THE CULTIVATOR. 
189 
Profits of Farming 1 . 
We believe there are many farmers who take an in- 
correct view of the business of farming as far as its 
profits are concerned. They seem to suppose that what 
is sold from the farm, is alone to be accounted as profit, 
while no note is taken of what goes to the support of 
the family, or is invested in improvements on the farm. 
To give an instance, we will refer to a conversation had 
with a farmer a few days since, a man worth some six 
or eight thousand dollars, industrious and thriving ; but 
who complained that he was only able to raise in cash 
from his farm only some three or four hundred dollars 
annually. As a contrast he mentioned a friend of his 
who had about the same amount in funds that he him¬ 
self had in real estate, and he seemed to consider the 
interest his friend [eceivqi as a clear profit on his capi¬ 
tal, and that money so invested gave more income than 
a farm would. We knew our farmer had a large fami¬ 
ly, and suspecting he had overlooked the cost of pro¬ 
viding for them in his estimate of what he received 
from his farm, inquired how much he thought he should 
have left in cash after maintaining such a family as his 
from the sum his friend received as interest ? He hesi¬ 
tated a moment and answered, not any thing; his re¬ 
ceipts would barely foot the bill of my family expenses 
for one year ; in truth he has little or nothing left, after 
supporting his own. 
So we doubt not it often is with the farmer. That 
which he and his family eat, drink, and wear, that 
which goes to make them comfortable and respectable, 
because it is the product of the farm, the gift of a kind 
Providence, and the result of their own toil, is frequently 
overlooked by him in his estimate of the profit and loss 
of farming, and nothing is counted but the cash which 
remains after all expenses and outgoes are provided for. 
This is not treating the farm fairly. In one case the 
farm is capital, in the other the capital is in the funds. 
That which goes to the support of the family is as much 
the product of capital in one case as the other, and in 
both cases should be considered as the profit ; and if 
the farmer, after the maintenance of his family, and 
defraying the expenses of labor, improving his farm, 
&c. has some three or four hundred dollars left to pur¬ 
chase more land, and dispose of as he pleases, while 
his friend the fundholder has little or nothing left, it 
surely cannot be reasonably inferred that the farmer’s 
profits are least. Aye, but the farmer has to work for 
his profits, while the other lives at his ease. True, and 
here we suspect lies the great difficulty, and it is an evil 
that should be corrected at once. The objection im¬ 
plies that it is disgraceful, unhealthy, or unprofitable to 
labor, suppositions entirely erroneous. It cannot be 
disgraceful to labor in a country where every man is 
the architect of his own fortune, and makes or mars his 
condition for life ; it is not unhealthy, as the experience 
of the whole world proves ; and as to profit, where can 
be found a class of men more prosperous, and accumu¬ 
lating wealth faster than American farmers? Before 
the farmer concludes there is no profit in farming, let 
him look at the whole ground, and we think a different 
conclusion will be reached! 
The Silk Business for 13-11. 
The past season seems to have been very auspicious 
to silk growers, the worms having in general been far 
more healthy than in 1840, and the consequent loss and 
discouragement from that source obviated. In some in¬ 
stances, from want of sufficient ventilation, or proper 
food, partial losses have been occasioned, but in some 
instances the prompt use of lime as recommended by 
the French, and communicated by Mr. Smith to the 
American public, has checked the diseases thus produc¬ 
ed, and saved the crop. Many too have hatched more 
worms than the foliage on hand could supply, and the 
worms partly starved, made poor and imperfect cocoons. 
But all these difficulties will be overcome by experience, 
and every thing, now indicates the success of this new 
and important branch of native production and manu¬ 
facture. To the middle and southern States, particu¬ 
larly, the silk business will form an important source 
of wealth, as the mulberry grows there with less care 
and attention than farther north ; but the experience of 
the past season as well as that of former years, proves 
that the mulberry may be grown and silk made to great 
advantage as far north as the 43d degree of latitude. 
Time only seems to be wanting to make the silk crop, like 
that of wheat or corn, a part of every man’s farming 
operations ; and we think it may be relied on that if the 
silk culture ever becomes unimportant item in our do¬ 
mestic products it will be the result of individual energy 
and effort, and not be in any degree owing to the action 
of the great Silk Societies that have promised so much 
and performed so little. 
To show what has been done, we make a few extracts 
from papers now before us, and it will be seen that 
they are of the most encouraging nature : 
Mr. Campbell of Williamson Co., Tenn., writes to 
the Editor of the Agriculturist—“ After giving away 
enough of my silk worms, about the third moulting, to 
make, as I suppose, about fifteen bushels of cocoons I 
have gathered 34 bushels of cocoons out of the two 
houses you saw me feeding in. I counted half a bushel 
and there were 2,900 in it, requiring 5,800 to the bushel! 
My worms were healthy throughout, but from their 
crowded situation, many of them were small, and con¬ 
sequently made imperfect cocoons. I am of the opin¬ 
ion I would have made more silk with half the number 
of worms.” 
Mr. Morris of Burlington, N. J., the patentee of the 
improved silk frames, has fed a great number of worms 
the past season and with the best success, which he 
attributes in a great measure to the use of his frames 
for feeding, an opinion strengthened by the favorable 
opinion of others who have used them. His first crop 
gave about 50 bushels of cocoons, and he says in the 
Silk Record, a valuable work which he publishes, “one 
bushel of peanuts has been reeled, and afforded the un¬ 
failing average product of good peanut cocoons, 20 
ounces of fine silk.” 
Dr. T. White, a gentleman thoroughly acquaintec 
with the silk culture in the country, in a letter dated at 
Washington, says—“The silk feeders this year are every 
where successful. In Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio, 
there will be several thousand bushels of cocoons rais¬ 
ed this season. There is abundantly more silk made 
this year than all the workmen in the United States can 
make up.” 
The following extract of a letter to the Agriculturist, 
from Mr. Fox, who superintends one of the most suc¬ 
cessful silk factories in the West, that of Mt. Pleasant, 
Ohio, thus describes the operations at that place ; “We 
have weighed oil' 300 lbs., and have hatched out 600,- 
000, and have no doubt by the time we have done feed¬ 
ing, we shall not fall short of one million. In the year 
1839, I never got more than 14 ounces to the bushel ; in 
1S40, I got 15 ounces, and this year can average 19 
ounces of fine reeled silk to the bushel from the white 
and gray mammoth ; the peanut I expect from 20 to 21 
ounces. Hitherto our reelers could not average more 
than 8 ounces a day, ten hours ; this season they are 
reeling from 15 to 17 ounces, six or eight fibres to the 
thread.” 
We might multiply such extracts, but these, with 
what we hear and see of the progress of the silk culture 
arg^ng us at the North, will show that the production 
ha‘s taken a deep, and we trust a firm hold in the coun¬ 
try. If it succeeds, we shall no longer see half a million 
of specie shipped monthly to pay a foreign nation for 
silk, because that nation refuses to exchange it for any 
of the productions of our soil, or our manufactures. 
Markets for cocoons, and manufactories for the use of 
the raw material, will doubtless spring up, as the sup¬ 
ply and demand increases. The purchase of the co¬ 
coons, and the preparation of the raw material at our 
State Prisons, will, we think, open a source of employ¬ 
ment for many of the convicts, not liable to the ob¬ 
jections so strongly and justly urged against the man¬ 
ner in which they are now occupied ; and at the same 
time furnish a convenient market for the silk crop of a 
large portion of this State. 
State of the Xaaboring 1 Classes in Surope. 
It seems to be an indisputable fact, however difficult 
it may be to account for it, that the condition of a large 
part of the poorer and laboring classes in all the prin¬ 
cipal countries of Europe is becoming more and more 
deplorable. This is particularly the case in large 
cities and manufacturing towns, and while these over¬ 
grown cities are adding to their wealth, and expending 
immense sums on fountains, squares, and articles of 
luxury, the poorer classes are gradually starving. When 
we remember that the capital of the working classes 
lies in the vigor of their muscles, the gradual 'decrease 
in the consumption of meat and substantial food among 
these classes of laborers and manufacturers, must be 
looked upon as a sure proof of the facts above stated. 
The Journal des Debats has published some papers illus¬ 
trating this subject, from which the following is extract¬ 
ed, relating more particularly to Paris, but more or less 
applicable to all the cities of Europe : 
“From 1819 to 1829, the annual consumption of Paris 
was 76,000 oxen of 360 killogrammes each ; from 1829 
to 1839, it was not 70,000 oxen of 325 killogrammes, 
though the population had increased one sixth. In 
1825, 830,000 inhabitants of Paris consumed 46 1-2 mil- 
lions of killogrammes of butcher’s meat. In 1838, 920,- 
000 consumed only 44 3-4 millions of killogrammes. In 
1789, Lavoiser estimated that the Parisians consumed 75 
killogrammes per head in the year ; now they consume 
48 1-2, The consumption of wine, the other great 
source of strength to the working population, is also 
greatly diminished. It is not one half of what it was in 
1809.” 
When, in addition to such statements as these, we 
take into ^consideration the facts, that no inconsiderable 
portion of the manufacturing population of Great Bri¬ 
tain are at the present moment on the verge of actual 
starvation ; that the continued increase in the prices of 
food in general and meat in particular, is daily render¬ 
ing their acquisition by the poor more and more im¬ 
possible ; and that notwithstanding the prodigious ad¬ 
vances made in agriculture and the vastly increased 
production of Britain and Europe, food for the mass is 
becoming more scarce, the conclusion is unavoidable 
that the mistaken regulations of man have interfered 
with that beautiful ordinance of Providence, which pro¬ 
vides for every one who is willing to till and cultivate 
the soil. It is idle and incorrect to say, that in these 
places where this acknowledged distress exists, the 
population are overrunning the means of subsistence, 
as the means of subsistence are ample, and within their 
reach as it were, but they are forbidden to reach out the 
hand to partake. There must be something fundamen¬ 
tally wrong, where labor will not furnish bread, and 
where, while the few are rioting in abundance, the 
many are in want of the commonest means of subsis¬ 
tence. For the idle, or the spendthrift, we have little 
sympathy ; they are transgressors of the original law 
which requires labor, exertion of some sort, to earn our 
daily bread, but whenever the situation of any country 
becomes such that the laborer, the real producer starves 
it is clear a state of things exist, in which patient suf¬ 
fering ceases to be a virtue, and passive obedience to 
power becomes a crime. 
Guano* the Peruvian Manure, 
The rocky coast and islets that exist in the desert dis¬ 
trict hetween Peru and Chili, are the great resort of mil¬ 
lions of sea birds, gulls, &c. and their manure which 
has been accumulating for ages now forms masses of 
great thickness, and which ,is constantly increasing. 
As these birds feed principally on fish, and other marine 
matters, the guano, as the manure of these deposits is 
called, contains large qantities of phosphates of lime, 
ammonia, and other products of animal matter, and as 
it rarely rains on this coast, the masses have not un¬ 
dergone the bleaching or draining they would have done 
in other places. Thus constituted, this substance is 
one of the most active of manures ; and has for a long 
time been used by the Peruvians in the culture of corn. 
A writer in a foreign journal says in passing on horse¬ 
back along the coast he frequently saw the natives driv¬ 
ing an ass or two into the interior, with a package of 
this guano on each side, and when asked how they used 
it they said they put a pinch of it in each hill of corn at 
the time of planting. A number of ship loads of this 
native poudreite have been carried to England where it 
commands a high price as a fertilizer, and present in¬ 
dications denote that the importation of the article will 
hereafter be extensive. The English farmer under¬ 
stands his true interests, when he extends his expenses 
for manures. From the United States he collects ashes, 
bones, &c. from the Meditterranean crude nitre, soda, 
&c. and now he has opened the mines of Guano, on th» 
shores of the far Pacific, all of which are used for fer 
tilizing the soil, while the same substancese, not les» 
needed where procured, are mostly neglected. 
Canker Worm and the Elm Tree. 
We find in the Northampton Democrat, an interest 
ing letter on the subject of the elm and the canker 
worm, from Dr. A. S. Munson of New Haven, in an¬ 
swer to one addressed by Thomas Ritchie, Esq. of 
Richmond, Va., to T. Shepherd, Esq. of Northampton, 
making some inquiries as to the elm in the New Eng¬ 
land cities and villages, and the best means of prevent¬ 
ing the canker worm or destroying it, as this pest of 
the elm and the apple has appeared as far south as 
Virginia, according to Mr. Ritche. 
Mr. Ritchie calls his elms the Dutch Elm, but Dr. 
Munson shows they are the Ulmus Americanus or Ame¬ 
rican elm, and not the Dutch or English elm, very few 
of these trees having yet been introduced into this coun¬ 
try. Dr. Munson states, we believe correctly, “ that the 
American elm common in our cities and villages, the 
fulva or slippery elm ; the alata orcork-bark elm ; the 
racemosa and nemoralis , are the only known American 
species.” The common American or white elm, varies 
much in appearance according to soil, exposure, &c., 
which has caused some observers to suppose they were 
different species. Dr. M. states that the celebrated 
Pittsfield elm is the Ulmus nemoralis or river elm, and 
we have seen most magnificent specimens of this tree 
growing in the forests of central New York. 
As a preventive of the worm, Dr. Munson is decided¬ 
ly in favor of the lead circular troughs, since the period 
of the attack of the canker worm is so extended, that 
ordinary precautions are of little use, and permanent 
safeguards become necessary to prevent the ascent of 
the female moth for the purpose of depositing its eggs 
on the tree. Fortunately for the grower of trees, while 
the male moth has wings, the female has none, but 
is obliged to crawl up the tree, and any thing that 
intercepts her progress saves the tree from defolia¬ 
tion. Dr. M. states that he has known plowing 
in August, after the larva had left the tree for the 
earth, prevent the attack of the worm, the larva being 
most probably arrested by the operation while in the 
pupa state. It seems indeed probable from the known 
effects of late plowing on other insects, that an ex¬ 
posure in this way would destroy many of them. Dr. 
M. states a fact new to us, that the slippery elm is 
never attacked by the canker worm ; but the Dr. adds 
—“ the only objection to it as a shade tree, is its liabili¬ 
ty to be deprived of its bark by boys who are very fond 
of chewing it. I have engrafted it into the common 
elm that it might thus escape their notice.” So it is in 
this country, we save nothing, and destroy every thing. 
Boys that will destroy an ornamental tree for the sake 
of chewing the bark, should be made to chew a cud 
peeled from the raw hide of the Bos Americana. We 
whittle down our fences and school houses ; we whittle 
down our halls of justice and our churches ; and in de¬ 
fault of other things, we whittle down our ornamental 
trees. We have no patience with such vandalism. 
To prevent Weevil in Wheat. —The heat of the sun is the 
best remedy against the weevil in wheat. If the grain remains 
out Severn 1 weeks after cutting, in small shocks, it is not likely 
weevils will trouble it after it is thrashed and put up. If the 
grain he sunned two or three times in the summer, and exposed 
to the cold as often in winter, it is not likely to be troubled by 
this pestiferous insect.—2'erm. Agriculturist. 
