THE CULTIVATOR. 65 
back door a;, to be accommodated by a cook stove—F. 
and G. bed-rooms, to use a stove if necessary, with a 
clothes-press at the left of the fire-place r. 
Fig. No. 40, represents the manner in which I would 
divide the apartments of the second story—K. common 
chamber 12 by 16 feet, with a stairway at t. and warm¬ 
ed by a box-stove v. the pipe of which will go through 
the wall at w. between roof and ceiling, and enter the 
chimney, which should be well secured by a double pipe 
laid in before the house is ceiled—I. J. bed-rooms, or J. 
might be made smaller and used as a clothes-room— 
L. M. parlor chambers, 14 by 16, with four windows to 
make it cool and pleasant, or close the folding doors y. 
and divide it into two bed-rooms when wanted ; the 
side windows in the chambers are not full size. 
A house of the above description would cost from 
eight to twelve hundred dollars, depending on the coun¬ 
try where it is to be erected, and the manner of finish. 
In the art of building there are three important items 
to be considered, viz : convenience, firmness, and de¬ 
light. To accomplish these ends we must have due re¬ 
gard for the situation and the work. As to the situa¬ 
tion either that of the whole is to be considered or that 
of its parts. In the first, regard must be had to the qual¬ 
ity, temperature and salubrity of the air ; to the quali¬ 
ty of the soil, to the conveniency of water, fuel, &c., 
and to the agreeableness of the prospect. As to the si¬ 
tuation of the parts, the chief rooms, studies, libraries, 
should be towards the east; those offices which require 
a cool fresh air, as cellars, pantries, granaries, to the 
north ; those which require heat, as kitchens, wash¬ 
rooms to the south. 
In the above plan I have situated the front to the 
east, but as to this matter in building regard must still 
be had to the country, roads, &c., each being obliged to 
provide against its own inconveniencies. 
Yours, SOLOMON W. JEWETT. 
Weybridge, Vt. Jan. 16, 1841. 
Sea Maize or Indian. Corn. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —Agreeably to the re¬ 
quest contained in the Cultivator for February, (p. 28,) 
the subscriber forwards to the editors four ears OS'white 
flint corn , as samples of his crop of 1840. This vari¬ 
ety is generally raised and appears to be best adapted 
to the soil and climate of Richmon l county, which is 
the smallest in the state, being an island situated under 
the lee of New-Jersey, between 40 and 41 degrees of 
north latitude. It is better and more generally known, 
by its insular name of Staten Island, and is rich 
in the production of wheat, rye, barley, oats, Indian 
corn, &c.; but its agriculture has been neglected, be¬ 
cause being surrounded by the water of the ocean, ma¬ 
ny of its inhabitants procure a living in taking fish, 
clams, and oysters, which abound in their season upon 
its shores. 
The samples of corn forwarded to you, are from a 
crop of ten acres, the ears of which are all of a large 
size, and well filled, many of the stalks having borne 
two and three ears. Most of the ears coniain eight 
rows, but there are found among them some of ten and 
twelve rows. The seed was planted between the 12th 
and 16th of'May, 1840, and cut at the bottom and stout- 
ed between the 22d and 25th of September following, its 
period of growth being a little over four months. The 
grain is white, hard and flinty, keeps ’well, and makes 
good Indian meal ; and the shelled corn brings the 
highest market price in the city of New-York. 
The seed from which the crop was raised, was se¬ 
lected from the best ears of my crop of 1839, and from 
those stalks which contained two good ears. The corn 
was planted on a grass sward overrun with johnswort 
and daisies, and turned over in April. It wasmanured 
in the hill, with a mixture of horse dung from the city 
of New-York, and my own coarse barn-yard manure. 
No extra pains were taken with the crop, which was a 
fair average one, producing 1025 bushels of ears, equal 
to 512£ bushels of shelled corn, or 51 bushels per acre ; 
besides a large quantity of pumpkins. Your neighbor 
Mr. C. N. Bement, saw and admired the crop, when 
nearly ripe. With the horse manure from New-York, 
was introduced a great quantity of foul seeds with 
which the corn and an adjoining patch of potatoes were 
overrun. They were mostly extirpated from the corn 
field, but the potatoes sufferel for want of help to 
weed and hoe them, and from the pressure of other 
work. 
The above contains the amount actually gathered ; 
but the crop would have probably yielded fifty-two 
bushels to the acre, had not a dozen neat cattle broken 
through my neighbor’s part of the line fence between 
us, and luxuriated all night, eating, trampling down, 
and destroying many of the stouts. One corner of the 
field was also reserved anl eaten green, and not taken 
into the account. Considering this as an excellent va¬ 
riety of corn, I shall reserve a number of barrels in the 
ear, and deposite them with Mr. Samuel Brown, No. 
4, Liberty-street, New-York, to supply my friends and 
those who may wish to cultivate it. 
The farm I occupy lies on the south side of Staten 
Island, facing the ocean. It was formerly owned and 
occupied by Judge Garretson deceased, and after his 
death had become considerably dilapidated, and over¬ 
run by johnswort, daisies, and elder bushes when pur¬ 
chased by me in the spring of 1839. Considerable ef¬ 
forts have been made to bring it into better cultivation, 
and I hope to he able to communicate something to your 
valuable periodical as my experience increases. There 
are twenty or more acres of woodland upon it, hut the 
best timber had been cut off before my purchase. The 
wood lots, however, are springing up abundantly with 
young hickory and white oaks, and hence I have given 
it the name of Oakland farm. 
My neighbor, W. A. Seely, is showing how the far¬ 
mers on the south side of Staten Island may supply 
themselves with a superabundance of manure by a pro¬ 
per use of peat, sea weed, fish, and their ordinary sup¬ 
plies of litter without the necessity of buying it. 
Respectfully yours, SAMUEL AKERLY. 
Oakland Farm, Southfield, Richmond co. March 3, 1841. 
reading of Silk Worms. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —Inquiries from “ B. 
G.” were made in a recent number of the Cultivator, 
“ whether silk worms partly reared on the white mul¬ 
berry, may he fed with safety on the large leaf Canton, 
or multicaulis ; and also, whether they may be fed with 
these kinds together or alternately with advantage; 
and if not, what is the best method to he pursued where 
these different kinds are to be used?” 
The following information I received in a communi¬ 
cation from an experimenter, who has been doing some¬ 
thing by the way of growing silk and feeding the silk 
worms from the leaf of several varieties of the mulber¬ 
ry, which I consider good authority, and I have taken 
the liberty to forward the correspondence to you for pub¬ 
lication. S. W. JEWETT. 
LETTER TO S. VV. JEWETT. 
Dear Sir —Your inquiries whether the silk worm can 
be fed on the common varieties of mulberry during two 
or three of the first moultings and then carried through 
on the Canton or multicaulis, I should give it as my 
opinion that it might be done with perfect safety. I see 
no reason why a change of feed from one to another, 
on any good varieties of mulberry leaf, should affect 
the health of the worm, and the quality of the silk, 
therefore, would only vary according to the proportion 
of leaves of the better or poorer qualities that are fed 
to the worms. I have supposed that it would be alto¬ 
gether the most profitable way, and almost the only 
practicable one, to feed the worms on the other varie¬ 
ties through about two-thirds of the age of the worm, 
and then feed on the multicaulis. 
The reasons for this are the following : First, If you 
wait for the multicaulis to get a sufficient growth, so as 
not to injure them by picking the leaves in the higher 
latitudes of our country, say Maine, New-Hampsliire, 
Vermont, and the northern part of New-York, unless 
you start them early in the hot bed, it will be too late 
before the worm will wind its cocoon if you depend 
wholly on that variety. But Second, if you have indige¬ 
nous and other varieties to feed upon the three first 
weeks, when the labor of picking is comparatively lit¬ 
tle, the multicaulis will increase its foliage during that 
time, more than all the season before, having taken 
deep root, and if stripped entirely, and even cropped as 
early as the first week in, or middle of September, it 
will facilitate the hardening of the wood. 
The six weeks worms should be hatched out the last 
week in July, and fed on the Alpine or some other va¬ 
riety of mulberry. The white will answer till about 
the twentieth of August, and then the worms are old 
enough to eat the bottom leaves of the multicaulis, 
which maybe picked first and thus the trees stripped to 
the very top. 
For the purposes above, one may extend his planta¬ 
tion of permanent trees, of the Alpine American seed¬ 
ling, Broosa, Canton, Asiatic, and other varieties that 
will stand our winters, to any extent he pleases, and 
rear from them a crop that may he hatched out as soon 
as there is foliage in the spring. The same trees 
would not be materially injured to be picked again the 
last of July and first of August, sufficiently to carry the 
crop of worms designated for the multicaulis half 
through their growth. Indeed, it is not quite certain 
hut that for this northern climate these varieties are 
most profitable, as they remain rooted in the ground, 
and ready to sprout up in the spring early, and afford 
more foliage in our short seasons than can be obtained 
from the multicaulis. They are not quite so easily 
propagated by cuttings as the last mentioned variety; 
indeed they cannot be propagated profitably by cut¬ 
tings. By planting the tree, root and all, horizontally, 
they will increase as fast as the multicaulis planted in 
the same manner, which, on the whole, one season with 
another, the best way. But a still better way of pro¬ 
pagating them is to bend down the sprouts cf one years 
growth, still attached to the old root, and fasten it hori¬ 
zontally by a hook and cover it with fine dirt and it will 
send up a large number of sprouts, which, first support¬ 
ed by the old root, till they take root themselves, after 
two or three hoeings, and supported by the double root 
will grow most rapidly and afford an abundant foliage. 
The last season my Alpine sprouts grew six and some 
more than seven feet, yielding leaves of a fine velvet 
surface eight inches long and six wide, and more nu¬ 
merous on the stalk than the multicaulis. The Alpine 
will grow till frost comes, and of course the tender parts 
will kill down in winter ; but so far as it becomes lig- 
nified, or wooded, it will stand the northern winter. 
There is still another variety, that comes from multi¬ 
caulis seed, called by some the American seedling, that 
grows very rapidly, is much earlier in the spring than 
the Italian white, hardens, and nearly stops growing 
before the early frosts, and therefore kills down hut 
little if any in winter. The leaves of these are not of 
as fine a texture nor as large as the Alpine, but very 
thick on the stalk, and much larger than the white mul¬ 
berry. 
With a plantation of standard trees of the Alpine, 
Broosa, and other varieties, to say nothing of the 
multicaulis, I fully believe that children from the age 
of eight to twelve, with the aid of some one to superin¬ 
tend the feeding, and that may he an aged person who 
could do hut little else, with the leaves near, could pick 
enough out of school hours to yearly support themselves 
and go to school all the time ; and then on to the age 
of twenty, with facilities for reeling and manufacturing 
of sewing silk, &c. the other seasons of the year, might 
be more profitably employed than in any other business 
while attending school. With a plantation convenient, 
and sufficiently extensive, it is my opinion that sons and 
daughters might fully support themselves through their 
preparatory studies from ten to twenty, and through the 
high school and college. I view it as the most feasible 
manual labor system that can be connected with our 
seminaries of learning. DANA LAMB. 
Bridport, Vt. Feb. 16, 1841. 
“American Society of Agriculture.’’ 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —The February num¬ 
ber of the Cultivator is before me, and I have read your 
reasons for “ declining to assume the responsibility 
which your friends had assigned you, at least, for the 
present.” 
I am willing, and do freely acknowledge, that your 
means of information are such as to enable you to come 
to a more calm conclusion upon the subject than I can, 
and perhaps your reasons are cogent, though I hope not 
conclusive, to all the friends of a National Society. I 
cannot regret the conclusion that you have come to, for 
it is the very one to cause the matter to be discussed; 
and the case is of that importance, that it should not be 
acted upon rashly. I am ready to admit, “ that a failure 
would be a serious calamity;” but I am not ready to ad¬ 
mit, or even believe that there are so few “ men of pub¬ 
lic spirit, friends to agriculture, and alive to the inte¬ 
rest, prosperity, and honor of the country,” as you seem 
to fear. I believe that there are at this time “ enough 
of such men to be found,” who, notwithstanding they 
are “ wide-spread,” from “ Maine to Georgia,” would 
lend sufficient energies “ to render such an enterprise 
certain of success.” 
I am happy to see you admit the utility of such a soci¬ 
ety—in fact, I don : t know that that is denied or doubted 
by any one—the only point at issue, then, is, as to the 
proper time to commence the organization. This, then, 
is the sole question for the friends of the cause to an¬ 
swer : Shall the organization of a National American Society 
of Agriculture, be undertaken in the year 1841 ? 
Readers, correspondents, friends of the project, one 
and all, speak, yea or nay. If the answer he in the affir¬ 
mative, I will show you ways and means to “ set the hall 
in motion.” The thing can, if you say it must, it shall 
be done. But remember that the worthy editors of this 
paper are doubtful of the feasibility of the undertaking, 
and their opinion is entitled to consideration; but if we 
conclude to “ soberly rely upon ourselves, and our own 
resources,” and are likely to succeed, they will come to 
our aid with the power of Hercules; and so will the ed¬ 
itor of every agricultural journal in the Union—so will 
every legislator, for the project will be “ popular.” No 
doubt your correspondent speaks truly when he says, 
“ if we are to have a National, or American Society of 
Agriculture, it must be got up by farmers themselves.” 
Shall we, the present generation, have it—shall the ar¬ 
dent and devoted friends of a cause that seeks “to elevate 
the character and. standing of the cultivators of the Ameri¬ 
can soil ,” have an opportunity of meeting one another, 
upon a spot so consecrated as that will be, where such an 
union of hands and hearts would take place. How ar¬ 
dently do I long to see such a meeting of such men as 
will compose such a society. Such a meeting will, 
sooner or later, take place, for it is the nature, disposi¬ 
tion and education of the people of this country, to as¬ 
semble together to discuss important questions. Is any 
question now before the people, so important as improve¬ 
ment in agriculture? Does not the wonderful extension 
of the number and circulation of agricultural journals, 
show that the public mind is deeply agitated upon the 
subject. 
And now friend Garnett, what say you? What says 
old Virginia? V/hat says old Kentuck, through friend 
Stevenson, of the Kentucky Farmer? And upon “ so¬ 
ber second thought,” what say Messrs. G aylord & Tuck¬ 
er? If monthly “ agricultural soiries” are so pleasant 
and useful, how much more so would he a grand Nation¬ 
al Concert. 
And with anxious hopes to live to be one of the per¬ 
formers at that “ concert,” I remain an unwavering friend 
to speedy action, and yours, with respect and esteem, 
SOLON ROBINSON. 
Lake C. IT. Ia. Feb. 18, 1841. 
