THE CULTIVATOR. 
34 
begin to appear, and must be immediately fed with the young leaves of the 
mulberry, which may be laid upon them, after being chopped fine. It is best 
to place each day’s hatching by themselves upon tile shelves. They should 
be fed thrice a day with fresh, but dry leaves—neither wet nor wilted. To 
provide for wet days, pick the leaves when it is fair, and secure a supply in a 
glazed or other vessel in the cellar. Spread the leaves thin, and do not feed 
too much at a lime. Particular attention must be paid to cleanliness, and the 
hurdles or shelves must be cleared at least after the four first moultings. 
The silk-worm undergoes four changes, or moultings, at somewhat irregular 
periods; and in feeding them, exercise the same judgment that you would em¬ 
ploy in feeding pigs or neat cattle—give them enough, but no more than what 
they seem to relish and will eat up clean. We nevertheless subjoin a brief ab¬ 
stract of the rules which have been laid down for regulating the quantity per 
day, and every day. The estimate is calculated for the product of five ounces 
of eggs, 175 to 200,000. 
1st day. 31 lbs. leaves, chopped, in four meals, at intervals of six hours, the 
smallest quantity first, and increasing. 
2d. 6 lbs. chopped, in four meals. 
3d. 12 lbs. do. do. 
4th. 6} lbs.—on the alleged ground, that as the appetite increases, the food 
should be diminished. 
5th. 1J lbs. chopped. The worms are torpid, and some begin to revive. 
This generally completes the first age. 
6th. 9 lbs. tender shoots, and 9 lbs. leaves. 
7th. 30 lbs. leaves, four meals, the two first the smallest. 
8 th. 33 lbs. leaves, two first largest. 
9th. 9 lbs. leaves. The worms sink into a torpor, being about to cast their 
skins. This completes the second age. 
16th. 15 lbs. of shoots, and 15 lbs. of leaves. 
11th. 90 lbs. leaves, two first meals the smallest. 
12 th. 97 lbs. do. three first meals most plentiful. 
13th. 52} lbs. do. the largest meal first. 
14th. 27 lbs. do. and more if necessary. 
15 th. On this day, the worms arouse from their torpor, and accomplish their 
third age. 
1 6th. 37} lbs. of shoots, and 60 lbs. of leaves. 
17 th. 165 lbs. of leaves; two first meals the lightest. 
18 th. 225 lbs. do. two first the lightest. 
19th. 255 lbs. do. the three first 75 each; the last 45. 
20 th. 128 lbs. do. the first the most liberal. 
21st. 35 lbs. do. 
22 d. The worms rouse this day, and accomplish their fourth age. 
23 d. We find, in our books, no quantity stated for the 15th or 23d days. 
24 th. 270 lbs; the first meal 52, and the last 97 lbs. 
25 th. 420 lbs; first meal 77, the last 120 lbs. 
26 th. 540 lbs; first 120; last 150. 
27 th. 810 lbs; first 150; last 210. 
28 th. 975 lbs; the last meal the most plentiful. 
29th. 900 lbs; the first the largest. 
36th. 660 lbs; the largest meal first, 210 pounds, and gradually diminishing. 
31st. 395 lbs; to be distributed as wanted. 
32 d. 240 lbs; to be given as wanted. This day the worms attain perfection, 
and prepare to wind. Some days previous to this, branches of chesnut, oak 
or hickory should be brought to the cocoonery, which should now be laid up¬ 
on the shelves, and the worms will crawl upon them and form their cocoons. 
The reason for the inequality in the daily supply of food, is owing to the 
moulting, when the worms become dormant, and lose their appetite in a mea¬ 
sure. As they increase in size they must have more room allowed them, so 
that they are not crowded. 
In gathering the cocoons, particular care must be had not to compress them, 
or leave any portion upon the branch. Select the largest and firmest for seed. 
Strip the floss from them, hang them in a warm airy room, and in two weeks 
the moths will emerge, copulate, and, the females being placed upon paper, as 
they do not fly, will deposit their eggs. One hundred females will produce an 
ounce of eggs, enough for 20,000 to 40,000 silk worms. In the residue of the 
cocoons, which are intended for silk, the worms must be stifled, which is done 
by exposing them three or four days to the rays of the sun, and in various 
other ways. After the worms are smothered, the cocoons are to be spread 
thin upon shelves, in an airy chamber, and turned daily, till they become per¬ 
fectly dried. In transporting them to market, they should be handled careful¬ 
ly, and placed in tight boxes or barrels. 
According to Mr. Roberts’ calculation, an ounce of eggs will produce 20,000 
cocoons; and fourteen ounces cocoons, one ounce eggs; 1,000 worms consume 
50 lbs. leaves; nine pounds of cocoons will make about one pound of silk; 
3,000 cocoons, about one pound silk, and 330 cocoons weigh one pound. 
Collect the papers on which the eggs are laid, when quite dry, fold them up, 
and put them away in tin or other boxes, in thin layers. Theyshould be kept 
dry, where they will not freeze, and where the temperature does not rise 
above 65”. 
Ants, fowls, mice, rats, weazels, lizards, and spiders, are all enemies to the 
silk-worm, and must be guarded against. Bad air, that is prejudicial to man, 
is also hurtful to them. Hence cleanliness and a free circulation of air, when 
the weather will permit it, are essential. 
We omit, for the present, the processes of reeling and manufacture, as none 
should attempt them, without personal instruction and the proper implements. 
Cocoons have sold for three to four dollars per bushel. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
REMARKABLE LARGE CORN CROP. 
Mr. Jesse Buel —It affords me pleasure to be enabled to resort 
to your very useful agricultural paper as a medium through which 
I can bear testimony to the value and importance of the soil of our 
little state of Delaware. 
Little has been heretofore known, beyond its own limits, of the 
supertor quality of the soil of the peninsula of Delaware and Mary¬ 
land, and of its advantageous location ; but the present age of im¬ 
provement has fortunately brought within a part of our territory 
the public improvements of a canal, and two rail-roads, which have 
developed to the world the importance of our location, the beauty 
of our country, and the susceptibility of our soil, to the greatest 
extent, of production and improvement. These improvements ap¬ 
pear also to have infused new life into our citizens, and caused a 
spirit of enterprise and industry which has been most beneficial to 
the agricultural interests of our country. 
As a specimen of the capability of the soil, and the ability of the 
farmers in the neighborhood of St. Georges, New-Castle county, 
Delaware—permit me to present you with the following statement 
of a crop of corn raised last year by Maj. Philip Reybold, one of 
our most enterprising farmers—and one, to whom, our community 
are largely indebted for the impetus given to our agricultural im¬ 
provements—viz: 
On one field of 22 ac. he raised 2,216 bush., about lOOf b. per ac. 
On another field 30 „ „ 2,249f „ ,, 75 do. 
On do. 27 ,, „ 1,819 „ ,, 67£ do. 
79 Total crop, 6,284jJ bushels, 
averaging for the whole crop of 79 acres, near 80 bushels to the 
acre—and all this upon a soil that was not naturally as good as a 
greater part of the soil of this country; and brought up, within the 
last ten years, from an extreme state of poverty. 
I have obtained from Major Reybold a statement of the mode 
adopted by him, for an improvement of his land, as well as the cul¬ 
tivation of the crop of corn here referred to, which is as follows : 
On the field of 22 acres, about 7 years ago, he put 60 bushels of 
slone lime to the acre, and planted it in corn; in the following 
spring he put it in oats, and in the fall put on about 46 loads of 
barn yard manure to the acre, and sowed it in wheat and timothy 
seed, and in the ensuing spring with clover. It remained in grass 
until last spring, receiving an intermediate top dressing in 1833, of 
40 loads of bam yard manure per acre. He mowed it for 3 or 4 
successive years, and each year obtained from to 3 tons of hay 
per acre. Last spring he gave it another top dressing of 40 loads 
per acre of long manure, which was permitted to remain as long 
as possible, in order to give the grass a chance of starting through 
it. He then ploughed it up about ten inches deep, with a No. 5 
concave plough, which completely covered the manure ; he then 
gave it a stroke with the harrow along the course of the plough 
furrows, and then crossways, and struck it out very shoal, 3t feet 
from centre to centre each way. After the corn came up, he har¬ 
rowed it both ways with the fallow harrow; and from that, until 
the first of July, he gave it three dressings with the cultivator 
(fluke harrow,) first crossing the plough tracks; in 10 or 12 days, 
the other way, and then again the other way, being very careful 
not to disturb the manure by going too deep with the cultivator.— 
The plough was never used in the field after planting; and the corn 
| thinned so as to leave 3 good stocks in a hill. When the corn be¬ 
came fit to top and blade he cut it off by the ground and put it up 
in shocks. 
The field of 30 acres,—one half he covered with oyster shell 
lime, 100 bushels to the acre, and 5 acres with marl, 12 loads to the 
acre; and previous to planting in corn, the whole field was covered 
with 40 loads of long manure per acre. The produce of the ground 
on which the lime and marl were put, was about equal, and exceed¬ 
ed that of the ground which had not the benefit of the lime and 
