erecting large s lk establishments, as they have an undoubted right to 
do, but in too many cases we fear, from a hope of getting a profit on 
the stock, rather than on the business —on their cunning, rather than 
on their labor. They should remember, that the first requisite in cook¬ 
ing fish, is to catch them. Children sometimes recreate themselves 
with a play called “ Robin’s alive” —and this seems now to have be¬ 
come a fashionable game with men—1 hough many a “ burnt child,” we 
apprehend, will have cause, hereafter, to dread the fire. 
But we will go back to our starting point, from which we have been 
inadvertently drawn. 
The silk business may be safely undertaken by every farmer who has 
a family of females, or children, willing to pick the mulberry leaves and 
lake care of the worms, —or, if he begins with seedling plants in the 
nursery, who has this aid in prospect, —and he may enlarge his scale of 
operations, as his prospects of help and profit increase. His outlay 
will be comparatively trifling. An ounce of mulberry seed, or a few 
hundred plants, and some eggs when his trees afford leaves, will con¬ 
stitute the principal expense. The money which he obtains for his co¬ 
coons, or his silk, will be so much added to his nett income. But if 
the business is to be managed by hired labor, or without the supervi¬ 
sion of the master or mistress, we cannot guarantee success, at least 
not to the extent that many sanguinely anticipate; and we should by 
all means advise such as thus intend, to begin with moderation, and 
to satisfy themselves, from experience, that they can manage the busi¬ 
ness with profit, before they venture to embark in it to a large extent. 
We ought in candor to state two other facts, one of which we have 
not seen published, and which may be doubted by many till, they have 
it confirmed by their experience. One fact is, that even the common 
