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PRACTICAL {f%

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2459
INSTRUCTIONS AND DIRECTIONS

FOR

SILKWORM NURSERIES,

AND FOR THE

CULTURE OF THE MULBERRY TREE.

DEDICATED TG

THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF NEW-YORK.

BY FELIX PASCALIS, M.D.

¥ionorary Member of the Linnean Society of Paris; of the Horticultural Society of New-
York; and of the American Institute, etc.

VOL. f.

“ quid tibi referam— ?
Vellerague ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres.”
Grore. If. 121.

NEW-YORK:
J. SEYMOUR, PRINTER, JOHN-STREET.

; 1829.

mia otet fe akenjeale F

gee - Vth ria

eae) ~ ee ies ve |
ee

;

RANCH ME 08 et

DEDICATION.

READ BEFORE THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE,

June 18, 1829.

Mr. PRESIDENT, ~
Tue wealth of nations certainly originates from the

produce of their lands, and from the industry of their people.
It matters not of what nature is the first, nor from what resour-
ces the second is elicited. If by one or by both, a surplus reve-
nue is obtained above the absolute wants of life and for con-
venient pursuits of prosperity and luxuries, a nation is becom-
ing wealthy. There is, however, so great a difference in the
intrinsic value between the kinds of products of the earth, that
a nation not possessing those of jirst or of great necessity, so
as to satisfy the wants of her people, must either possess those
of arare or exclusive description, or she must engage her
industry in foreign service, or war for assumed or just
claims, in establishing colonies and empires in foreign regions.”
Such has been many times the situation of the Roman repub-
lic, after the death of their last king; and in modern times,
Helvetia, Holland, and England, have illustrated the above
assertion. It then follows that nations possessing all kinds
of necessary produce, are seldom exposed to the expedi-
ency of foreign aggressions ; and nothing with the excep-
tion of human passions, (save only some mode or way of industry
possibly undervalued by competition,) could ever disturb their

Vv DEDICATION.

balance of wealth and repose. But should they experience the
loss or diminution of necessary produce by unavailing or acci-
dental calamities, they must immediately become tributary to
others, for the subsistence of their people. It hasoften happen-
ed that a considerable increase of population over a circum-
scribed territory, has operated upon the community like an
absolute loss of produce, to procure which, the people have
been obliged to work severely at low rate, and upon wages,
to build stupendous monuments, or to fight for their sove-
reign. Thereby they were enslaved or vanquished or des-

troyed: thus we find that celebrated and ancient nations have
disappeared, so that not a vestige of them can be found

except in ancient records or ruins. Others have sur-
vived, like the Tartars in China, or like the Arabs, who have
amalgamated with other nations along the nothern coast of
Africa, even in Spain and Italy ; or from the highest regions
of Dacia and Media, to Phenicia and Egypt.

We call produce of the first necessity, all kinds that are re-
quired for food ; of great necessity, those that are or must be
used for clothing. Any other produce of the earth, which is
confined to certain parts of the world or climate, we define as
exclusive produce, which in consequence may be very valua-
ble, yet never or seldom contributing to the wealth of nations,
except such as precious metals and minerals, tea, spices,
cochineal, and other articles of the two 'ndias, where Eu-
ropean nations can even afford to maintain expensive estab-
lishments for the sale of a few articles of their necessary
produce. If tobacco and cotton were still exclusive, this part
of the world might probably be the wealthiest.

In order to draw an estimate of the different kinds of pro-
duce in relation to national wealth, let us be permitted to take
that of silk only, which in the year 1827 was officially report-
ed in parliament to have been of the quantity of 3,760,000 Ibs.
England is not a silk district, but she purchases the materiaj
for her manufactures, commerce, and consumption. She can

DEDICATION. V

even afford to purchase the richest manufactured silks of
France at a duty of 30 per cent. according to the late
treaty with Charles X.

The silk districts of France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and
of the Greek and Turkish dominions, (India excepted), may
be presumed without exaggeration, to consume three times the
above quantity ; that is, 15,240,000 Ibs. the original price of
which, brought to the standard of our money, would be equa]
to $91,440,000. This is therefore the estimate of only one
produce and article of commerce, in favour of the old and
against the new world, and excepting “ast and West Indies, the
Brazils, and the Anglo-American provinces, which still are col.
onies of Europe. It will not be necessary for us nowto exhibit
what proportion ofthatimmense capital affects the United States
as a commercial nation ; as we intend only to infer that from
the loss to the gain, if the States could become silk districts
and regulate their commercial relations with the independent
governments of South America, they would reap such annual
surplus of wealth out of the $91,440,00 as is placed against
the whole American products and consumption ; besides the
profit arising from their own manufactures. The proportion
of expenditure for silk only, was formerly in the United States,
$8,104,837 ; it is now, $10,000,000, at least. Vide Act of
General Convention, in Harrisburg, 1827.*

It might appear strange, Mr. President, that the considera-
tions here offered should have so long been overlooked. So
rapid indeed and unexampled was the prosperity of this re-
public, during the revolutionary wars of France, against the
mighty powers of Europe; ‘so little the growth of its power
was suspended or interrupted during the last war with Eng-
land ; so numerous have been the domestic or general causes
of political excitement, at the general emancipation of the
Spanish provinces of South America ; that in the review of na-
tional improvements, one of the most important has been over-

¥ Importations of silk into the United States in 1825, amounted to $10,
271,527. Vide Report of the Conumittee on Agriculture to Congress.

VI OEDICATION.

looked, no doubt because it required more time to be matured.
Soon after the calls made by the general government for the
attention of our citizens to the culture of silk, the Ameri-
can Institute of New-York was foremost in the adoption of
effective measures for its promotion ; in addition to which, their
kind readiness to permit my humble efforts to be enlisted in
the cause, commands the present homage of my contribution.
Should it be attended with some success, thanks and honor
from the public will appertain to the institution over which
you preside, claiming to myself nothing better than the dis-
charge of a duty which, as an adopted citizen, and your col-
league, I had thought it was in my power to fulfil.

FELIX PASCALIS, H. M. A. I.

New-York, June 18, 1829.

PREFACE.

Ir has been thought expedient to divide the
| present work into as many parts or numbers as
the progressive spirit of enterprise and success in
the culture of silk, through the country, would
seem to require. The necessity of such a divi-
sion must be particularly felt by any person who
is apprised, that in this populous and great city,
and for a circuit of several miles, there could not
actually be found mulberry leaves enough to feed
a few thousand silkworms; and, that after a good
deal of trouble, we have had only just enough to
test those methods as successful, which we long
ago predicted were destined to perfect the art of
silk culture. It never was our intention to confine
_ the instruction contemplated by our labours,
within the beaten track of the old or the

Vill PREFACE.

recent methods of raismg and tending the silk
worm, on the respective merits of which we
have much to say, and which it has been, and
is, our hope to reform with great advantage.
We shall want time, therefore,.to be well under-
stood, not so much concerning established facts,
as on the results of the highest importance, for
which we and others should possess the abso-
lute requisites, that is the mulberry trees at our

doors or within our walks.

The following sections compose the first part

of the practical instructions and directions on the
silk-worm nurseries, &€.

Ist. A Preliminary Discourse, or History of the Silk: on
the requisite instruction for the culture.

2d. A Treatise on the culture of the Mulberry Tree.

3d. Natural History :—of the Silkworm, &c.

4th. The Sirx Cutrurist, No. 1. A plan or model of a
quarterly periodical, to be continued if approved and encou-
raged by a sufficient number of subscribers.

PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.

FIRST PART.

_ GuINEsE record on the origin of Silk—its nature unknown to the ancient
Greeks and Romans—noticed and introduced for dress under the empire
of the Cesars—manufactured in the island of Cos—fable of the golden
fleece guarded by a dragon—of the expedition of the Argonauts under
Jason—silkworm seeds brought from India into Constantinople—the
Arabs conquerors of the islands and continents in the Mediterranean—
progress of the culture of silk in Calabria—Charles VIII. of France
invades Naples—his Barons introduce the silkworm and the mulberry
tree—trees of that age yet existing—Henry IV., Sully, and Col-
bert promote the culture of the mulberry—how many ages have
elapsed during the progress attained by silk growers—what difficulties
have opposed it—which is the most suitable climate for this produce
—its beneficial results in domestic, agricultural, and commercial inter-
ests—history of the culture of silk in America—the art has been the
subject of many scientific researches—three poems have been composed
upon it—a revolution in the art and method of the culture in this cen-
tury—its advantages compared to the old—the Greek and Turkish wars
injurious to the growth of silk—the success of the old method of raising
silkin the ancient districts of France and Italy.

THERE doubtless exists some very ancient historical
record in the Chinese language, purporting that the first
silk balls or cocoons were found on a mulberry tree, or
in tangled thickets of brush in the vicinity of the same;
and that the season was the beginning of summer. The

spring had closed with a gradual increase of warm tem-
VOL I. 2

10

perature since the budding of the trees. It had elapsed
without any remarkable vicissitudes of winds, storms, rain,
or cold, and vegetation was luxuriant. This cocoon, on
examination, was found to be of a substance of firm
although flexile texture, and not thicker in any part than
aleaf of strong paper. It contained the shrunken larva
of a caterpillar, apparently dry, yet alive and susceptible
of motion; or perhaps the larva was not found, because
being transformed into the shape of a phalena, it had
made its way out through an aperture. This ball was
then softened by means of warm water, pressed, squeezed,
and pulled apart; by which processes it was ascertained
that this hollow body was, in substance, a bunch or bundle
formed by the windings of a single ply or clue of a thread
extremely fine, but which, when twisted with others of the
same kind, was strong enough for the woof and warp of
a fine garment.* The most ancient and enlightened na-
tions of Europe were ignorant of the origin and nature
of this substance until a late age ; and seldom could they
furnish themselves with supplies of the article. They
thought it as rare and precious as gold ; they even pur-
chased it by the weight of the precious metal, that is, at
sixty-four times more than its present rate of value. Yet
many Latin historians and poets make mention of silk or
of various delicate textures made with Serica or Bomby-
cima; and from the reigns of the twelve Cesars, and
afterwards, cloths of that valuable and rare substance

* We have endeavoured to convey the contents of an ancient manuscript
which had been communicated by a missionary jesuit, Father d’Entrecolles,
to another jesuit, F. du Halde, the author of the Description of China,
printed in Paris, 1733, in folio. ‘The same document is inserted in vol. iv-
Hist. des Voyages of the Abbé Prévot.

})

were gradually introduced among matrons of high rank ;
and were also much sought after, as ornamental garments
by courtezans.

Femineum lucet sic per bombycina corpus,

says Martial, Epig. 63, Book VIII. ‘The Greeks, who
were more given to traflic than the Romans, had applied
themselves to the method of unravelling India silks of a
close fabric ; and wrought them over, mixed with linen or
woollen yarn. This kind of tissue was principally made
in the island of Cos ;* but it was so transparent that the
use of it was forbidden to men, by an edict of Tiberius.
No certain geographical knowledge was then attainable
of the eastern countries of Asia, where silk was raised ;
it was supposed to originate from that part beyond the
Indus which was called Ser, and the people Seres ; and
hence the name of Serica, %¢pmos. It.is probable after
all, that their synonymous word of bombyx, bombycina,
by which both Greeks and Romans designated some kind
of caterpillar, indicates that they possessed some confused
knowledge of the animal nature of silk. The same poet
too, quoted above, has compared the silkworm to the spider.

Nec vana tam tenui discursat aranea tela
Tam leve nec bombyx pendulus urget opus.
Epig. 38, Lib. VIII.

It was long after Constantine the Great had removed the
seat of the Roman empire to Byzantium, which, with
Alexandria, were the greatest emporiums of commerce in
the world, that the Europeans at length obtained a perfect
knowledge of the nature and origin of silk.

During the reign of the first Justinian, a few Greek

4

* Now called the island of Stanco.

12

missionaries returning from Boukharia and Persia, brought
and presented to their Christian friends a quantity of
silkworm seeds, which they declared to have obtained
froma still more distant country, probably China. This
sole historical fact, if no others existed, would be sufficient
to prove to any who know how fertile and luxuriant are
the Thracian shores of the Bosphorus, that both the mul-
berry tree and its long sought golden fleece* must soon
after have been cultivated in Constantinople. It is very
remarkable, that the creation and destruction of the
Greek eastern empire, did equally contribute to the pro-
pagation of the culture of silk throughout southern Eu-
rope. After the conquest of Mahomet II., the Arabs
commenced, under their caliphs, their dominion on the
Mediterranean shores and islands, Sicily, the Morea, and
Spain as far as the columns of Hercules; and they every
where planted the mulberry tree, and encouraged the
culture of silk. Whether it was afterwards by the crusa-

* The golden fleece of the ancient fable or mythology, is so far connected
with our subject, that Hager, the author of the Panthéon Chinois, conjec-
- tures that it was raw silk in its natural state, resembling so many flowing
threads of gold. In addition to this authority we beg leave to remark,
that Colchis, a region on the east of the Euxine Sea, celebrated for the expe-
dition of the Argonauts, was the emporium of the Seres or Chinese, who
brought there their silk, which, according to custom, they displayed under
the flag of their nation, representing a dragon. The hero Jason com-
manded thus an expedition either for plunder or for commerce. . There are
other analogies in this fable, especially that of Medea, his wife, punishing
her rival Glauce by the means of a poisoned gown which had been given
her by the sun, her father. Indeed, many poets have said that silk was the
produce of the sun upon the trees. For the enumeration of these and
ancient writers who have alluded to the article of silk or mentioned it;
also, to establish the identity of the Seres with the Chinese, we refer the
reader to a Dissertation by Professor Anthon, of Columbia College, ap-
pended to his edition of Horace, now in the press, in a letter to Dr. Felix

Pascalis,

13

ders in the east, or by Charles VIII., who invaded the
kingdom of Naples, that a great impulse was given in
France to adopt and improve this cultivation, it would be
difficult now to ascertain. To the latter, it is believed,
the credit is more due than to the former, since the French
then imported from Calabria a great quantity of mulberry
plants and seeds of the silkworm ; for the Abbe Boissier-~
Sauvages, a renowned practical culturist, has observed,
that many old and venerable mulberry trees, supposed to
have existed two hundred years in the Cevennes and
Piedmont, can be traced to this last epoch, and to the
ancient names and families of knights who accompanied
the king in that expedition. |

But it became the cherished task of the great Sully,
minister to Henry IV., to establish and fix for ever in_ his
own country, all the means required to extend and perpe-
tuate the culture of silk, not only as a territorial staple,
but as the material for extensive and never-failing manu-
factures. Methodically attentive.to every encouraging
measure, he distributed the plants, he extended the privi-
leges of communes, in agricultural affairs ; and endowed
the city of Lyons with many immunities*. This great

* To royal munificence, the French are no doubt indebted for much of
their progress in the growth of silk. Olivier de Serres, a renowned agri-
cultural writer, was however acotemporary of Henry IV., and a personal
friend, who more particularly fixed the attention of the monarch to that
unprovement. He told him that “ the mulberry tree was full of God’s
blessings”! ! The same concurring spirit between the government and
the people was evinced under Lewis XIV. His munificencein aiding and
completing great works for the Canal of Languedoc, and rewarding the
projector, Mons. Riquet, with nobility and property, immediately procured

_trem the latter and company, that the whole borders of the canal should
be planted with mulberry trees for the use of the good people of his most
Christian Majesty.

j4

emporium of silk has ever since continued celebrated for
its immense fabrication of silk stuffs, and for the beauty
and richness of their textures, which can answer the de-
mands and the tastes of all nations, as well as bend to the
purposes of fashion and elegant display, in every article
of clothing and ornamental furniture; and at the same
time, are acknowledged to be superior in quality to those
of China, or of any part of India.

It would then appear, that thirteen hundred years have »
elapsed before the valuable art of raising silk extended
from the Bosphorus over meridional Europe, as far as its
Atlantic boundaries. It would therefore be much to our
purpose to inquire into the real obstacles that so long
retarded the progress of this cultivation, especially as the
intermediate nations enjoyed long intervals of peace and
internal quiet, favourable to the arts of industry and do-
mestic economy. The principal difficulty was undoubt-
edly the want of a proper climate, the most suitable range
of temperature being limited to a space within the latitude
of the arctic temperate zone, and the nature and habits of
the insect demanding, that the fitting degrees of heat,
and elastic state of the atmosphere should accord with
the budding, growth, and mature crop of the mulberry
foliage.

This remark may lead, in some minds, to this objec-
tion; that if heat and vegetation are so essential, why
should not tropical regions which never suffer from wintry
vicissitudes, and in which vegetation goes on uninterrupt-
edly, be found to be the most natural and productive soil
for the tree as well as for the produce of its caterpillar °
We could assign many reasons to account for a contrary
result; for though heat, either natural or artificial, is

15

requisite for the silkworm, yet its uniform range within
certain degrees, and a peculiar constitution of the atmos-
phere, are far more essential; we can affirm that without
these requisites the expectation of crops will always prove
delusive. ‘The occasionally excessive heats and ordinary
great humidity of warm countries, are as little favorable
to the silkworm, as they are unapt to impart vigour, and
fitness for labour of mind and body, to the inhabitants.
Yet, at the same time there are select spots in tropic India
and the Levant, where, owing to the modifying influence
of localities, silk is raised in abundance ; but evidently of
an inferior quality. The French themselves made great
efforts, during the last century to sustain that culture in
their colony of Bourbon, but only to witness its irremedi-
able degeneration. When the proper climate, that is, one
of suitable temperatures is obtained, and such is to be
found in many states of the American confederacy, there
are still other difficulties attending the cultivation of silk,
which few at present properly estimate ; and even suppos-
ing them known and appreciated, it would still be impos-
sible for individual exertions to remove them all at once,
and when theyare removed, it will only be gradually and
by the concurrence of public authority affording protec-
tion, encouragement, and even gratuitous advances or
bounties, which, as we know, have been liberally awarded
in all nations which have preceded us in this undertaking.
But in order the better to understand or define those
difficulties in their nature and number, we must place in
view a sketch of the national and individual advantages
which are contemplated, and aimed at by the introduction
of the culture of silk ; these being well judged and esti-
mated, it is certainly to be expected that a proper sense of

i6

patriotism, of personal interest, and of the instruction
necessary, must at last surmount every difficulty.

ist. The article of silk added to the other pursuits of
agriculture, the more enhances the value of land, that,
by it, such parcels as are poor and waste can be profitably
employed.

2nd. Said produce or staple of standard value, accord-
ing to its quality, is always exchangeable in commerce in
all its several conditions, as it is neither perishable nor
corruptible.* _

* The eloquent French author of the History of the Indies, has remarked,
that the government of Rome had more contributed than any nation of
Europe to the renewal of learning in the middle ages, by promoting litera~
ture and science, and especially by encouraging the works of genius and
talents in the fine arts, through the means of which the influence of the
church on manners and opinions, and the extension of its power over the
world, were better secured.

In the same spirit the worship in the church of Rome, as well as the
structure of her temples, have been regulated and devised in magnificent
and costly style. Such a policy, it may be said, does not accord much with
the characteristic humbleness and charity of the apostolic religion. Never-
theless we agree in the matter of fact with the Abbé Raynal, nay, his re-
mark can be illustrated by another which we suppose has not yet been
noticed, that nations professing the Catholic faith are greater consumers
of manufactured silk than any other; not because they happen to be
successful culturists, but from circumstances which if not explained would
almost appear paradoxical. Among Catholics the article of silk is requir-
ed, ist. for dress by all the dignitaries of the church; 2nd. by their litur-
gical laws, it cannot be dispensed with for the service of the altar; 3rd.
it is used for the decoration of all churches, chapels, and images.

In the first case, silk for dress is merely out of form, just as other digni-
taries in colleges, universities, courts of justice, &e. who have adopted a
dress in the plain but solemn form of a gown. Bishops and prelates of
inferior degrees universally make use of the finest materials of linen, silk,
lace and gold; but in the acts of worship and sacramental ceremonies,
the Catholics are enjoined to use sacred vestments, appertaining only to the

17

3rd. Jt isa material for the manufacture of all kinds of
filature, for raw silk, of machinery for weaving warping ;
for building a variety of looms, bringing into use every
process of dying, &c. which business being divided and
subdivided, affords numerous branches of mechanical in-
dustry, by which immense populations in Europe are now

prosperously supported.

4th. Nurseries of silkworms create also various branches
of business among the poorer classes; the making of hurdles,
frames, baskets, &c. gathering mulberry leaves and brush-
wood, detaching and cleaning cocoons, and many other
sorts of employments incident on the management and
completion of the culture, as if every individual of the
poorest community could not fail reaping from it some
advantage and benefit.

This is certainly not an exaggerated exposition, and it
would be a very easy task to embellish it, especially by
representing its diffusion throughout a rational, industri-
ous, and well-governed community ; and instead of being

sacerdotal character, and which must vary in color according to the times,
festivals, thanksgivings, public fasts and funerals. These are numerous.
and rich, because piety has no limits when it is allowed to contribute by
suitable offerings, and which must be reckoned by congregational sections.
The same zeal and profusion are remarked in the ornaments of chapels,

altars, and of images, in and around which a great concourse of the faithful

‘ are invited and expected to assemble. It would be difficult to make an

estimate of those valuable velvets, brocades, satins, damasks for dress,
and of all kinds of draperies for decoration, thus incessantly engaging

enterprise in commerce and manufactures, for the sake of religion. The

best way to give a full idea at present is to know that they must be obtain-

ed in Roman Catholic countries, in South America, for instance, from distant

Europe and Asia! A competition with which, in the vicinity of the im-

mense Catholic provinces of our neighbours, would greatly surpass the

value of all the present exports from the United States to that country,
¥OL. I. 3

1g

superfluous, the smallest item advanced, each detail would
be a delineation of innumerable sources of the prosperity
of a large and powerful commonwealth. Yet some inquiry
might be urged respecting the specific benefit that could
be depended upon as arising to each farmer’s family from

the culture of silk? To answer which, we should not

separate the cares of a mulberry plantation from those of

a silk nursery. A clear-headed industry can well unite
both, and a farmer should be contented to supply his
neighbours with a crop of mulberry leaves, when he could
not use the whole of it himself : the same would not be
useless if not called for, as it is an excellent fodder for
cattle, or even a proper substance for rich manure. We
may further show in succeeding pages, how an ordinary
orchard planted with one hundred grown standard trees,

on two acres of ground, can produce ten thousand pounds

of foliage, the value of which would be equal to ene hun-

dred dollars; that, much less than that quantity is con- —

vertible into six hundred pounds of cocoons, worth at least
three hundred dollars, which would. engage the cares of
his family no longer than forty days. However loosely
those estimates are actually drawn, we aver, that they will
not vary much from our future tables, with other profita-
ble matters which we cannot at present review. Suffice

it to say, that the silk culture needs not many arguments
to show its importance to the farmer ; to realize which, it

will now clearly be understood, that there is no obstacle
nor difficulty impeding, unless it be the insufficiency or
want of mulberry trees, the propagation of which should
be strenuously attended to. 2
That this is a great and material difficulty in the way
of introducing the culture of silk in a country where it

a

a

19

-

has not yet been pursued, has generally been acknow-
ledged, spoken of, decanted upon, but not yet sufficiently
estimated. As an article of necessity, it should be well

understood, that the quantity of this plant should not only

be commensurate to the exigencies of a first required
material, but to those of imperfect attempts, of trials for

experiment; of conveniency, and even of inducement to
all who can do something in the way of general industry,

besides that the abundance of it is indeed the only resource
for keeping up annually the renewal of our crops, against
the rapid and frequent destruction or decay of the tree,
unavoidably brought on by ray or by ie ‘strip-
pings of all its foliage. |

Sully, that wisest of ministers, understood well the onl y
point of mystery in the matter, when he provided that the
mulberry tree should, by ordinance, be planted and distri-
buted throughout all the southern districts of the king-

- dom, whether the people liked it or not; and Colbert

provided that not an inconsiderable bounty should always
be claimed for every sound sapling of three years old.

This was an indispensable provision. ‘The fodder for the

we

silkworm is not like grain or such other vegetable produc-
tions as may at any time be obtained from a distance ; it
must always be at the door, or within the reach of the
silk-grower, who should have it fresh and in the best con-
_ dition. Therefore, in proportion to the dente of the
~ population the tree must be multiplied, whether it be

_ public or private property ; and if it is only taken inte
consideration, that the price of the successive crops to be

gathered from day to day is rather regulated by local
convenience than by any intrinsic quality, we will easily
perceive the necessity of a provision, as needful as the

20

implements of agriculture on which the farmer must place
dependence for the future harvest. And in the next place,
what is the result when the mulberry tree is thus multiplied
by public authority; or provided to every township at a
small advance ; or set out on commons and in plantations
on certain liberal conditions r—Why, that there would
scarcely be a family but might, for the sake of amusemen

or for profit to be divided between the workers, or for
pride in an agricultural pursuit connected with a novel
process of animal economy, patriotically enlist in the forty :
days’ experiment, with the flattering prospect that the — :
most successful would have the honour of bearing the |
palm from the neighbourhood in the production of this :
valuable premium granted by Providence to human in- : ‘a

dustry. Here we have a true exemplification of the
second means alluded to for the naturalization of the cul-
ture of silk, without exposure to great losses, in the pos- —
sible case of the failure. of a crop; because the pricipal
expenditure of time and labour will have fallen on that }
portion of domestic industry, which could be spared in
families, composed, as they generally are, of many i.
employed hands, such as females, children, and servants ; ;

the least or weakest of whom could be made 1 ry servi
able in this business, and most eagerly fulfil t the directions _
for obtaining. the golden fleece. pee hs
origin and history of silk in the old world, ear hy
us of another part of our task respecting its introduction

*

into Pevéral ancient colonies of North America, and of i Wy

subsequent interruption in the United States. A moment

of attention to those past events, is closely conneete th *
RS

the future prospect of success which we w ould v visl
hold out for the promotion of this culture. After alone

“he
w!

4

e *

ha
He
he

we

#

PA

revolutionary wat, politica] events, and divers interesis
have interrupted it and almost caused it to be forgotten ;
perhaps better and more’flourishingly to be revived, under
the due guidance of public spirit and genuine instruction.

In this view we transcribe here the first part of our report

as requested, and published by the American Institute,
15th of September 1828.

*¢ From an official document, as transmitted to Congress
by the Secretary of the Treasury, February last, it is
ascertained that King James I. in the year 1623, gave
his ministers positive orders to direct the attention of the
settlers in Virginia to the culture of silk, and to supply
them forthwith with worm eggs, with the mulberry, and with
printed instructions.—He wished also that this culture
might be preferred to that of tobacco, and make up for the
complete failure which had been experienced in propaga-
ting the same in England. The royal command having
been duly communicated to the Governor and Council of
Virginia, the Colonial Assembly passed a general act in
execution thereto. It was not much attended to however,
and not until 1656, “when the Legislature enacted a
pena ty of ten pounds of tobacco upon any one who had
d J lant ten mulberry trees for every acre of land in

ee ic. his] possession. The following bounties or premiums were

| ‘alsoprovided—towit: 4000 p. T. toa cite oes auld

c a ny one who ‘ould ae £200 eee m4 of 2 raw
silk in one year.

e These rewards and fines were not faithfully granted
nor exacted : : some were altered or repealed at different
‘= of time. We are not informed of the real causes
that induced a relaxation of the adopted plan, nor of its

I a ee ae

22

proportionate success or failures, except that Kmg Charles
the If. had used some silk garment from Virginia, and
that inthe year 1664, a colonist, a member of the legisla-
ture, had claimed a bounty for having planted 70,000 mul-
berry trees on his land.

“¢ From the document above stated we are also informed,
that in the year 1732 the culture of silk was pursued with
great spirit in the settlements of Georgia, under both royal
and colonial regulations ; namely—by the grant of land
for the planting 100 mulberry trees upon every tem acres,
when cleared, and ten years after cultivation. This
novel means of economical and agricultural industry so
far progressed, that within two years of the above date a
parcel of reeledjsilk was transmitted to the mother country,
and there made into a piece of silk as a present for the
Queen. In the year 1721 a public filature house was
erected at Savannah by order of trustees, and rebuilt
seven years after, because it had been consumed by fire.
The domestic pursuit appears to have been so far maintain-
ed there, that in the year 1790, after the Revolution, a
small quantity of silk was brought into Savannah from
the upper lands, to be sold for exportation, and was
disposed of at the par of from 13 to 20 —_— per
pound.

‘‘ We can nearly say as much of the zeal menieseeall in
South Carolina, where the same measures made some
progress and impression upon the inhabitants.—The sill
culture was so far countenanced by the wealthiest of the —
commonwealth, that they rendered it fashionable among
the principal ladies and families of the capital. From
Charleston yearly exportations of raw silk were made for
the English manufactures. Presents, also, of complete

‘dresses of the colonial silk were made to the Princess of
Wales and to Lord Chesterfield. ‘The price of this
American produce happened to be enhanced to that of the
best quality.

‘¢ Whether the successive attempts of the mother coun-
try to establish the culture of silk in different colonies
were directed by the choice of climate, at first temperate
enough, then southerly, and afterwards more northerly ;
or whether that government were impelled by different
motives in their successive efforts for placing colonies in
that great undertaking, we have no means to ascertain.
But it is not without surprise, that we find the great colony

of Pennsylvania called at so late a period as 1771, to the

benefit of this improvement of territorial and manufactur-
ing industry. It was principally commenced there by the
help of their colonial agent in England, Benjamin Frank-
lin, who procured the best documents for instruction, and
machinery for various manufacturing processes. He
directed also, wholesome regulations to forward the
general adoption and practical art of the culture through-
out the country—among which, one was, a company, or
society, that, by the help of legislative provision, could
form and maintain capital stock, for the purchase and
sale of the raw material, reverting the profits, in balance,
to the extension of domestic manufacture. A public
filature was consequently devised, built up, and assorted.

If so much could be done within a few years, we are the —

- more compelled to regret the adverse circumstances at-
tending the revolutionary war, which had thus put an end
to the measures and emulation of this most industrious
community. We have no data that could enable us to
make an estimate of the proportionate success that had

Sait

24.

already been obtained. An important experiment had |
however, been made, and remains authoritative, it should la
be attended to by our future silk culturists in cases of the
want of white mulberry leaves after hatching : itis, to feed
the worms with the leaves of the native mulberry, which _
probably, may bud much sooner in the spring, than the ”
exotic trees are ready to be plucked. This historical
summary of the culture of silk in this part of the world
since its first introduction until the war for independence,
embraces a period of 143 years; from which very important
inferences will obviously assist us in the subject we are now
investigating.

‘¢ At the awful period which tried men’s souls, and
universally compelled the inhabitants of these thirteen
provinces to disregard their agricultural pursuits, and
other personal interests, it could not be expected that any
of the energetic measures which had been taken, could
be peaceably continued; nay, that they could even be
usefully remembered, and resumed. The document
above cited, tells us, however, that the silk culturists of
Connecticut, after their political struggle was over, gradu-
ally entered upon their usual industry, and that some
efforts were attempted in other states, even in Kentucky,
and also in some of the upper counties of the state of
New-York. We learn further, that no section of the
Union has been so prompt in reviving the culture, as our
_ neighbours on the other side of the Sound, and to whom
the more credit is due, that they never have received any
help from their fellow-citizens, nor from England. Yet,
certain facts have been stated and circulated, respecting
their accurate knowledge of the art of silk growing, and
remarkably so in three different counties. These we

os

Would wish to have seen more accurately defined. ‘The
friends of the country and of the prosperity of its inhabi-
tants in a particular kind of culture, must and can under-
stand very well, that exaggerated reports on the subject,
would ultimately deprive their authors and supporters of

‘such a share of encouragement, confidence and credit, as
they may really be in want of for further progress. We
never could ascertain what quantity of silk, raw, reeled or
organzine, could be manufactured at home in Connecticut,
and what part of the manufacturing machinery is in use
among them, besides the domestic smal] and large wheel.
From Mansfield we know that the largest quantity of sew-
ing and twisted silk is obtained; but all exaggerated
reports, to the contrary notwithstanding, we have by fair
calculation ascertained that the whole cannot exceed in
quantity 3 or 400 pounds of reeled silk.* Considering
every thing and circumstance which have been adverse in
that state, we have reason to admire the intelligence and
perseverance of those culturists : we will say further, that if
they and those of Pennsylvania had been in former years
the subjects of as much care as the Southern settlements
had anciently been; the culture of silk would certainly be
there more flourishing, and in command of materials
sufficient at least for considerable exportation, or for home
consumption.

‘Such are the remarkable facts which we thought
necessary to assemble and condense within a chronolo-
gical history of the silk of the United States, embracing

* We have just found out that this accountis so far correct, that a greater
‘quantity mentioned hereafter, is meant of raw or spun silk.

VOL. I. 4

26

to this*day a period of nearly two centuries, and trout if
we shall now be able to draw the following conclusions.

1. “At no period of that long succession of years has
there been any cause to complain of the seasons or cli-
mate, of defects or of the quality of land, unfavourable _
to the growth of the mulberry tree, much less of any
congenial difficulty in raising the silk worm; nor has
there been found any imperfection or degeneracy in the
quality of American Silk.” |

2. The failure of the culture of silk in these states, is
therefore sufficiently accounted for, by the simple fact of
the seven years of revolutionary war, and by such circum-
stances independent of the climate and other localities,
as we shall have occasion to notice again in subsequent
discourses. But resuming our series of historical events
relative to our subject, it will be interesting to remark that
from the most remote period of its introduction ito
Europe to this day, it has abundantly engaged the disqui-
sitions and researches of the learned in the Latin, Ger-
man, Italian, French, English and Portuguese languages,
to an almost incredible number; and further that a sort
of enthusiastic zeal for its promulgation and for ennobling
the rules and mysteries attending the culture of the proper
plant, and raisimg the wonderful insect, has dictated no
less than three poetical works.

The Latin poem of Marco Geronimo Vida, Bishop
of Cremona; de Bombycum curatione et usu. 1527.

An English poem; the silke worms and their fluyes,
lively described in verse, by 'T. B. London, 1699.

La serodocimasie, ou histoire des vers qui filent la
soie.- Poeme. 1600.

But im modern times, there has been a continual sue-
cession of new investigators and writers. In all that we

> to
2%

may well judge and compare on these matters, we have
remarked less philosophy than attention to evident and
useful rules. Statistical accounts are given in our days
of the produce of silk, in the most celebrated districts.
For instance; it was ascertained in 1812, that this staple
alone was worth to France 30 millions of livres, and that
by recent improvements in 1826, it was raised to 60
millions.. (Vid. Ch. Verri, art. de cultiver les muriers, ¥c-
Lyon, p. 1. 1826.) That the same article which in the
former kingdom of Italy, was worth 20,800,000 livres, is
now exchangeable in commerce for 42,800,000 livres.
(Vid. Dandolo, Art. d@ élever les vers a Sote. p. 281, edit.
de 1825.) All this has been owing, no doubt, to the
progress of knowledge in natural sciences, of economy
in husbandry and agriculture, both promoted by more
than two hundred works that were dictated by the pro-
phetic impulse of their authors, who had foreseen and
promised such treasures.

We are arrived at a period of a revolution in the cul-
ture of silk, throughout Europe, which is the more cal-
culated to excite the attention of the commercial world,
that a destructive war is yet hovering in the east, over the
fertile regions of Greece and of the Bosphorus, where
the produce of silk has always been very abundant ; its
value is in consequence greatly enhanced in every country
where it is manufactured. ‘The governments of England
and France have, in recent times, devised the means of
opening. new sources of this agricultural industry in
distant regions which they can control. The first in
Bengal, and other places in the Mediterranean ;’ and the
latter in Pondicherry. This ancient colony in India already
can boast of an individual establishment in full operation,
which, it is said, may give one thousand pounds of silk.
On the other hand, the government of France and the

28

present innovators are about endeavouring to substitute tu
former sorts of white mulberry, the celebrated Morus alba
sinensis, formerly raised in the royal gardens only, the
superior quality of which is decidedly acknowledged, which
we will hereafter describe.

Another interesting improvement in our culture, calls
now for our attention, and promises an increase of silk
crops, to replace those which were destroyed, and may
long be interrupted in the extensive regions on and be-
yond the Mediterranean Sea.

We are alluding to a nobleman from Milan, Count
Dandolo, knight of the iron crown, &c. commanding
property and being devoted to agricultural pursuits,
has been held up as the discoverer of a new method for
raising silkworms. His system has been much admired
and scrupulously adhered to by many followers, among
whom we find distinguished names, also some learned
naturalists and culturists. ‘The Count died several years
ago, much regretted in his French possessions, near Vareze.
He left, however, a complete treatise, in which he had ar-
ranged his views, mode, rules, and practical means, which
has been translated into several languages.

Having paid great attention to this modern system, we
must however remark, that it exhibits many obstacles to its
general adoption in countries in which the old natural
and established method has, during three centuries, satis-
fied the industry and expectations of the culturists. Its
obstacles are found, namely, in local provisions of build-
ings to be exclusively appropriated ; in a calculated space
of surfaces ; in the temperature, moisture—all to be ascer-
tained, night and day, by instruments ; and in a variety
of utensils which his book requires and delineates by
plates; in viewing which, we frequently were reminded
of the like minutia which might be shown to farmers or te

29

country people, were they to learn by book to raise poultry
or cattle, and to take care of them in their barn-yards or
stables. Worse than these, there is an air of philosophical
apparatus in the method of Dandolo, not much compatible
with the diversified cares of the husbandman at this and
other periods of the seasons. His precepts and rules are,
however, more profitable.

Be it as it may, we do not find in the work of Dandolo
any new rationale or philosophical principle, that was
unknown or practically neglected in the eighteenth cen-
tury. He has only ascertained that the papillo or moth
of the silkworm, as a true phalena, is better and more
profitably managed for laying eggs, in a dark or obscure
room or box, than in full daylight; and that during their
short existence, the male and female must not be left to
themselves, and had better to be assisted.

But there is something highly interesting to account
for in this class of lepidoptera ; which we would emphati-
cally call the cold bombyx, and which in all stages of ex-
istence requires a warm temperature, without in the least
participating in it. Caloric it appears is necessary for its
growth, while another element sustains alone its vitality.
Long before Dandolo, the celebrated Abbé Sauvages,
and the Abbé Rosier, had however led the natural ob-
server and culturist to the phenomenon of electricity as the
mysterious laws which can reconcile us to a proper theory
by which cases of opposite nature are so often called forth
in the management of this insect, for the pursuit of rich
crops of silk: yet the Italian author has left the subject
perfectly unnoticed. His own theory is composed from
systematic practice, the principles of which being fully
explained and applied to domestic method, would secure
all the advantages which he could reap, without encoun-
tering the same expenses. Dandolo has told us already,

30

‘* that his art to raise silkworms can be attained by any
body who can have a room for the purpose, and mulberry
trees enough at his disposal.” (p. 376.) We can farther
say, that if an ordinary culturist (magnanier), assisted by
his family seldom obtains more than eight pounds of silk
from one ounce of seeds, he is still better off than Dan-
dolo’s disciple, reaping twelve pounds, because he has not
been at a heavy expense for buildings, for attendants, for
preparations, Xc. |

Let us be permitted to mention here some of the en-
dearing circumstances attending the old domestic method
of raising silkworms. When speaking of some causes
which in former years suspended and retarded the progress
of the silkworm in the American colonies, we had occa-
sion to contrast the ordinary labours of black slaves with the
‘‘ intelligence, delicacy, and unwearied attention required
for little animals, which must be nursed and fed by the
same hand during five or six weeks; cares, did we say, so
easily but exclusively well discharged by females, whose
outward senses can be better guides for them than ther-
mometers, to judge of the temperature and pure air that are
requisite, whether they are engaged in them for amusement
or as a branch of domestic economy.” (Report to the
Institute.) Admitting that all this is an unquestionable
matter of fact, we may further add, the benefits possibly
to be derived from family emulation, each one in pur-
suit of a premium for comfort, for dress and pocket-money.
Such is the old and natural method which has prevailed
in the nations which have made silk a staple produce of
their country, enhanced the value of their lands, and created
various branches of industry subservient to this kind of
culture, which the new methodized system never would or.
could have better effected.

PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.

SECOND PART.

REMARKABLE advice from an American culturist on the necessary instruc~
tion for silk growers—practical instruction is required to obtain a crop
of silk—a silk American district—comparative remarks on its use and
quality—a book of documents on the growth and manufacture of silk,
published by the government of the United States—ditto by the govern-
ment of Bavaria—others on the same subject—instruction united to
practice—errors and notions in some English and American publications
—explained and refuted—instances of American correct instruction—
the art of silk growing requires observation more than genius and talents.

_ On the subject of instruction as required for the ma-
nagement.of silkworms, we would beg leave to address
the people of these states in the words of an eminent
member of the agricultural society of the state of New-
York. ‘* You have in your hands all the means requisite
for success, and for enriching yourselves by the culture of
silk. It remams with you to compare and judge your
many attempts in it, and discover wherein they have been
defective.” (Address of Peter Delabigarre, Vol. I.
Agric. Trans. state of New-York, 1801.)

Those are sufficiently instructed, who by their practical
cares and provisions can command a yearly crop of silk,
in due proportionate expenditure of time and money ;

~~

b2

oi who draw and collect this product from the parts of 4
district and the vicinity, in such quantities as will supply
and maintain the several important branches of silk ma-
nufacture, which again gives an increase to the value of
that material. How many culturists of that description there
are on this side of the Atlantic sea, we shall not pre-
sume to define. Still we will adduce one instance: An
intelligent inhabitant of the town of Mansfield, Connec-
ticut, has informed us, that there are about one hundred
families in it, who can annually raise two thousand six
hundred and eighty-seven pounds of sewing silk of the
best quality; the sale or exchange of which in commerce
can be said to produce ten dollars per pound, at which
rate there would be a profit of two hundred and sixty-
eight dollars for each family.
~ Now let us apply to ourselves the precept of Mr. De-
labigarre, by comparing and judging. Why is the best
silk thus employed and turned into sewing silk, for which
there is always waste or inferior silk enough, and why is
not this best silk kept for the reels and for the looms ?
Discover wherein you are defective! Yarther progress is
evidently to be made, and it is hoped, it will take place.
A copious volume of instruction has already been pub-
lished by order of the United States’ government, (Do-
cument 158, Washington, 1828) full of matters relative
to the growth and manufacture of silk. It is a kind of
encyclopedic repertory; yet we think that it embraces
two different subjects which require opposite kinds of
means, tastes, and perceptions. ‘The one is an agricultu-
ral and domestic pursuit, as much as the other resolves
itself into a mechanical and commercial business. The
first is annual and temporary. The second is indefinite

m point of season or duration. Each of them is there-
fore suitable to different classes of men and sorts of edu-
cation or establishments, although they may unite their
interests and be subservient to the prosperity of each
other ; but rarely can a silk grower be a manufacturer,
and vice versa. However strange it appears, the fact is
true, that a silk-growing country always abounds with
excellent manufacturers; but these never commence their
pursuits except where much and enough of the raw mate-
rials awaits their enterprise ; such is England, for instance,
where the most abundant supply of silk from abroad is
always provided and secured.

There is also the Document 226, from the same source
of the general government, a translation, from the German
language, of a treatise on the culture of silk in Germany,
by M. de Huzzi, of Munich, and circulated there as late
as 1824. It is well known that the inhabitants of the
United States in the new world, have possessed more
knowledge at the same time on the silk culture, than the
whole kingdom of Bavaria, when that book was pub-
lished there to encourage, and to promote on the subject
the zeal of its inhabitants. The very choicest part of
this German instruction cannot therefore be better than
that which in former and of late years, has been collected
from the ancient silk districts of France and of Italy.
We nevertheless confess the work to be instructive in what
relates to the ancient history of silk; andif the enterprise
becomes successful, it will be the first in so northern a
latitude as 47° N.

We have with great confidence perused an excellent
translation by William H. Vernon of Rhode Island, of a
work by M. de la Brousse ; it is an excellent treatise, but
not carried up to the time of the great reformation or

~
oO

34

period of improvement of 1823. Several other recent
provincial works from France and Italy have reached us,
as good as the above mentioned State Documents, among
which we have particularly noticed that of Mons. Redarés
du Gard, in the southern departments of France. He is
of opinion to locate the silk culture almost any where
except in the vicinity of seas, lakes, and rivers; provided
that both trees and worm seeds should always be grafted

_ and replaced by sorts from different climates or latitudes.

Pi i is not a new principle in agriculture and husbandry ;
but we will hereafter vindicate its particularly happy influ-
ence in the culture of silk. sa

wat It is not here pretended, as it might be inferred, that the
“necessary instruction is chiefly to be acqn from some
_ selected elementary books; far from professing that opin-

ion, we repeat what we have already alluded to, that skill
in this pursuit must always have been acquired by some ex-
perience or operative activity. Many learned wanes we
are sorry to say, contain errors enough to lead many no-
vices into error. Let the following illustrate our assertion.
In Rees’ Universal Dictionary, vol. xxxiv. we read the
following in relation to silkworms. “‘ ‘These creatures are

never offended by stench of any kind.” The same arti-

“cle suggests that damp, or moist southerly winds, however,
“may affect them. The whole is asserted on the authority 4

of Malpighi who, although an eminent naturalist, was not
nor could he ever have been a practical culturist.* The F
fact is, that nothing can be more deprecated than any

* We have carefully examined the first volume of the London Philo-
sophical Transactions, which contains a compendium of Malpighi’s work
on the nature and anatomy of the silkworm, but we have found there no-
thing that could anthoris se the quotation above alluded to.

Jeo

source of impure air within the reach of the nurseries of
our insect, which would not only be injurious to any pros-
pect of crops, but to the life of as many thousands in a
few days as compose the whole brood. Archibald Steven-

is . . .
son,* an accurate English observer, witnessed and related

how triumphantly it had been proved in the city of Tou-
louse, that the silkworms raised in the huts of poor country
peasants, were more productive, because enjoying the
pure air, through cracks and broken windows, than those

that were reared in the city houses and confined apart-

ments of the rich.
We have also paid some attention to various publica-

- tions and” learned journals of this country, containing

essays on the art of raising silkworms, which abound with
crude notions, erroneous practices, and even with fruitless -
attempts to manage those insects better than European
culturists, We will advert here to a few of those mistakes
without reference to their authors, the better to guard the
inexperienced experimenters against the cheap instruction
given by those who never have acquired it from genuine
sources.

With the view of trading in the article of worm seeds
of the best stock or kind, the subject of the temperature

* Probably some such obstacles frustrated the introduction of the cul-
ture and growth of silkinto England, where it had been warmly purs ned
in the reigns of James I. and Charles IJ. And long after, when a number

‘of gentlemen associated themselves upon the most liberal principles to

benefit their country, by this exotic produce, they spared neither pains
nor cost to obtain correct information and the best materials ; and even
there were gentlemen of observation kept during many years in France,
who took the trouble to visit, in detail, the most productive silk districts ;
and some of their reports or works on the subject have been reprinted
and circulated in this country. (Vide Museum ‘a, ‘Foreign Literature,
New-England Farmer, and the work of Archibald Stevenson )

36

was taken and discussed: it was a question to ascertain
whether the cold of winter was injurious. Some said theseeds
might be put into an ice-house, left to frost ; at their proper
time they will not the less be hatched by the advancing sea-
son or by artificial heat. This is all very true, and was
not, as a discovery, made in America. But on the other
hand, seeds which have undergone various or opposite
temperatures, above or below 45°, are nearly good for

nothing, from two important causes. ‘They give gene- 4
rally a sickly brood. Dandolo says that he could define

their diseases according to the specific time during which
they were thus neglectingly confined. Such seeds never

can be hatched simultaneously. 'The cold-kept seeds will |

be late, and the warm will be premature. ‘The difference
of many hours at birth, is sufficient to constitute breeds
of different ages and requiring different cares, additional
troubles, attendants, and confusion in a nursery. This
evil is so much dreaded by experienced culturists, that
more effectually to guard against it, they put to hatch
double and treble the quantity of seeds they intend to
raise ; and as they should all pullulate together, they have
the choice to remove all those that were hatched early or
late in the same day: keeping those only which came
out from the shell, at the same period, or within a few
hours. Such a brood is the more perfect, that the
worms will moult, mount, and spin about the same time,
provided they continue to enjoy the same management
and good keeping.

Another very deliberate recommendation hasbeen
promulgated from the south to the north of the states for
conducting many crops of silk; hatching, feeding, and
spinning during six months of the year, from the 20th of
April to the 20th of October !! wisely remarking how-

.

d7

ever, that the novel plan requires a favourable mild climate,
for example, that beyond the mountains, near the town of
St. Charles, on or about the Missouri, latitude 38 N.!

It were desirable, and it would save much time and
trouble to all those who are the most endowed with spe-
culative and inventive faculties, that they should remember
of their predecessors or cotemporaries, who, actuated by
the same impulse and spirit, might have settled the expe-
riment of many crops of silk in one season, which —
they have recommended. We now can affirm that there
isnot asingle silk district in the old world, in France, Italy,
or elsewherslrnt where the above experiment has been
tried long ago, and given up as visionary, unprofitable,
and destructive. We have already mentioned the
attempts made by the French government to introduce
the culture of silk into the island of Bourbon, precisely
because vegetation not being interrupted there, crops of
silk might be repeatedly obtained at each yearly period.
Sauvage has recorded the gradual, but sad failure of that
enterprise, which had been solicited by a company of in-
terested persons, although he or they should have been
aware that no insect subject to the influence of seasons,
could be regenerated in the same condition at the command
of man. How often the same attempt at experiment has
been made according to historical record, we think it
useless to relate, as much as it would be to undertake the
history of human errors. The last instance we have
heard of, took place ten years ago, in the vicinity of the
great city of Lyons in France. But we are assured that
the results were not such as will be boasted of. They
were indeed as vain as those which Dandolo had noticed |
in Italy, and which being repeated on a great plan at St.
Charles in Missouri, have given the following product :

=

38

first crop—131 pounds of cocoons ; second crop—73 ;
the third and fourth—too inconsiderable to be mentioned.
That is, nothing, except about 200 pounds of cocoons,
which could certainly not exceed one hundred dollars in
value, for the cost, the trouble, and the wages of many
attendants on a six months’ crop of silk!

Leaving aside in this subject any view to sarcasm or
criticism, it behoves us only to resume our objections’ to
the above method, under three different points of view.

_ Ist. It would be destructive of the best species of the

caterpillar.

_. 2d. It could never be accomplished with seasonable
foliage.

3d. Its continued and protracted cares through several
seasons, would be more expensive than any of the calcula-
ble utility and benefits that silk can afford us.

1. If naturalists were asked at what period eggs laid
should or must be hatched, they would first answer, that
this is regulated by the temperature of the place where
the parent animal had deposited them, supposing she
takes no farther care of her eggs. Hence the eggs depo-
sited or left by the mother-silkworm must be subject to the
return of a season; and if any exception could be shown to
the contrary, it would after all prove an abortive one ; the
offspring will be imperfect and degenerated ; repeated
hatchings, therefore, of the same insect obtaimed before
its natural term of existence, must by a few reproduc-
tions, induce its degeneracy or destruction.

2. In the second view, experience has shown us that the
life of the insect the better secures its product, when it
is simultaneous with the only foliage it can feed on dur-
ing the four stages which it passes through and marks by
the renewal and the growth of its body. But this order or

e

3g

law of nature would be inverted in the mode of artifi-
cial crops of silk; and the fodder offered to it, be always
more or less unsuitable to its strength or to its wants.

3. The shortness of time, of labour, and cares required
for obtaining a crop of silk, constitutes and enhances its
value above other necessary articles to clothe the human
body ; but this precious material could no longer com-
mand the price which, notwithstanding the decrease of
its quantity or quality, would be called for by the pro-
_ tracted expenditure of time, of labour, and of industry.

We must dismiss the further task of criticism of the
many errors and systematic modes and means which neither
the experience of ages, nor the laws of nature can justify
for the promotion of the culture of silk ; which might also
create more expensive and discouraging results among
our industrious classes than they would have time to cor-~
rect, before they could have recovered their losses or
acquired useful instruction.*

a a RS oa ne

* The business of the silk grower, like every other, requires appren-
ticeship or sufficient instruction, or else it will prove vexatious and in many
respects very expensive. If one only out of many rules, cares, or subjects of
attention is omitted or neglected, your attempt in the undertaking will fall
through. Such a result we once have witnessed, and so remarkable as
here to claim our attention.

A rich Lord or Seigneur in the Cevennes, who had spent his days and
pretty much worn out his taste among fashionable city pleasures, and in
nobleman’s sports of horse and chariot-racing ; having little or no inclina-
tion to the allurements of honour or fame, that might be offered by the army
or by the King’s court, retired to his estate and castle, where he took a
fancy to agricultural pursuits and improvements : these were wanted, after
his long and repeated absences. One object more particularly fixed his
attention, being possessed of an extensive mulberry plantation, conve-
niently situated, and by the benefit of which, his villagers could every year
be employed in the way of raising silkworms. He therefore surmised,
that he could certainly promote the business and could realize the profits

7 4

40

We will atone for the liberty we have taken to find
fault with many of our cotemporaries, by proving that in
our survey of their welcome advices and instructions we

equal to all that they could dothemselves. He was not, it is true, provided
with special buildings for that purpose ; but he could at any time appropriate
several apartments, halls, and courts in his castle, and for more, he thought,
than ten ounces of worm seeds. He did, in consequence, order that the furni-
ture should be packed and removed; a number of hurdles to be substituted ;
he engaged nurses and attendants, who with his usual household must be
initiated into the art of magnaniers (silk-culturists), and under the auspices
of a favourable spring and vegetation, he confidently commenced the
hatching, expecting to raise a crop of at least five or six thousand francs.

My Lord Viscount was not, however, very familiar with matters of do-
mestic economy, being habituated to many servants by whom he must be
obeyed. His judgment and understanding could not be aware of any
difficulty to be encountered in the accomplishment of his desire, since he
had in his power or at his command all that would be wanted ; and sup-
posing a difficulty might occur, whether it would be in his power timely to
remove it, so that it should not be attended with serious consequences,
was an inference that had not been conceived by this inexperienced noble
culturist ; and this single defect, this oversight sadly ruined his undertaking,
and brought on the most disgraceful and signal failure of the crop of which
he had so much boasted among his friends and neighbours. The error he
had committed was that of not having estimated nor provided for the space
necessary to the great quantity of silkworms which he was rearing. No
doubt he depended upon room enough in his castle, but rooms and halls
cannot give sufficient space, unless this is provided for by many ranges of
hurdles, which are multiplied by being placed one over the other. It thus
would have been necessary for the Viscount to have at least 6000 square
feet of space upon hurdles for his 400,000 silkworms, instead of which he
had hardly prepared one half of it in nurseries, rooms, chambers, halls,
and galleries.

This error can seldom take place in the ordinary way and practice of
silk growers, because, unless they have numerous hands to dispose of and
large houses, they do not engage for more than one or two ounces of seed,
which would not require much more than five hundred square feet of space
or the double. In the present case the error became fatal. One part of

4t

did not always find fault. With the greatest pleasure we
read, long ago, in the New-England Journal, Nov. 17,
1826, the narrative of the Rev. Samuel Wood of Boscaw-
en, of his long and continued practice of rearing silk-
worms, regretting that he should have always experi-
mented on a small scale, with the same brood and with a
single tree which he had planted himself: also, that his
caterpillar family were of the tri-moulting species; one
of a shorter life, labour, and diminished product, although
good in quality. We have admired all his practical ways
and industry, dictated by patient but philosophical obser-
vation, as far as he trusted to that supreme power which
takes care of all animated matter. He therefore happened
always to be successful, and somewhat rewarded by some
profit. Of him it might be said, that had not the art of
silk culture been discovered, he could start a claim to the
discovery.

the apartments being incumbered with the furniture of the others, it
could not be readily cleared for the growing insects: these remained too
long crowded upon each other, buried in their litters, in which an unavoid-
able moisture caused a putrid fermentation. In their present age the ser-
vice of meals, &c. being required every four hours, the attendants could
not discharge any farther labour, and the whole brood suffered so conside-
rably by excessive heat, by spoiled or tangled litters, that they sickened
and died by thousands every hour: thus the peril of pestilence rapidly
augmented, until the good villagers consented to take away as many silk-
worms as yet were sound from the middle of it, being allowed to keep
them for their trouble, in their respective houses, and these only lived to
spin their silk. Thus the lord of the castle lost all his crops and much
more than he had contemplated to obtain from an immense crop of silk, a
small part of which only was of service toany one. This event taking placein
a populous silk district, could not fail exciting much curiosity, and brought
so many people to the castle that the confused nobleman was obliged to
relieve himself by an unexpected absence from it, leaving behind a good
practical lesson to whoever undertakes what he isnot qualified to accom-
plish. :
VOU. I. 6

42

A similar comprehensive knowledge of the art we have
admired in the luminous and well-written analysis made
of it, by the author of the American Gardener, from page
268 to 281. We would advise all the readers of the
editor to take the production itself as a test of the merits
of many published methods of raising silkworms, to dis-
criminate between this and all others, and to decide whe-
ther we have been correct in our impressions,’ when induced
to declare that there is generally a great want of proper
instruction and of requisite estimation of the culture of
silk, for its introduction in these states. |

Be it as it may, it is an imitative task, in which the per-
sistent laws of nature must be taken for our guide, and
be peculiarly adapted to localities; a study demanding a
taste or a tact of observation, rather than the speculative
perceptions of talent and genius, and above all, it requires
all possible assistance from patriotism and philanthropy.

>

A TREATISE

ON THE

CULTURE OF THE MULBERRY TREE:

ITS VARIETIES AND MODES OF CULTURE.

THe Mulberry plant is the prime source of the rich
product of silk ; it must therefore be abundantly provided
for and kept thrifty on the ground of silk growers. Be-
yond that important object and use, it is highly useful :
its foliage is an excellent fodder for small cattle ; its fruit
not unfrequently sought for in market, and in fattening poul-
try ; and the mulberry wood, not inferior to the locust for
fences, is good enough for plain furniture, and is unexcep-
tionably an excellent fuel. As a tree, it affords consider-
able shade in barn-yards, in courts and country places,
it can easily be shaped into protecting hedges, and every
where is ornamental. (Vide Michaux, Sauvages, Bona-
foux, Dandolo, Verri.)

According to the botanical nomenclature of Linnzus,
the genus Mulberry (Morus) belongs to the xxi. class,
Monoecia, 4th order, Tetrandria. 'This is 4 stamina
to one, or many pistils in the same plant. It is not un-

44.

common to find it however entering in the next class, the
xxii., DioEctA, of the sexes separated in different plants.
This very singular and rare aberration in nature has sug-
gested to an eminent silk grower of the present time,
Mons. M. Bonafoux, that it would be expedient to prefer
and propagate the last species to the first; because its
male tree could alone afford better foliage, be free from
berries which are much troublesome in the litters of the —
silkworms, apt to spoil, and to scatter a corruptible mu-
cilage. The celebrated Michaux had long before this
writer recommended the quality of the male mulberry
wood as superior to the various sorts which already are in
use. In Jussieu’s arrangement of plants, the Morus is
one of the dicotyledenous class, in the 98th order, Urticz,
sect. 2. ! ?

There exists in Europe and North America numerous
varieties of the mulberry, but we never could imagine
with some writers and eminent botanists, that any one of
them were exotic or exclusively propagated from Asia or
China. The last-mentioned author says, that the black
mulberry alone was used in France when the silkworm
seeds were introduced there, in the last years of the fif-
teenth century; this may be true without proving that
there was no white mulberry; for as the French drew
those seeds from Naples, after the conquest by Charles
VIII., they imitated the Italian culturists, who then pre-
ferred the black sort as productive of a stronger or coarser
silk than the white sort. (Vide Abbe Sauvage.) Against
some plausible facts from history, giving credit to the
foreign origin of the white mulberry, we may allege, that
culturists of all ages and nations would always think it
necessary to import or procure the plants already in use
in the places from which they obtained the insect. Thus

45

Spain and Italy may have appeared to supply their neigh-
bours with the sort which they approved the most. Still,
how could the supposed exotic have become in all those
countries, distinctly marked by four or five different kinds
of the white, of the wild, and of several others of the
genus? Of so numerous metamorphoses in botany of
one kind of exotic, we certainly are neither aware nor
believers. But it is the more inadmissible, that in the
celebrated royal gardens of Paris and Montpelier, there
have been long ago genuine individuals of the real Chi-
nese mulberry, Morus alba sinensis, which differs materi-
ally from the existing species by the large size and fine-
ness of its leaves, by its early putting forth and bearing
cold climates. Not until lately, however, have the public
authorities thought it expedient to propagate it.

With respect to North America, the supposed exotic
nature of the white mulberry is but a surmise and equally
questionable. The plant was no doubt propagated by
the mother country in these colonial provinces; in Virgi-
nia, Georgia, but not beyond the mountains, in the valley
of the Mississippi, and in the fertile regions watered by
that river in Lousiana. We are also informed of the ex-
istence of the best sorts of that genus, in the state of
Missouri. Mr. Schoolcraft, the traveller, saw it in the
forests on the Maumee, 41° of latitude, and discovered
upon it the silk caterpillar, very voracious of the leaves,
and which had perfected its silk ball ; the description he
gives of that insect would challenge the most sceptic en-
tomologist. (Vide Schoolcraft’s Travels in the Valley
of the Mississippi, p. 79.) The ancient French colonists
from the river St. Lawrence, along the Mississippi to the
Atlantic gulf, certainly never busied themselves with
introducing the mulberry plant into those forests. Other

46

species of the same, such as the Morus rubra, the Tinc-
toria, the Papyrifera or Broussonetia, are unquestionably
indigenous, and by the same reason, the whzte and the
black may have been planted by the author of nature in
the immense forests of this country. With pleasure we
avail ourselves in this question of the testimony of an ex-
perienced horticulturist, John Adlum, Esq., of George-
town, who has seen the native tree in various distant and
extensive continental latitudes ; who by inspection of the
soil and circumjacent indications, could not be supposed
to be at a loss to determine whether the hand of nature or
that of art had distributed it over this continent. His
select specimen we have had the pleasure to examine our-
selves, and to compare, so far as to acknowedge the Morus
alba Americana. There cannot therefore be any difficulty
in the farther raising and propagating of the best sorts of
this plant from the most meridional latitudes of these
states, up to the highest, even to the 43°, there being
already large nurseries of it in the 41st, which as is well
known, differs in temperature from the like in the old
world, at least by seven degrees; and let us not be mis-
taken when we lay great stress on the art of the cultiva-
tion of that plant; it is not so much for its growth and
preservation, for neither is difficult or doubtful ; it is in
view only of its abundance and productiveness, and for
maintaining it of the best quality.

The mulberry can attain a stately and majestic size and
live many ages. Several of that rare description had
been observed and were described sixty years ago, in the
Cevennes and Languedoc, by Sauvages. He traced
them by the proprietors of the land to names and families
descended from officers of the invading army of Charles
VIII., who having entered Naples in 1500, had introduced

4%

these plants. Mons. Matt. Bonafoux has lately seen and
mentioned the same trees. There is therefore sufficient
testimony that these oldest parents in the vegetable king-
dom must be 329 years old.

The stem or trunk is naturally strait, solid, striated, and
may be made to branch out in any direction with facility
and symmetry. The bark isa little rough, of a pale brown
colour in the white, and much darker in the black sort ;
but can be easily separated or split and preyed upon by
cattle. The leaves are of a deep green hue, of different
sizes, obliquely cordate, serrated, expanded, glossy on the
upper surface, but easily recurved, veiny, juicy, full of
sap-vessels. Many sorts of this genus vary only by the
size, by the shade, and by the thickness of the leaves: the
Broussonetia excepted, or Papyrifera, the leaves of which
are strong and cloth-like to the touch.

The fruit or berry is composed of many seeded and
distinct grains even before maturity, which imparts to
them a colour, white, red, or pink, and sometimes very
black. ‘This baccais the receptacle of the female flower,
which had 4 pistils in a 4-cleft calyx, without corolla. Not
far from it you may see the male flower as a catkin, 4-cleft
ealyx and 4 erected stamina. Each of the grains com-
posing the berry contains a juicy pulp with a small gritty
seed of an imperfect triangular form. ‘The fruit is sweet
and a little aromatic, and in some sorts highly charged
with purplish colouring matter. This plant presents early
buds in the spring ; they are however slow in expanding,
hence they are more protected against late frosts; but as
it is very mucilaginous, the mulberry stands safely enough
hard winters which would injure grape vines and kill the
olive tree.

vied

48

‘The mulberry tree grows in abundance in limestone val-
leys, where a light vegetable mould is occasionally deposit-
ed, or loam is found; also in clayish soil, and almost
wherever it can take root by the help of a little manure or
loam: its shade is deep, and very convenient around or
about country houses, in alleys and avenues, which it
highly ornaments ; it can readily bear two crops of leaves
during summer if plucked at an early period, or retains
its foliage until the end of autumn. A plant, the only one
in nature which, elaborated by the insect that feeds upon
it, can furnish us so precious, so incorruptible, and so

unique a substance as silk, could not fail engaging experi-

mental inquiry and analysis of its component principles
and properties; not precisely to satisfy a vain curiosity,
but to ascertain whatever improvement might be added to
the culture of the plant itself, and also those analogies
that might point. out other vegetable substances either as
substitutes, or as of equal value for the same produce.
Small, indeed, have been the progresses obtained in these
matters. ‘Two distinct elements seem to predominate in
the mulberry over all others common to other herbs or
trees. One isa saccharine matter, and the other a resinous

substance, which are perfectly united in the leaves; but

they are separated in the bark and in the rind, and one of
them only exists in the fruit. A milky fluid, that can by
puncture or by incision be made to ooze out in small drops
from a tender shoot, attests the presence of the resinous
element, which no doubt is, by the digestive process of
the imsect, transmitted into an organized apparatus, in
which it is converted into silk; for in its first age, the little
caterpillar is seen to be very capable to spin out silk for
different purposes, until, overloaded with it, it is provided
by nature that the whole of it should be left to us, in a state

49

‘of the most admirable perfection. But, atier all, how
difficult it must be for chemical science to detect what are
the component parts or elements of the principle constitu-
ting silk, as received or elicited from the mulberry tree, if
we compare the two substances in their isolated quantities.
{t must take at least eight ounces in weight of mulberry
leaves to nourish one single caterpillar, and enable it to
complete its silk ball, which in result contains no more
than two grains and a half of pure and perfect silk. Now,
one grain of that substance, therefore, is extracted by an
animal process carried on for 30 days, from three thousand
eight hundred and forty times more inert matter than its
own bulk and weight, for each grain of silk!

The art of cultivation of the mulberry tree embraces
seven different heads :

Cuap. L—On Mulberry Nurseries.

{1.—On Mulberry Plantations or Orchards.
Iit.—On Cultivation of do. in Plantations.
1V.—On Diseases of the Mulberry.

V.—On Mulberry Hedges.

ViI.—Various modes of plucking Mulberry leaves.
Vil.—On Propagating the Mulberry Tree.

The two leading purposes of the above distribution and
arrangement are, to obtain the greatest possible quantity
of mulberry leaves during the proper season for raising
silkworms; the other to secure the vigor and the health of
that insect on which the richness of the crop entirely de-
pends—both tasks to be accomplished with the least expen-
diture of time and money.

We have preferred the most eligible plan for condensing
the directions which appertain to our subject, being satis-
fied that one part of them only is necessary and unchange-
able in any climate or latitude where the plant can grow.

VOL. I. 7

I

30

But, to the agriculturist himself the task must ultimately be
left, of discerning cares, or judging what circumstances
and practical means are made necessary by the nature
of their own soil, in the order of seasons, and with their
adopted modes of tillage. We could not, therefore, select
a better model than the method of the Count de Verri, of
Tuscany, in his treatise on the mulberry. We have bor-
rowed, at least, his arrangement of numerical precepts,
which we thought must strictly be observed. On the
other hand, mistrusting not our own knowledge and expe-
rience, acquired in one of the richest silk districts in
France, we have attended to such selections and comments
which we think to be interesting, and may prove useful in
any part of the world.

CHAPTER I.
On Mulberry Nurseries.

PRECEPT I.

Gather mulberries when perfectly ripe, and let them be
macerated in water until they can be easily bruised with
your hand; separate the seeds afterwards by washing the
mixture with several waters, and keep only those that seem
to be the heaviest in the bottom of the bucket ; after having
dried them all on a paper or on a clean table, they are fit
for use.

This and other processes in relation to a provision of
seeds, should never be neglected by good culturists, to
guard against the chance of employing old or poor seeds;
—which danger is obvious, unless they can trust to hort

al
culturists and gardeners who may follow that business
with diligence and reputation.

PRECEPT II.

You need not to wait for the spring; the fresher the
seed, the better, at any season, except in time of extreme
heat or cold. When clean, free from any animal or vege-
table substances, and mixed with fine sand, the seed may
be committed to the ground previously well prepared,
spaded and broken fine, and clear of weeds. The sow-
ing is to be made in drills, one inch and a half deep, five
or six inches asunder, covered and levelled with a small
hoe or rake.

These seedlings do not require a rich, manured ground;
a small quantity of well pulverized mould will, however,
do good; ashes or soot should be thrown over, if the soil
is of a dry and clayish nature. The beds should be so
disposed as to be conveniently reached by the hand as far

as the centre, whenever necessary to weed or to thin the
drills. :

PRECEPT IIT.

With good weather your seeds will rise in ten or twelve
days; a few weeks after which, make it a rule frequently
to inspect or examine the beds, that you should timely exe-
cute what will be required concerning the last mentioned
weeding and thinning: this is important. These seeds
are not expected to germinate well, if too close; they may
be left apart at two and a half inches, or three; if the
ground is dry, water should be sprinkled ‘over the drills;
and when the seedlings are well up, a superficial drilling
would be beneficial.

Tt may be remarked, that if the above measures are well

o2

and. diligently attended to, they will enable the culturist te
apply the ensuing spring to his seedlings the operations of
the second season, although they might have been put in
the ground late the year before. This method is therefore
well calculated to gain time, as it will farther be seen.

PRECEPT IV.
Early the ensuing spring an operation of trimming or
topping is to be performed on every seedling, which is to
be shortened down to the ground by the means of such a
sharp and well-edged nipper, as will not shake nor disturb
the roots. During this season they will soon bud; but
you are directed to cut off all lateral buds, and leave but
the best middle one to profit of the whole sap. This ope-
ration has also a tendency to strengthen and enlarge the
body of roots, and leaves the stem without lateral shoots
that might diminish the principal one.

PRECEPT V.-

During the first and second year it is necessary to keep
the beds of seedlings in the best possible condition, by
hoeing, weeding, and even by watering if necessary. An
attentive culturist is the best judge of thinning the seed-
lings; in some beds they may require to be at a greater
distance than in others. The loss of one, or many, is
always repaid by the thriving condition of the others.

PRECEPT VI.

In the second spring, having pruned your seedlings
as low as a few inches from the ground, and on a dry
morning, you will graft every one of them which is an inch
thick, or thereabout. 'The smaller and weaker may be
left for the ensuing spring. In the meantime, it should be

23

topped, and lateral shoots lopped off, in the same mode as
it has been done before.

{t is universally agreed that the pipe-grafting is the best
for the mulberry kind ; no controversy have we ever heard
on that point. This mode, well known to horticulturists
and gardeners, requires a selection of the best grafting
branches, in good condition, and, as far as may be judged,
of leaves which are similar in size and shape to those of
your seedlings. The grafting also must not fail, and so
expose the plant to a delay of some consequence ; although
it might be repeated at the end of summer, and when the
heat of the season declines: it should therefore be done
by intelligent, careful, and practical persons. In case of
failure it is always supposed to be the fault of the opera-
tor. Count de Verrisays that this seldom happens, if the
grafts are fresh enough, if they are entailed on a good dry
day, and carefully luted with gardeners’ wax.

We should not let the present opportunity pass without
particularly adverting to the importance of the grafting
process as applicable to the mulberry tree, and which has
been so universally recommended by the culturists of all
nations, for more than one hundred years of experience
and practice, up to this day. Not a few systematic com-
pilers may still wonder why it should be so much insisted
upon, since the process seems not to alter or improve any
characteristic quality of the fruit, or any part of the tree;
while the off-givings of the same, the seedlings, the layers,

the cuttings, &c. all enter again into the class of the wild

sorts, if not grafted. After all this is said, and with truth,
indeed, it is nevertheless still demonstrable, that the grafted
mulberry always vegetates more thriftily, and more pro-
fusely supplies us with its foliage; and with that argument
alone, the controversy should be put at rest.

o4

We would remark here, that the compilers of the Docu-
ment No. 158, published by order of government, which
contains so much useful matter in relation to the culture of
silk, should have not noticed the result of the experiments
by Dandolo on the greater quantity of silk given by worms
fed on the wild mulberry, and more than by the grafted
seedling, unless they mentioned his concluding advice on
the subject:

Ist. That there are too many bad species of the wild
mulberry, and which are thorny, and bear but a small
quantity of leaves.—(p. 262.)

2d. That they all should be grafted to be corrected,
&c.—(p. 263.)

3d. That the grafted tree gives a greater Ei of
leaves than the wild.—(ib.)

4th. That the quantity of cocoons depends principally
on the quantity of leaves.—(264.)

5th. That before we should give up the grafted for the
wild tree, we should have a vast many more experiments
made, to compare and decide the result.—(265)—&c.

There will be, for some time, a difficulty in the United
States to enforce the practice of grafting, owing to the
scarcity of procuring grafting branches; there not being
a sufficient number of those plants in the few districts
where the worms are raised, and an absolute want or
scarcity of them every where else. But let the demands
be proportionate to the business, and our intelligent horti-
culturists will soon find the way of providing us sufficiently
with as good grafts as abundant silk districts can afford.

PRECEPT VII.

On the third spring, our seedlings should be fit for trans-
plantation into the nurseries, raising them carefully, and

ag

commencing with those in which the graft appears the best
and most vigorous. Of every plant, it is well to clip off
the tap root, leaving only a few fingers’ breadth of it, even
should there not be enough of the lateral roots. ‘They
are to be planted at twelve or fifteen inches depth, and in
quinkunx, at three feet distance from each other, observ-
ing, after this is done, that the stem or stock, which in this
new ground has depth enough, must be cut and levelled
to the ground by the means of a sharp-edged nipper,
leaving the top as a mark on the spot to guard and pro-
tect the little trunk, whenever weeding and spading are
afterwards to be attended to.
It is here suggested as an exception to the above rule,
that if in the third spring, which is the second of the exis-
tence of the nursery, an engrafted seedling appears very
vigorous, instead of being topped to the ground, as it was
done when transplanted from the seedling-bed, it should
only be pruned above its division into branches, leaving
to it but two or three buds to form anew the same, in order
that at an early and convenient time it may be trans-
planted to form a standard tree. Count Verri, attentive
to every possible method of rapidly rearing young trees,
mentions having frequently and successfully tried that ex-
periment, and formed, in two years and three months, trees
from the seed which measured thirteen inches in circum-
ference, and required nothing farther than to be secured
against accidental violence by being fastened to a post
with ozier, or any other proper fastenings.

PRECEPT VIII.

The site and vegetative quality of the ground in a nur-
sery, are matters of great moment, inasmuch as the mul-
herry seedlings are to owe to them all the vigor, perfec-

56

tion, and regular form desired. A sloping southerly,
sheltered but not shaded exposure, is therefore the best,
being also of a dimension rather long than broad, and
not of a gravelly and stony bottom, that might impede or
divert the direction of the roots. As for the soil being
rich, which is not in general requisite for our tree, it is to
a certain degree admissible in a nursery, more than in the
place where it must ultimately be transplanted. It is par-
ticularly enjoined that no fresh barn-yard or stable ma-
nure should be used, but only the detritus of vegetable
subtances, such as the mould of forests, and what is still
better, the parings and cuttings of skins from curriers’ and
shoemakers’ shops, or other branches of like business.
However singular it may appear, this specific manure for
the mulberry is, in silk countries, a valuable article, and
sells by the weight for nurseries as well as for plantations ;
and it is not at all out of reason and judgment that it
should be so, when the nature is considered of the pre-
cious substance which is obtained from this agricultural
provision—that is, an animal substance, which, like the ar-
ticles mentioned, is truly imputrescible. ‘The young trees
in a nursery are to be planted, we have said, in the order
of quinkunx, at three feet distance for each square of four
trees, which of course leaves room enough for necessary
visits, inspection, and the labors of tillage. We would,
however, advise those who can spare ground enough, to
have a path allowed between each quinkunx—that is, be-
tween each three lines, as herein exhibited, and to keep
the ground always as much untrodden as possible.

av

50 or 60 feet N ursery.

e ° J ° e e ° °

°
sc

Intermediary Path.

oe
2
°

20 or 25 feet. :

!
|

PRECEPT IX.

The period of time on which we are now engaged, will
probably be the last nursery-year for your saplings, par-
ticularly to regulate their future shape and the distribution
of their principal branches ; also of the secondary and ter-
nary offsets. You will have, therefore, to be diligently
attentive to the lopping, in proper season, of the super-
fluous buds, and to the removal of sprouts or shoots be-
tween the leaves. You will be mindful of the size and
form you are to give to your tree, high or low; the one
if the shade should prove obnoxious to any adjacent plant,
and the latter for a ground where it is not intended to raise
any thing else. No bad effect is to be apprehended from
any curtailment or trimming whatever, which it is neces-
sary to perform. This tree, which with care will outlive
_ whole yearly pluckings of foliage, can of course bear, at
present, any necessary correction.

CHAPTER IL.
On Mulberry Plantations or Orchards.

By mulberry plantations or orchards is meant any place
or piece of ground that is the most convenient for use.
--and where the young tree is permanently fixed. It would,
therefore, be useless to set apart a large parcel, except it
be very convenient for proprietors to do so, and to have it
exclusively planted with mulberry trees. ‘The produce of
this branch of agricultural industry is not like any other,
that might be transported to, and sold at a distant market :
far from it. Its worth and good quality in a great mea~
sure depend on its freshness, and it must be consumed in
the vicinity. Besides, there are frequent calls which occur
during the conducting of great nurseries, which require
immediate and abundant supplies. The appropriation of
ground should not, therefore, be made beyond the propor-
tion of a settled neighborhood, and what must be engaged
for the annual industry of raising silkworms.

Very few families are able to undertake the task of mana-
ging more than one ounce of seeds, that is, about forty
thousand worms, which may give one hundred and fifty
pounds of cocoons, or from ten to twelve pounds of silk.
An orchard or a farm that is in want of mulberry trees
enough for five ounces, which will require nearly seven
‘thousand pounds of fodder, should contain about one
hundred trees, good or feeble, large or small. These
mav be distributed in alleys and avenues, in hedge-

a9

rows, around gardens, in harn-yards, or courts, where
the benefit of their shade would no doubt be desirable.
Wherever they may be planted, the following precepts
are to be attended to.

PRECEPT X.

The pits for setting out should be prepared and always
left open beforehand, in order to fertilize the soil by the
airing or contact of the ambient atmosphere, which, as is
very properly supposed, has its share of influence upon
ihe vegetative property of such layers or strata of earth
as have thus been mellowed. It is in this view, also,
that a judicious horticulturist will take care to set apart
the upper and best vegetable earth, to reverse it on the
roots of the sappling. Great stress is laid, besides, on
the dimension of the holes for permanent trees—to be, at
least, six feet square and three in depth; in the bottom of
each, a few pounds of parings of skins and leather are to
_ be mixed with earth, as the best manure.

PRECEPT XI.

In raising the young tree from the nursery, attention
and care of the roots is commendable, avoiding useless vio-
lence and mutilation in disentangling them, except when
they are of great length. ‘These are to be clipped off

when injured, and left free of superfluous appendages,
and disposed in their natural direction, which will not fai]
affording again a vigorous progress to a new set of roots,
insuring the long existence of the tree.

PRECEPT Xfi.

_ Props or supports to young trees having been provi-
ded, they are consolidated at a proper depth, and above

*

a yy

CHAPTER II.
| On Mulberry Plantations or Orchards.

By mulberry plantations or orchards is meant any place
or piece of ground that is the most convenient for use.
and where the young tree is permanently fixed. It would,
therefore, be useless to set apart a large parcel, except it
be very convenient for proprietors to do so, and to have it
exclusively planted with mulberry trees. The produce of
this branch of agricultural industry is not like any other,
that might be transported to, and sold at a distant market :
far from it. Its worth and good quality in a great mea~
sure depend on its freshness, and it must be consumed in
the vicinity. Besides, there are frequent calls which occur
during the conducting of great nurseries, which require
immediate and abundant supplies. ‘The appropriation of
ground should not, therefore, be made beyond the propor-
tion of a settled neighborhood, and what must be engaged
for the annual industry of raising silkworms.

Very few families are able to undertake the task of mana-
ging more than one ounce of seeds, that is, about forty
thousand worms, which may give one hundred and fifty
pounds of cocoons, or from ten to twelve pounds of silk.
An orchard or a farm that is in want of mulberry trees
enough for five ounces, which will require nearly seven
thousand pounds of fodder, should contain about one
hundred trees, good or feeble, large or small. These
mav be distributed in alleys and avenues, in hedge-

59

rows, around gardens, in harn-yards, or courts, where
the benefit of them shade would no doubt be desirable.
Wherever they may be planted, the following precepts
are to be attended to.

PRECEPT X.

The pits for setting out should be prepared and always
left open beforehand, in order to fertilize the soil by the
airing or contact of the ambient atmosphere, which, as is
very properly supposed, has its share of influence upon
ithe vegetative property of such layers or strata of earth
as have thus been mellowed. It is in this view, also,
that a judicious horticulturist will take care to set apart
the upper and best vegetable earth, to reverse it on the
roots of the sappling. Great stress is laid, besides, on
the dimension of the holes for permanent trees—to be, at
least, six feet square and three in depth; in the bottom of
each, a few pounds of parings of skins and leather are to

be mixed with earth, as the best manure.

PRECEPT XI.

In raising the young tree from the nursery, attention
and care of the roots is commendable, avoiding useless vio-
lence and mutilation in disentangling them, except when
they are of great length. These are to be clipped off

when injured, and left free of superfluous appendages,
and disposed in their natural direction, which will not fai)
affording again a vigorous progress to a new set of roots,
insuring the long existence of the tree.

PRECEPT Xii.

_ Props or supports to young trees having been provi-
ded, they are consolidated at a proper depth, and above

BU

the roots ; each tree may be fastened to the props with wil-
low withes, and thus resist the casual accidents or storms
until strengthened by age and by growth. ‘The holes in
light, dry, sandy, or gravelly ground, require a greater
depth by eight or ten inches, than in strong, loamy, or
clayey soil, which will command more care and attention
when ploughing or spading shall be required.

PRECEPT XIII.

The trimming or pruning of the young tree is limited
to that of its main branches, which are left eight or ten
inches long, each with three or four outward buds in the
most diverging points; and whatever wound has been in-
flicted on the branches, is to be dressed with gardeners’
wax.

The best tree for a culturist is always that which is
raised from his own nursery ; however, necessity may fre-
quently oblige him to purchase from others. Beforehand, "
therefore, keep up your nursery in good order, activins
and operation, and you will always enjoy and possess —
some fine trees at command. {[t was a very true saying
of the wise Cato, that a diligent farmer has always much
for sale, and nothing to buy. This rule is urgent, and
still more imperative for a stock of seeds, plants, and
above all, grafted mulberry saplings, which are very rare
in the very heart of silk countries. ‘These are objects
which always demand such trouble, care and attention, as
is rarely bestowed merely for market price, but for self-
gratification and pride, in the able disposal of judgment,
skill and diligence, in agricultural pursuits.

ey

61

CHAPTER III.
On care and Tillage of the Mulberry Tree in Plantations,

Whatever cares and rules are required for the growth,
preservation, and thriftiness of this plant, may be referred
to two different periods or stages: the first should relate
to the young age of the tree, during four years, and the
latter to the adult age, for about twenty or twenty-five
years ; for a tree which has been every year in use, and
stripped of its foliage as often as silk-growers who are
provided with nurseries in constant operation would do,
is not longer much to be depended upon, unless it com-
mands frequent attention and labor for tillage, which may

s well be given to saplings.

rei is never too late, therefore, to give a young tree the
same observation as we would to the physical education of
a young body ushered in the scene of existence with,
it is hoped, healthy organs, sound limbs and regular form,

in order that it be invigorated or corrected for the differ-
_ ent purposes to which it is destined.

The growth of the mulberry should be proportioned to
its ordinary use; and whilst it shows vigor and strength,
we must point out the best direction to all its accessory
ramifications in a regularly diverging line, but never per-
pendicular. It is observed that thereby the tree keeps
well opened i in its centre, and admits the best distribution
of air an dsunshine. All these intentions are obtained by
a judicious curtailing and pruning of shoots, lopping off

a

62
$
buds, and carefully comparing the directions of all those

that are or should be preserved. In the second year, or
spring, it will be proper to open the ground over the roots;
examine whether there is any superfluous shoots from the
trunk to be torn up, along with exuberant scions, leaving
none of the latter but in open spaces, or reducing them to
asmall number of buds. None of these operations should,
however, be performed in wet weather, or before having
plucked leaves, which may be called for in proper time.

The silk-grower, indeed, is impatient, perhaps, for some
remuneration of his labors, which probably he may now
boldly exact, with only this restriction for the first time,
that no pruning or trimming of young trees should be
made, until silkworms are hatched, and all the young leaves
gathered that are wanted ; but if the delay to that purpose
was too long, or late during the warm season, the pruning-
knife should not be used until another season; but delay
pruning until the worms are hatched, so that you could
at least use the tender foliage of as many branches as you
will think proper to correct or to take-off. It is therefore
presumed, that as far as it is possible, the use of the knife,
sO necessary to invigorate young trees, should not often
be set aside for the sake of an inconsiderable crop
of the foliage. ‘The ground underneath should always
be ploughed or spaded up in the autumn, and no artificial
sod of clover, lucerne, and other grass, be suffered to grow
about; although these and many leguminous plants may
be dug up and turned under, as simple and vegetable
manure.

The precepts most important and necessary for the safe
keeping and management of mulberry trees, in adult age,
are relative to yearly pruning, and to certain modes and
precautions in plucking their leaves.

63

Vearly prunings, if observed without judgment and
necessity, are pernicious ; they load the tree with wounds
and scars, weaken it, and diminish the quantity of foliage
expected from it. On the other hand, if neglected when
required, the produce is variously impaired; the leaves
are small, and poor in substance. ‘The middle course
only, that is, a timely and judicious pruning, is useful and
profitable.

First, then, take all branches that are dead, or which
have been accidentally injured :

2d. And those which remain feeble in vegetation, and
scanty in leaves.

3d. If a branch appears too much loaded with foliage,
and bent by the weight, it should of course be allayed, or
turned up in a different direction, to diminish the sap.

4th. Curtail those which diverge too much on the top
of the tree; those, also, that are too pendulous and low.

5th. Oppose any unsightly elevation or horizontal pro-
jection. .

6th. And restore the branches to a natural direction
which have been strained by the gatherer.

7th. Pruning also must have a tendency to preserve
the strength of inferior branches, by checking superior
ones.

8th. Pruning is required of such parts as show symptoms
of decay, by dryness, discoloration, and premature fall of
leaves; from such no plucking should be allowed. The
aggravation of such symptoms might authorise the loss of
one or more limbs, but the topping of a mulberry tree is
a desperate remedy, seldom successful, and but poorly
supplying lingering life. In such state of certam decay,
it is better to dig and search at the root, to cut off any one
that is damaged, and renew the soil with good earth and

G4

mould, with the parings of skins and leather. In fine;
any considerable cutting or operation, as above described,
is not to be performed but in the fall of the year. As for
the gathering of the leaves in relation to the preservation
of the tree, it should be carried on from day to day, with
no considerable interruption of time. A tree should not
be left partially bare or plucked, thus exposed to an im-
paired state of circulation or transportation of the sap
from one part of the plant to the other; and the sooner it
is stripped, the better it will prepare for another CEP
rest completely if the season is advanced.

CHAPTER IV. .
Diseases of the Mulberry Tree.

Of these we have not a long list to enumerate, but ene
of them is very fatal, and has been observed epidemically
ruinous to plantations. The following literal translation
of a case and cure of that kind, by the Count de Verri,
will at once indicate the nature, the danger, and the treat-
ment; observing, however, at the same time, that on the
authority of Sauvage, the same disease may originate from
carious or gangrenous spots at the extremities of branches,
instead of being only confined to the root, as in the fol-
lowing instance :

‘A mulberry which I had planted and ict care of
during twenty years, offered all at once alarming symp-
toms; the leaves grew small, and the greater part of them
withered ; others were yellow, and dropped off long before
the autumnal period. There appearing not any loca!

65

defect, I ordered the ground to be opened and the roots
to be searched ; I found that a few had been gnawed by
moles, and others were diseased, I had them all taken
off; I renewed the earth, mixed it with manure, and cur-
tailed, a little, the sound ones. But this was not all. J
had all the branches pruned off except the principal, which
was shortened only; and in some parts of the discolored
trunk, I made, with a very sharp knife, several deep, longi-
tudinal incisions, from which a thick fluid oozed out, which
thickened, and was carefully scraped. I believe this pro-
cess saved the tree from gangrenous ulcers, which would
have subsequently formed. All this was done in the
month of September. The ensuing year still the tree
kept in a hopeful condition, although very weak; but in
the next it perfectly recovered its vigor and luxuriant
vegetation. ‘The same mode I have successfully pursued
with other individuals; my neighbors being advised by
me, have experienced the same success.”—Verrt, p. 81.
It is unfortunately but too true, that if in a row of fine
trees, one alone is thus attacked, the next one will soon
‘follow, show the same disease, and die; in which case,
having raised from the ground the first, it will be ne-
cessary to open a large and deep ditch between that and
the next trees (to intercept contagion!) and all the rest
will be preserved.”’ |

The narrator of this interesting monography absolutely
declines giving any theory as to the cause of that truly
pestilential disease. Nor has the Abbé Sauvage in-
structed us further, except by relating an opinion pre-
vailing in his time, that it originated from the quick-
silver in the earth. (Vol. 12. p. 123.) How that metal
could be found there or any where else; how it could be

disengaged at so low a temperature as that of the ground,
g

66

we are not told, nor can we further conjecture. Were we

to venture an opinion on such a scourge of a precious

tree, we would place the cause by analogy in the frequent

condition of plethora from the sap, in which a plant must be

found, when, in every season of a vigorous vegetation, the
foliage is plucked off which would employ the present fluid.

Every year the danger is the same, which by favorable cir-
cumstances may be thwarted, and at last it breaks out
among several or many individuals. Hence the opinion
has prevailed that the disease is contagious. A good
practice, generally established in agriculture, has perhaps
contributed to this notion; it is one of which all plants
require the application; that is, to substitute different
plants to those which die or are taken away from the
_ spot, in order to change and compose the soil in some dif-
ferent mode and with new elements.

A frequent cause of diseases of the mulberry, is the ob-
struction or interruption of sap under the bark, on the
liber and aubier. This takes place in consequence of
deadened buds and shoots, or wounds and hardened sap ;
and for want, also, of a right distribution of subsidiary
twigs. Hence the precept which has been so often re-
peated, frequently to use the pruning knife by slanting
cuts which should not retain water, and to cover the wounds
with some gardeners’ wax. In general, uneven bark,
hollows or accidental excrescences, moss, lichens, or any
adhering matter, should be scraped off. |

Of the vermin which occasionally might infest our
trees, we have not much to say, because this evil is so
much prevented by ordinary tillage and use, that very sel-
dom generations or metamorphoses of them have time to
be created. Bonafoux speaks of only two sorts, the lamia
eurculio, and the lamia lugubris, the grubs of which

67

settle themselves beneath the bark and the ligneous sub-

stance, and which ought to be carefully removed or de-
stroved.

CHAPTER V.
On Mulberry Hedges.

In order to enhance the importance of mulberry hedges,
some European culturists complain bitterly of a great va-
riety of another kind of barrier being interposed by farmers
in their fields, which occupies a valuable ground, dimin-
ishes all kinds of crops, and infests them with insects, in-
stead of mulberry hedges, which in every respect would be
more ornamental and useful. These remarks, however,
would not apply to us in America, where lands are not spa-
ringly apportioned to the farmers. As for insects, they are
generated by all plants, every where. ‘They attract birds ;
man will kill or catch birds, and bring them to market.
The fact is, that upon a few considerations only, mulberry
hedges are useful and should be provided. The one is,
that their vegetation being much earlier than that of trees,
they will always supply the silk-grower with a stock of
tender leaves for the silkworm, as soon as it is hatched,
and which are not unfrequently untimely deprived of food
by the recurrence of a long late frost. Mulberry hedges
also are a kind of a nursery, abundantly concurring to
the propagation of the plant by suckers, shoots, layers,
and grafting branches. In other respects, they are a
cause of much annoyance, of considerable depredation by
cattle, and by poultry, and by children, on the search for
Jeaves and for berries.

65

For the formation of a mulberry hedge, prepare and
open a strait furrow, plant grafted seedlings of one year
about eighteen inches apart from each other. Atsome dis-
tance from each, plant also another two years’ seedling,
already cut down for another and better stem. Lop the
youngest five or six inches from the ground, leaving to it
two buds only, in opposite directions, each facing the next
plant. The ensuing spring there will be two branches
from the main stem, one of which you will shorten to the
length of one foot, and so for each plant in the hedge, and
on the same side, in order that one entire should face one
short, on which the other shall be bent and fastened by
willow withes. The long one, which should not be
pruned off, is now horizontal and parallel to the ground,
and will have next season furnished enough of perpendicu-
lar shoots, which are not further trimmed afterwards, nor
plucked, but according to the height of the hedge, which —
in actual progress may be of about two feet. It will ob-
viously be thrifty and solid, transversely by the curved
branches, perpendicularly by the strait associate seedlings,
which will moreover abundantly furnish shoots and layers
for the nursery.

69

CHAPTER VI.
Of the mode of Plucking Mulberry Leaves.

Rules and cautions concerning the gathering of mul-
berry leaves, have been dictated by long experience in silk
countries, with the view of causing as little injury as pos-
sible to the plant, of preserving it in good condition and
proper vigor, so as to satisfy the voracity of our precious
insect. : |

Again: when the tree is entirely stripped of its leaves,
it is of course deprived of the organs which, in contact
with the atmosphere, absorb from it certain necessary ele-
ments, or give out in succession those that are become
superfluous. However unhealthy the tree may remain,
this operation does not kill it; nay, it can probably suffer
a similar and complete mutilation. This latter expres-
sion, indeed, will not appear exaggerated when it is con-
sidered that there is a great difference between a crop of
the fruit or seeds of a plant, and that of the leaves. The
first soon or late must drop off, while these last are organs
and parts necessary during vegetative life. Is it, then,
surprising that so many cares and precepts, so many rules,
and so much art, should be required in the management
_ of mulberry trees ?

Attentive culturists have felt themselves placed in a
dilemma which to this day has not yet been resolved.
They must either regulate their yearly growth of silk and

70

the number of their trees in such a proportion as to alter-
nate one year of rest to every tree once at least every
fourth or fifth year, or they will force the power of vege-
tation to a somewhat limited duration of it, say of ten
years; at which period, the beds of seedlings and the
nursery of young trees must be in readiness, and concur
to a successive renewal of the plantation.

Both systems are carried on by an equal number of sup-
porters in silk countries. Which is the wisest, or who cal-
culates the best, cannot well be told; but the following cau-
tions are at least indispensable, and pressingly recommend-
ed to all silk-growers :

1st. Gathering mulberry leaves is to be carried on from
day to day, for the quantity that is required ; one tree after
the other in succession should be plucked, thereby avoid-
ing to make any unnecessary interruption of the plucking
for several days, or to leave behind any great proportion
of the foliage, should it be even uncalled for by the worms,
in which case it is used for cattle, for manure, &ec. It is
less injurious to have trees entirely bare, whether the sea-
son permits a new crop or not, than to expose the ascent
of the sap in parts naked, whilst others, still loaded, can-
not admitit. This effect or disturbance of natural action
in the plant, cannot fail being highly injurious to it.

2d. Begin to gather leaves in the morning when the dew
is dried, and cease before sunset.

3d. The youngest trees to be plucked the first, and the
others in succession: thus the first have a better chance
for a new growth, and the fodder of the others is more
suitable to the worms in their progress and advanced ages.

Ath. A well exercised hand grasps at the lower end of
the branches, shoots and twigs, and runs up to the top,
pulling all leaves at the same time, and avoiding an in-

ys

verted force and direction, that might pull off the eyes,
and break and mutilate many parts.

5th. It is never proper to climb upon a tree which is
neither strong enough by age nor by nature. Young
persons, much lighter in body than adult gatherers, might
sometimes do-it; but their motions are more injurious
than their weight. Use, therefore, the double wheelbar-
row, as designated in the plate subjoined.

6th. Have a sizeable bag, kept open by the means of a
hoop, appended over the shoulder and under the left arm;
when filled, another should be handy.

7th. The leaves are transportable in bags, boxes, and
baskets ; but in any way, they should always be kept clean
and dry, for which you may use some other kind of foliage,
or any convenient covering or wrapper.

Sth. It is not unfrequent to see mulberry trees much
soiled in summer with what is called honey-dew. This is
a phenomenon not yet accounted for; it results from insects,
from the plant, or from the clouds, Sauvage, and other
philosophers, have said much about it. Whatever it may
be, the honey-dew is poisonous to the silkworm, and leaves
thus stained should be thrown away. Rusty or partly
dried leaves can do no harm, because the caterpillar refuses
them ; if wet by rain, they induce disease, to avoid which
you will attend to cautions to be shown hereafter.

9th. Plucked leaves not yet wanted for use, should be
kept in a cool and dark cellar. Light is the most power-
ful agent to wither mulberry leaves, which, in such a condi-
tion, cannot be much relished by the insect. :

10th. The stems, the berries, are or may be eaten by
the silkworm when hungry, yet without any bad effect.
In large nurseries, however, these amount to important
difficulties and inconveniences, by promoting the fermen-

®

Tm

tation of the litter, and producing impure air ; they must
be often removed. Then the leaves require to be picked
and often chopped, al] of which will be duly exp hanes in
the proper place.

CHAPTER VII.
On various modes of Propagating the Mulberry Tree.

We have already adverted to the advantages which
accrue to a farm, and to a silk culturist, from a mulberry
hedge, as a natural source of cuttings, layers and shoots,
from which the plant can at will be propagated and pre-
pared for a nursery. He who knows how to manage and
regulate this kind of produce without going the rounds of
the usual routine of seedlings and nurseries, and yet can
reap the benefit of it, not only once, but in a regular suc-
cession of years, is allowed to boast, and is really in pos-
session of a perpetual nursery. We are informed that the
method of provignment, or layering, almost exclusively
exists in the Veronese district, from long years and habit,
and is actually in vogue in many parts of France. Ina
provident nation like this, therefore, nothing should pre-
vent its adoption; at least an as trial, as it fol-
lows : |

Take from the ground a number of grafted seedlings,
and set them out in such a juxtaposition as to make it con-
venient, in succeeding years, to form rows of scions, which
should not interfere with each other. First top them a
little above the ground. As soon as they begin to grow,
attend diligently to pinching off buds, and leaving but

to

iwo, opposite each other if possible, on each plant. Next
spring, and as soon as the sap is up and the new stems are
flexible, you will bend down the best one, by the centre, to
the ground, observing to divide with a knife, half of its
thickness, upon the point from which, both ends, remaining
out of the ground, form a kind of right angle; the one
end adhering to the mother plant, the other free and visi-
ble. This latter also may be pruned a little, leaving but
two buds or eyes, one of which is to become an additional
trunk. In the second year, and when the period has been
fully completed for the layer to be in the ground, you di-
vide with a knife half of its thickness on the top of the
curvature or part where the stem is bent down from the
mother plant; it will therefore draw a share of its sup-
port from the tender roots which it has certainly projected
below. It is now the proper time for you to layer the se-
cond shoot which was left last year, the better now if you
have attended carefully to it, taking off all lateral shoots ;
it must be treated as you did the first. At the beginning
of the third year, that is, twenty-four months after the
shoots have remained in the ground, the process of layer-
ing is completed by dividing with a sharp instrument from
the parent stock, one or more of the scions made two years
before ; these are now young saplings, fit to be transplant-
ed as from a nursery, for they have all that is requisite—
roots, trunk, branches and foliage. Yet, for the sake of
greater strength, they might be left one year or six months
longer, while you attend alternately to the process of one
side by layering other stems, or by dividing, or by sepa-
rating, and obtaining new trees every year, provided there
is room enough for each plant from which layers are put
down, leaving space, also, for saplings which should be re-
tained.
10

74

‘Those who will apply themselves to this interesting kind
of perpetual nursery, must be warned that in two circum-
stances they may want to raise the ground over the layers
that have been set in; that is, either to keep them more
firmly in a proper position, or to cover the original stem to
prevent new shoots from springing, if it has several scions
to sustain; for which purpose it is advisable at each season
to provide mounds of good earth, from which mould can
be conveniently procured when required.

Dwarf Mulberry Tree Plantations.

This description of trees was formerly in great repute
in many silk districts of France, on the score of its great
conveniency for the gathering and plucking, of its early
budding and putting forth, thrifty and compact foliage,
&c. Again: dwarf trees require neither so much time
nor so much tillage before they can be turned to use and
profit. It was also authoritatively affirmed that this mode
of rearing the mulberry was prevailing all over Oriental
India, from the well-grounded belief that its sap was
of a richer nature, and afforded silk of superior quality.
Time has, however, much altered opinion and preference,
and the dwarf sort of mulberry trees are not much in
vogue at present. ‘Two considerations and objections,
indeed, have operated against them :—they must be guard- —
ed against depredation by strong hedges or by walls ; and
the ground to be apportioned for them, if not of better
quality than for sts> ‘ard trees, is so much space to be
exclusively approprisied, that it does not suit those who
are obliged to cultivate a small portion of land, which
can produce grape-vines, wheat, or olive trees. There
are, besides, so many mulberry trees in highways, avenues,
roads, courts and commons, which eventually can supply

7a

silk-growers who have no regular orchards for the purpose,
_and agricultural pursuits of other kinds to conduct, that
a more formal mode of propagating the plant is judged
neither convenient nor necessary.

We may justly observe, therefore, that as none of the
circumstances mentioned are applicable to the agricultural
people of the United States, and much less to their exten-
sive territories in various climates and latitudes, they
would or might with propriety apply themselves to any
mode, perhaps rejected in any other country. In the suc-
cession of years and experience, who may not see, in this
new world, all possible modes of cultivating and propa-
gating the mulberry, whether it be as standards, as hedges,
as layers, or as dwarfs, each and all according to qualities
of lands or habits of tillage?

It being premised that neither the quantity nor quality of
foliage is in any way impaired in dwarf-rows, in order
to set them out, it is an important point to notice that no
less than two rows, or 4, 6, 8, according to the length of
the ground, are to be fixed upon, each of them at ten or
twelve feet distance, and each tree to be separated by six
feet on the line, which is the half measure of the height
they may generally reach. This planting is therefore
similar to forming a nursery with grafted seedlings, with
the difference, first, that greater dimensions of space are
desired in this case, and that the plants are not to be re-
moved. The advantages intended by a nursery, are to
form large trunks and strong bodies of roots; in a dwarf
row it iscontemplated to keep the stem low, and sooner pro-
ductive. The grafted seedlings having been arranged in
the above order and lines, all operations are set forth
which, instead of augmenting the size of the stem by top-
ping and budding, must distribute and equalize its vege-

76

tation in all necessary appendages, by keeping the trunk
only one foot above the ground, and the branches, late-
rally, no more than two feet, keeping up the usual number
of two or three main branches, and in such directions as
will form atlast a regular top of about four and a half feet
in diameter, and with the whole trunk seldom more than
ten feet.

In every other respect, the tillage of the dwarf mulberry
is to be conducted in the same manner as the standard
tree. By the time three years have elapsed, these trees
cannot spread their roots much more, as they were planted
at six feet distance: the culturist, therefore, may well make
use of the ground for any other plants, biennials or trien-
nials, which he may wish to cultivate. Dwarf mulberry
trees require more than any other to be protected against
depredation, either by walls or by fences, and sooner will
supply the silk-grower with foliage.

Carp

Zé

hy Sf Linbert

Explanation of the Ladder Wheelbarrow.

Fig. 1.—The ladder-wheelbarrow as a ladder.

A. A.—Arms or handles of the wheelbarrow, forming a
rest for the upper half of the ladder.

Fa. I1.—The ladder-wheelbarrow forming a set of steps,
or double ladder.

B. B.—Small facings set on the shafts, into which the
axle is let when the ladder-wheelbarrow is used as a
barrow.

Fig. I1.—The wheelbarrow.

Fig. IV.—Slab fitting in on the back of the ladder as a
shelf, or forming the back of the barrow.

C. C.—Iron cramps that fasten into hooks on the shafts
below the slab.

4

NATURAL HISTORY

THE SILKWORM:

BOMBYX MORI.

This is a species of the numerous tribe of the bombyz,
or caterpillars existing and seen on a great variety of wild
and cultivated plants, /Linnzeus and Fabricius have paid
much attention to a long list of them, and there are per-
haps one hundred and fifty sorts besides, that might call
for and exercise the observation of entomologists.

Acc_rding to the system of classification more gene-
rally adopted, the silkworm belongs to the lepidoptera,
from its form in the state of papillo, butterfly or moth—
that is, having colored and squamous wings; then again
it comes under another subdivision of phalena, that is, a
noctuelite, shunning the day, but flying about during
night.

The bombyx mori farther takes this specific name from
the plant which aficrds its food, its silk, and its re-produc-
tion. When this worm is hatched by natural or by artifi-

fh»

78

cial heat, it issues from a small, round, and flattened shell,
and is covered with black down ; itis, perhaps, not larger
than one-iwelfth of an inch in length, but is very active, and
seeks for food. If well fed, it gradually grows, through
three or four periods, at which it casts off its skin, until it
becomes three and one-third inches (French measure) long,
and nearly one inch in circumference. There are a few
sorts of the same kind of bombyx which are white, grayish,
yellowish, or spotted, but various in size, and smaller than
the above dimension, which will be mentioned hereafter.
‘This caterpillar is improperly called a worm, for it moves
in various directions by the means of legs, and its body is
distinctly composed of eleven membranous rings, which,
from the lowest to the head, contract against one another,
always forward, or laterally, by a circular flexion. Those
rings or muscles are supported by sixteen legs, ten of
which seem membranous, and six, nearer to the head,
squamous. ‘The head is rather long, brownish, having a
horny covering, and armed with two strong jaws, indented
like a saw, and between which the food is easily seized ; this
not being of a more solid texture than a leaf of a tree, gene-
rally fine or soft, appears to be abraded by the mouth slicing
a considerable part of it at each repeated motion upon it.
Under this organ is the apparel through which the cater-
pillar can at pleasure spin out a clue or thread of silk,
when wanted to fasten itself, or suspend its body, or for
casting the skin in moulting-time. As a matter of a
very minute description, but nevertheless very admirable,
we must notice that the clue of silk, although fine and
hardly visible itself, is a double thread, that is issued from
two lateral ducts, which are united into one, and in this
main channel the silk, which was in a fluid state, becomes
solid, is moulded and issued, nevertheless glutinous enough

to adhere to any surface on which the worm spreads it.
At different ages the bombyx shows altered forms and co-
lors; when grown up, is remarkably wrinkled behind and
over the head, although perfectly smooth all over other
parts, and has stigmata, or spots, laterally and regularly
situated. These are of a dark purplish color, are eigh-
teen in number, and are supposed to be the organs of res-
piration; after the third age, two other spots, in the
form of a crescent, are seen in theback. The uniformity
of these marks altogether, with their connexion to some
internal vascular apparatus, have induced many observers
to think that they perform some function necessary to life.
Can it be by the contact only with the ambient air?
Another characteristic organ in the silkworm, and others
of the bombyx sort, is an erected, fleshy, and somewhat
pointed process, arising from the middle of the lowest
ring. Sauvage has thought it to be a kind of tractor of
the atmospheric electricity. We regret that he who wrote
at a time when that branch of ethereal philosophy had
scarcely been defined and experimented upon, could not
give further developement to his observation. A subse-
quent writer, the Abbé Rozier, has also touched the subject,
but he probably misapprehended the application of it upon
this insect.

It is not, indeed, in accordance with the laws of nature,
that a provision made by it should be a cause of disease
to any being in the creation. In other words, it is not by
the presence of electricity that danger or diseases should be
apprehended—it is by the want of it. In the case of the
silkworm, we have every reason to believe that this ele-
ment alone is its vital power, and acts more powerfully
than heat, which is nevertheless necessary for its growth.
This is unquestionably the truth of the matter, for at all

80

times the insect is cold, and at 15 or 20° colder than the
standing temperature. We will have occasion to resume
and treat that subject, one of the most important finally
to regulate the best practical method of art in the growth
of silk.

The anatomy of the silk caterpillar illustrates, in every
point, the animal functions, habits and wants, which, as
far as we are able, we will endeavor to describe and ex-
plain. Under this enumeration of parts we include, the
skin—the intestine—the reservoirs of the silk, and the
nature of that substance in a fluid or solid state—its lymph
or blood—and its principal wants in the different stages
of life.

Ist. The skin may be represented like a double bag, the
internal duplicature of which has the muscular attributes
of growth, of expansion, and of some contraction in its
tendinous rings ; but the external is merely a cuticle which,
by some distention, and by an interposed fluid from the
lower skin, is sloughed off at each period of moulting,
when it splits open in the back and around the neck, is
left by the silkworm on the spot where it had fastened
itself by clues, in different directions, of its own -silk.
This is immediately replaced by the consolidation of a
gelatinous fluid underneath, but not without great labor
from the caterpillar, and of time; twenty-four hours, at
least, are required for it, which constitute the important
division of the ages of the worm, and the period of sleep,
and of liveliness, or fraize, as denominated by the French—
the completion and regularity of which vouches for the suc-
cess of a crop of silk. By each of these operations, which
is generally repeated four times—and three only, with
another peculiar species of bombyx—the size of the worm is
increased. This remarkable shedding of the outward skin

81
is, besides, so far necessary, that without it, neither the
growth nor health, of a brood, is to be expected; and it
composes one of the most interesting parts of the art of the
culture of silk, as it comprises a great proportion of the
practical cares of feeding and of renewing the litters ;
also, that of uniting all the family, and each division of
it, in one class of age. Of these we will give, of course,
a farther explanatory exposition in aid of the silk-grower.

2d. The skin thus described, contains a few viscera im-
mersed in a fluid, which, by some has been called lymph,
and blood by others, although its color is white, or yellow,
but assumes a dark color when exposed to the contact of
atmospheric air. It has been difficult to trace its origin
or formation to any exhalent pores or vessels. Malpighi
went so far, however, as to point out a certain string or
series of hearts, from which this humor should circulate
even with a movement of systole and diastole! This ap-
pearance was by no means adventitious, and we will have
further occasion to define it; suffice it to say, that in this
humor all internal parts are kept in an equal pressure and
temperature. In the centre we see, first, the stomach, or
intestine, an elongated cavity which, from the mouth to
the lowest ring of the body, performs both functions. It
is contracted at its origin, and also at its end, by three
protuberances, which contribute to the hexagonal form of
the jimus at the moment of its expulsion. This diges-
tive organ contains a gastric juice, for obvious purposes,
presents no foldings, is strait, or like a rectum, connected at
its termination, by certain vessels, to the silk bags.

3d. The silk reservoirs are laterally placed along the
intestine, two in number; they have many foldings, much
like what anatomists call vasa deferentia, so as to be, by
several inches, longer than the space they occupy. They

J

82,

are of a fine and transparent texture, each terminating by
a capillary duct into one and commen channel, which con-
stitutes the spinning apparatus under the mouth. The
gum or silk which is contained, has a vitreous aspect from
the white to the yellowish color, in different ages and sorts
of the bombyx, and somewhat thick, as syrup or jelly.
A singular property of that animal fluid is, to become
hard, bright, and permanently insoluble by the contact
alone of atmospheric air; if kept in water it retains its
fluid property, and could, with a proper apparatus, be
submitted to a spinning: process, until again exposed to,
and hardened by air.
4th. Another important provision for the organization
of the silk bombyx, is called the bronchial apparatus, or
that for the respiration. It is not, however, carried on in
this insect in any way similar to the import of that word. -
What we see of it is, first, a set of black purplish spots,
or stigmata, vegularly and symmetrically arranged on each
side of the body, eighteen in number, with two others in
form of inverted crescents in the back. ‘These are not
visible until the third or fourth age. It is conjectured that
through these porous spots or points, the ambient atmos-
phere has a particular influence on the life of the insect,
since it is true that its purity and elasticity so greatly con-
tribute to its health, liveliness and vigor. But the Abbé
Sauvages made a very interesting discovery, clearly to illus-
irate the nature of this organic function. Having observed
that the color of the lymph of the silkworm could be
altered by the contact of air and of water, he opened the
whole body of a large bombyx, and immersed it in water.
By this operation not only the lymph was altered, but a
striking purple color was diffused over all the branching
vessels which originate from the stigmata, thence extending

53

their ramification on the intestine in which the functions of
digestion are performed ; also on the silk bags, completing
the connection of the whole. He proved thereby what
must be understood by the act of respiration of our insect
—truly an ethereal phenomenon, on the subject of which
we will have many other explanatory remarks to offer for
the best mode of rearing large broods in litters as well as
in cabins ; and this experiment was, by reiteration, ren-
dered sufficiently conclusive.

Thus far we have spoken of the principal organs and
anatomy of the silkworm, from which its wants and habits
can better be defined, and so far promoted as to constitute
one of the most valuable articles of produce.

After casting off, for the fourth time, its cuticular skin,
the silk bombyx continues nine or ten days increasing its
size, occupies a larger space on its litter, and has become
very voracious. It devours, indeed, so much of the fodder
at this period of life, and in so much greater a proportion
than in the preceding ages, that in view of its further preser-
vation, it would be hazardous to neglect any of the cares
and attentions of which it is the principal object. The
warm temperature of the season need not to be varied; yet a
greater mass of pure ambient air in the nurseries is highly
desirable, and best produced by the use of flame-fires,
which, without increasing the external heat, replace im-
mense columns of air. This would soon be rendered mias-
matic and impure, by so many thousand living animals as
constitute an ordinary brood of them, each one adding its
share of animal exhalation: and this effect is the less sur-
prising, that several thousand of caterpillars at that age,
collected on their hurdles, produce, by eating only their
iresh foliage, a very considerable noise, similar to that of
heavy rain upon the pavement.

On the thirty-second day of its life, or later, the silk-

S4

worm appears restless, disdaining food, and for the first
time impelled by a wandering disposition, which would
render it difficult to keep the brood in litters, were not a
sufficient number of branches of brushwood interspersed
on the edges of the hurdles, on which the older insects
mstinctively climb and mount, to select a spot for their
retreat. |

The retreat of a worm! And here let us be permitted
to admire the unerring skill which searches for space, deter-
mines upon dimensions, fixes, as it were, cramps or hooks to
consolidate the first necessary riggings or cordage for an
enclosure, the oval structure of a ball which, although light
as air, must be and remain immoveable, before its texture
can be woven. Indeed, the least oscillation would be
worse for it than an earthquake toa city. All these bind-
ings strike our observation, at first, as a cloudy matter
diffused around the precious cocoon. Such as it is, it
requires not the strength, but the hand of man at least, to
tear it asunder.

This work is accomplished by an insect with the mate-
rial now only superfluous in the economy of its existence.
{t is the long-sought-for golden fleece which the ancient
mythologists and poets had drawn from the rays of the
sun, or which they represented like the gatherings of ethe-
real elements, deposited on plants cherished by some
deities in their solitary or enchanted abodes or gardens.
{n fine, it is, in Our most appropriate definition, that sub-
stance called silk, which the happy concurrence of heat,
electricity, of vegetable and animal life, and of economic
industry, can man, at will, enrich himself with.

Having exhausted and spun out all the stock of its ma-
terials, the caterpillar enclosed in the ball is much reduced
m size, and altered in its form. Its image, or larva, is

85

now chrysalis, and forms a contracted lump of the organs
and parts which, not long ago, were so necessary for mo-
tion, for selecting and grinding food, for absorption of
pure air, and for further protecting its defenceless exis-
tence. Yet, by the help of the remaining animalized
lymph in its body, by the contact of atmospheric air which
is not absolutely intercepted, the whole chrysalis developes
itself again into an elegantly shaped papillo or moth, as
perfectly formed as if destined to a long life. It is diffi-
cult to conceive how this tender lepidoptera could effect
an aperture through the solid wall of its enclosure, which
no human ingenuity could unravel without using vio-
lence. Sauvages has, however, best explained the mys-
tery. He remarks that the insect drops, first, some fluid
on the concave spot through which its escape is intended ;
the tissue is thereby softened ; when, by repeated strokes
of the head against a small space of it, the innumerable
windings of the clue are gradually removed from the centre
to the circumference. Thus it is that the edges of the
aperture are outwardly reversed, and prove the patient
labor which has accomplished it without tearing or gnaw-
ing. In that state, however, the silk ball is of a refuse
quality, good only for spinning, and not for unwinding.

The sixth age of the bombyx is now terminated, and
the seventh commences, being wholly and exclusively ap-
plied to the habits or wants of self-reproduction.

It has been already remarked by several entomologists,
that there were no sexual characteric signs in the silk cater-
pillar, except in its last metamorphosis or condition of
papillo; on which subject we entertain, ourselves, certain
opinions intimately connected with the methodical princi-
ples on which we would advise to establish the art of the
silk-grower. We will, therefore, for a while, run the risk

86

of emitting some paradoxical assertions, which can, how-
ever, be reconciled with very remarkable facts.

Animal life is so far imperfect or incomplete in the en-
tomological order of beings, as to be submitted to changes
of forms and functions necessary for their existence and
for their regeneration. Without discussing, at present,
by what means this law of nature is effected among insects,
let us admit them to be oviparous, as they appear gene-
rally to be. It is evident that no sexual appendage can
be attributed to them, unless they have undergone that
change, or obtained that form in which they really can be
regenerated, ad infinitum. But that change of form may
be perfect or imperfect, complete or incomplete. Again:
all that we can possibly know of animal or vegetable
germs in nature, supposes and commands the most perfect
and complete formation of the body, which, by such a
germ, is to be formed; the sexual attributes, therefore,
are the last that can be accessory to an animal, to an
insect, and to a plant; and it may frequently be the case,
that insects and plants have no sexual characteristics, be-
cause they were imperfectly formed or reared; and their
germs are fictitious, not fecundated, as it is said, and the
race or sort would disappear from the face of the earth,
was it not better protected or fostered under other hands,
or by some other chances.

In no individual of animated jain can the above
sketch of natural philosophy be better exemplified than in
the silk worm. In the seventh age of poor or imperfect
broods, and badly fed, it would be difficult to ascertain
the male from the female cocoons, by the usual signs or
shapes, because there has been no perfect formation of sex 5
the seeds deposited were in too great proportion of a barren
sort, green, yellowish, or white.

57

Farther to demonstrate that the true test of the degree
of perfection to which a silk crop can be brought, is in
the operation and ultimate results of the sixth and seventh
age, let us be reminded that small cocoons, at farthest of
an inch (English measure), however numerous, constitute
a very inferior quality and quantity ; the true size and
standard is, more or less, of an inch and a half, and six-
teen of them, promiscuously taken, should weigh an ounce.

Before dismissing this subject of the last exertion of
the phalzena bombyx, we will relate what results were ob-
tained by Sauvages in his researches of the sexual organs
of the silkworm, than whom none could yet supply us with
better and more instructive materials. Intent on the dis-
covery of an ovarium, he recurred first to the caterpillar
at its most advanced form and age; but as many as were
opened with ascalpel, taking quantities of them indiscrimi-
nately, contained an ovarium thus described (vid. p. 81.):
A long cord, swimming in the general cavity of the worm,
showing to the naked eye an innumerable quantity of small
round bodies, thus similar to a string of beads. ‘This cord
also was adhering or suspended at the silk bags, as if re-
curring from side to side. His multiplied researches on
various sets having never offered another kind of sexual
organ, he was left to conjecture that there was no male in
the brood, that they all were females or hermaphrodites.
This conclusion, however, could not stand with the well-
established distinction of male or female cocoons, which are
found in good crops to be of an equal number. There-
fore Sauvages dropped the inquiry, because he could not
establish the two sexes with one organ only appertaining
to the female gender, for the same was again ascertained
to exist in the mother papillo before and after the eggs

88

were laid ; nor can it be seen in the male, the body of
which is much smaller.

Although the problem has not been resolved by our
predecessor so often quoted, nor by any other, we would
remark, that from his observations, we feel authorized
to conclude, that the well-ascertained existence of an
ovarium in all the individuals of the tribe, is sufficient to
indicate the two sexes, if the entomologist inquirer in
the case will please to adopt the rule we have laid, to be
that in nature for the formation of the sexual attributes,
namely—that they are the last in the scale and graduation
of organic perfection and completion ; that an ovarium
being under such a provision, becomes altered into a set of
what the anatomists call vasa deferentia, would be suffi-
cient to constitute the other sex—the contact of either will
afterwards be necessary to give existence to a fecundating
germ!

The bombyx phalzna, or moth, emerges from the cocoon,
or ball, on the eleventh or twelfth day after completion, to
the fifteenth, according to the temperature in which it has
been kept—65 to 78° Fahrenheit. ‘This operation may
be longer protracted in relation to the large or whole
quantity of cocoons, that have been set apart and placed
under observation ; it must not, however, be delayed longer
than half a day, as soon as some stain or spot is found on
one end of the cocoon. Thus returned into the bosom of
nature, our winged insect will obey to the instinctive im-
pulse of its re-production, by seeking or joining its mate.
Culturists of different nations use different methods to aid
and secure the success of this process; and, as far as rea-
son and analogy can suggest, in order to obtain the best
quality and the greatest quantity of this animated seed.
fn an economical point of view, it is an object of great

8S

value to some, of profitable commerce to others. ‘The
importance of all possible care must, indeed, be the more
surmised, by those who already know that in the state of
nature, this papillo, of about one inch long, is very clumsy,
weak on its legs, apt to loose its grasp on vertical surfaces,
using its wings only to flutter near or about the mate it
approaches, and from which it does not separate during
four or six hours, unless it is interfered with. Both parties
are of a dusky white color; they differ by the size only,
the female being thicker than the male, who is restless,
solicitous, and impatient.

Count Dandolo is the first who taught us how to turn
to profit the generative powers of this insect, by secluding
it in boxes or cages, and from the light of the day, which
it dislikes, and assorting, afterwards, the couples, on proper
frames—measuring, calculating, and apportioning their
time of service and rest!

Other Italian and French culturists are not so par-
ticular and careful. In Tuscany, the farmers’ wives, how-
ever, string together one male cocoon to two females, and
fasten the bunch with a needle and thread, on a piece of
cloth, in a corner of a dark room;* in a few days, the
cloth is found covered with seeds. We did nearly the
same in the Cevennes, and other southerly departments
ef France; but our balls, well selected in point of size,

v

*This, and other subjects of information on the culture of silk in Tus-
cany (Etruria), the most ancient agricultural district of Europe, we have
drawn from an Italian manuscript, procured on the spot, by our friend, Pro-
fessor N. Carter—than whom no recent observing and classical tourist
throughout the whole of Italy, has embraced a greater range of useful in-
quiries. To this manuscript we shall again have occasion to resort, for
citations more likely to prove the value of the document, for which we re-
turn to him our best thanks and respects.

12

30

were promiscuously strung as a garland, over black cloth,
against the walls, or on tables. In both ways the method
produces from five to six hundred seeds from each fecun-
dated phalzena.

In America, a more simple and natural way is dictated
-—to receive the seeds upon large tables upon papers, on
which the cocoons and the moths are left to take care of
themselves. ‘The papers are afterwards folded with the
seeds, and kept for use at another return of the season.

The proportion, quality, and the most approved colors
of the silkworm seeds, may furnish us, hereafter, ample
materials of instruction. Suffice it to say, at present, that
the eggs, which were at first a pale yellow, become of a
dark gray, or slate, ashy color; that the life of the papillo
has been limited to the functions and end of this seventh
age; and that it would be the sooner exhausted if uselessly
wasted by sunshine or great light, to which they should
not be exposed.

There are various species of the silkworm:

ist. The small sort, which we have already designated
as the tri-moulting.

2d. The large sort, or four-moulting. | >

3d. ‘The species called white and large.

4th. The sort called yellow.

The above nomenclature, by the Count Dandolo, is
not characteristic enough. Nor did M. Bonafoux notice
more than two sorts, the ¢ri-moulting one, and the white.
Sauvages has more scientifically given us, first, the small-
est class of three moultings, and which spins silk one
week sooner than the others, of a good quality, but in a
ball or cocoon of much inferior size. This sort is also
distinct from the few very small that may be met with in a
large nursery—dwarf ones abortive from some unknown

Yi

cause. He calls them lusettes, or forerunners; they stand.
as an exception and proof, that a whole brood has been
well trained in point of time; but they do not constitute,
like the first, a characteristic class, which, in other res-
pects, offers not any advantage over any of the others.
2d. The white silkworm, literally so called from the
white silk, or cocoons. 3d. The black, or spotted, ligrés,
4th. The greenish silk caterpillars, producing cocoons of
that cast, yet rare enough. —

By the same authority we are told, that these vari-
ous colors of the worms, or of their silks, white, straw,
orange and green, must be accidental, and from a variety
of fodder (the white excepted) ; because no perfectly exclu-
sive experiment could ever be obtained, even in the small-
est race or sort, called tri-moulting. Our modern cultu-
rists are not altogether determined nor satisfactory, in re-
lation to their preference of: the white, or of another natu-
tally colored silk. :

The habits and wants of the precious insect which we
have thus described, in all stages and metamorphoses of
its life, should be our only guides, and furnish us princi-
ples to direct the profitable method in rearing any quan-
tity of them, and obtaining proportionate crops of their
produce. Some of those habits and wants are plain
enough, obviously explained and successfully attended to ;
but others, again, are problematic or mysterious, nor can
they be accounted for on either the old or new method of
managing the nurseries. We may adopt certain practical
modes, justified by experience, but not adapted to theory;
and. some of these are somewhat complicated or expensive.
We beg leave to notice some of the above problems or
difficulties :

Ast. Why is it that several parcels of seeds from the

v2

best brood or nursery, have been successfully hatched,
either by natural or by artificial heat, and that one parcel
of the same has remained lifeless, and proved totally dead,
by having been simply wrapped ina piece or bag of silk?
2d. A certain limit of temperature, or a standing de-
gree of heat, is unquestionably necessary to rear a
brood of silkworms through their successive ages—say
from 76° Fahrenheit to 86°. It is also ascertained that
their growth, or the retardment of it, in order to equalize
the different ages of uneven sorts, is obtained by increas-
ing the heat, or by abstracting it; but what is more aston-
ishing respecting the necessity of caloric for our insect, is
the modern rule of making frequent blazing fires in the
broad hearths of the nurseries, during the fifth age, pre-
cisely when the worms otherwise seem to require. and fare
better with a temperature lower than that at which they
have been precedingly kept. - (Vide Dandolo.) Never
-seemed precepts and practical rules more in contradiction
with the natural state of things, than these. For the silk
bombyx is a cold insect, and as cold to the touch as any
herb or parcel of grass fresh gathered, being thus 20 or
25° lower in its temperature than the standing range of
the thermometer. ©
The query would now be—If caloric is so far neces-
sary to the growth and heaith of silkworms, and yet that
insect does not receive it nor participate in it sensibly,
although it visibly receives a benefit from it, and cannot
be materially injured by it,—pray what can be the cause
or principle of its vital powers f
- $d. A third question is from impure air, miasmatic and
marshy atmosphere, thick and southerly damp winds—
from humid, soiled, and wet fodder, or fermenting, putrid
litters, of all things the most dreaded in the silk-nurseries.

93

In addition to which, why is it that a severe thunder-gusi
and lightning will in a short time distract and overturn
the whole economy of a healthy moulting or spinning
brood, which would not have been in the least disturbed
by the report of fire-arms exploded in the very rooms °
(Vid. Abbé Sauvages.)

Where, then, is the offensive cause in those various con-
ditions, or violent actions? By what law of nature is the.
insect ruined or protected ?

Such are a few of the problems not yet resolved, and
such are a few of the habits and wants of the silkworms,
which have not been explained even at this advanced pe-
riod of time, nor in any of the most ancient European
silk districts. To a direct investigation of them, eminent
culturists have only substituted means and modes calcula-
ted to meet practical exigencies, which are in a great mea-
sure complicated or expensive, but which, in our humble
opinion, would be more easily and successfully remedied
under the guidance of philosophical principles which it
will be our further task to prove.

Remarks on the Fodder which is exclusively suitable for
the Silk-worm.

Tuis subject commands our particular attention, inas-
much as we would at once do away that spirit of conjec-
ture which in all times has induced many persons to sup~
pose that many more than one vegetable substance exists
in nature that could favour the growth of silk. Others
also, with obvious and proper motives, would provide for
a. substitute in those cases of retarded vegetation by late
frosts, which frequently expose a whole brood too soon

94

hatched by the artificial method, to be many days deprived.
of foliage. This is an accident the less imputable to want
of foresight, that silk growers on a large scale are obliged
to keep their brood simultaneous with the growth of the foli-
age as much as it is possible. It will, however, seldom take
place in any prejudicial degree among farmers or pro-
prietors of plantations, who can always keep some shel-
tered or hedge trees, or nurseries in which a few early
buddings may be at hand and prove sufficient even to a
great litter of them. Again, in such a case it is well un-
derstood, that by lowerig the temperature of the nursery
the growth of the insect and the want of food can be
checked one or two days without injury, while the white
mulberry-tree itself never disappoints our expectation of
its early putting forth.

This occurrence, with another which we will point out,
has been the source and cause of much anxiety and in-
cessant researches for a substitute to the mulberry-tree.
That great experimenter, the learned Sauvages, says, that
‘in his time the magnaniers held in | great repute the
leaves of the elm, of the oak, of the rose-bush, and of
the rubus, blackberry, as having much analogy to the
mulberry ; but the American silk culturists have made a
step farther, by introducing the simple and early garden
jJettuce. ‘To this we would give our assent above all
others as truly harmless: it is a fact, however, that if all
these choice plants or herbs were offered mixed with a few
mulberry leaves to the small insects, they would imme-
diately creep up and adhere to one only, their favourite, and
leave the others. Facts have sometimes been alleged to
the contrary, or apparently doubtful ; for stance, a par-
cel of grown but sickly caterpillars were thrown away on
a spot where a few Indian corn plants were thriving :

95

they soon were revived by the open air, and were able to
climb and to feed upon the leaves. What can this prove,
if the insects were there in a state of starvation ?

Thus we have it incontrovertibly asserted, that in con-
formity to its name the bombyx mori is emphatically and
exclusively well fed by the genus mulberry, and that the
white sort contains for it the earlier and greater quantity
of nutriment and of the elements necessary to constitute
the silk, as the reader may well recollect by referring him-
self to page 48 of our treatise on the culture of that plant.
Mr. Bonafoux of Piedmont would propose, however, the
use of the Broussonetia, or paper-mulberry (very common
in this country). Like all others of the genus, it contains
both principles of food and silk, and perhaps differs only
from the white but by the extreme coarseness and tough-
ness of the leaves, and this not being an objecti:n in the
fifth age of the caterpillar, after its last moulting, when it
is strong and extremely voracious, when large nurseries
require fodder by many thousand pounds in a day, and
the mounting may be accidentally delayed many days.
If the orchards are then all stripped, a little help from the
broussonetia would be acceptable. In the year 1826 our
Italian instructor gave it with great advantage on the third
and fourth days of the fifth age, and resolved to use it
again in succeeding experiments.

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INTELLIGENCE AND CORRESPONDENCE

FOR THE

SILK CULTURIST.

No. I.

| NEW-YORK.

PURSUANT to preparatory measures and resolutions
by the American Institute, July 1828, a Silk Committee,
composed of Messrs. Wm. Wiley, T. B. Wakeman, and
Ralph Lockwood, did instruct and authorise Dr. Felix
Pascalis, forthwith to import from Europe such a quan-
tity of white mulberry seeds, to be placed at their dis-
posal, and used under his direction, as he might think
to be sufficient for the season and district.—The same
having been obtained from different public gardens of
the capitals of France and Montpellier, at the shortest
possible notice ; the distribution was commenced in New-
York during the autumn after public notice, with printed
directions and instructions, not only to all applicants of the
state of New-York, but to those of the other confederte
states, with this only condition, —that they should be ow-
ners or occupants of a defined space of cultivable ground,
and that the situation and proportion of beds and nurse-
ries, in reserve for the mulberry tree, could be in every
instance faithfully recorded. Said instructions were plain
but minutely drawn up for all that relates to the process
of sowing ; and we were much gratified to find afterwards

13 .

38

that the same were reprinted in many of the neighbouring
or distant country newspapers.

In consequence of this first operation of the Avthitienn
Institute, and which has been fully accomplished before
the setting in of the winter season, several respectable
individuals of our acquaintance have been patriotically in-
duced to join us in our efforts and opportunities to obtain
seeds on their own account or for their friends, so that
upon a fair calculation we may affirm that no less than
twenty pounds of mulberry seeds were introduced in this
part of North America within six months past; which
quantity is really immense, considering that sixteen thou-
sand trees might really be the produce from one ounce
only of such small seeds. It should also be said, for the
information of all persons who might desire like supplies
from the south of Europe, that, as we had foreseen, the
destructive war in the Mediterranean, Greek, and Turk-
ish territories has caused so much ruin there, of every kind
of produce, that no order sent to Marseilles for seeds or
plants could be executed, owing to the scarcity or exorbi-
tant price of the articles, which difficulties should pro-
bably dictate more diligence or measures more peremp-
tory on the part of new purchasers.

The American Institute of New York was incorporated
by an act of the legislature, April, 1829, under a consti-
tution and power of organization which we will hereafter
communicate; and the followimg are the present officers
and trustees :—

JoHN Mason, President.

PreTer H. SCHENCK, By
Anson Hapyn, Vice-Presidents.
Curtis Bouton, |

39

Davip L. Haicut, Treasurer.
TuHappeus B. Wakeman, Corres. Secretary.
Joun A. SipELL, Record. Secretary.

Silk Committee.

Messrs. WAKEMAN, PASCALIS, WILEY,
and Lockwoop.

N. B. The members of the Institute are divided into
four departments—agriculture, commerce, manufactures,
and the mechanic arts.

CONNECTICUT.

In our preceding pages, 25 and 32, we have honour-
ably mentioned much that we already know of the most
prominent advances in the culture of silk, made in the
state of Connecticut, which, at this period of time, is
unquestionably, in a national point of view, the most use-
fully employed, and the first entitled to the profits of this
valuable source of industry, which we have endeavoured
to investigate in these pages. Witness the following docu-
ment :—

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Congress of
the United States of America, now in session at Washington. —

The Petition of the Towns of Mansfield, Ashford, Chaplin,
Hampton, Coventry, and Tolland, in Windham and Tolland
counties, state of Connecticut, by their Committees, legally
appointed and assembled in said Mansfield, on the 6th day of
February, 1828 :

100

* RESPECTFULLY REPRESENTS,

That about the year 1760 the white mulberry was in-
troduced into the town of Mansfield. ‘That the first silk
was made about four years afterwards.

The seed of the mulberry and of the silk worm were
first introduced by an enterprising citizen of said Mans-
field, who made considerable exertions to extend it through
the country, but without effect.

From the period of its first introduction until the close
of the revolutionary war but very little was done, barely
sufficient to prevent it from becoming entirely extinct.

The want of experience and skill necessarily rendered
the first attempts unsuccessful.

In the year 1783 the legislature of this state offered a
small bounty upon the mulberry tree and the silk. This
small encouragement induced the citizens of Mansfield to
engage more generally in the cultivation of the tree and
the manufacturing of silk. Availing themselves of the
means afforded them by the prior introduction of the seed,
the business soon spread through the town to a consider-
able extent, so that in the year 1793 three hundred and
sixty-two pounds of raw silk were made in said town.
From that period it has been gradually increasing, so
that at present about one half of the families are engaged
in the business, who make annually from five to fifty
pounds of raw silk in each family, and a few families
from seventy-five to one hundred pounds each, annually.

The encouragement thus afforded by the legislature
being speedily withdrawn, had little or no efiect in the
other towns in the state.

_ The business, however, has been gradually extending
to some of the neighbouring towns. So that at preset
there is probably manufactured in all the neighbouring

104
towns, collectively, an equal quantity with that manufac-
tured in Mansfield.

The amount of raw silk manufactured in this vicinity
may be estimated at about seven thousand pounds an-
nually, which is principally wrought into sewing silk.

This section of the country is not peculiarly adapted to
the growing of silk ; but it may be cultivated, with equal
success in almost all parts of our country. The middle,
southern, and western states, from the nature of the soil
and temperature of the climate, are ey better adapt-
ed to its culture than our own.

If suitable encouragements were afforded to induce a
general alteration to the business, the United States would
soon produce an abundance of the raw material, sufficient
for our own consumption. And, by the application of
suitable skill, it might be wrought into all the varieties
which necessity, convenience, and fancy may require.
Yet, in the year ending September 30, 1826, the value
of silks imported amounted to ‘above eight millions of
dollars, of which above three millions were imported from
India, for which so much specie was taken from this
country.

The history of France proves that the introduction of
the culture of silk into that country, by its government,
has conduced to the present prosperity, wealth, and
independence of foreign nations, more than any other
single cause. And the experience of this small section
of our own country evinces the fact that the same wealth
may be produced from the same cause in our own
country. : é

While some other branches of domestic industry, which
elaim protection, may be thought to tend to create mono-
-polies, and have a demoralizing effect upon the commu-

102

nity, this is entirely free from any such tendency, and
from its very nature is purely domestic. ‘The raw mate-
rial must from necessity be produced by families, in their
separate situations on farms, entirely free from the mono-
polising effect of the large cotton and woollen establish-
ments, and with as little danger to morals as any agricul-
tural employment.

"It is likewise a branch of industry which gives employ-
ment to those members of families who cannot be em-
ployed in more laborious branches of agricultural and
manufacturing business.

We find from experience and observation, that mankind
are more easily induced to engage in those branches of
business which afford an immediate profit, and want some-
thing to stimulate them to engage in a business which
must be matured by the revolutions of seasons.

It is this stimulant, which it is the peculiar duty of the
government to afford.

A proper application of which will, in a few years,
make us entirely independent of foreign nations for this
necessary, useful, and sumptuous article. ,

We, therefore, not only for our particular benefit, but
for the permanent interest of our common country, most
respectfully pray your honourable body to adopt such
measures as may be deemed expedient to excite a general
attention to this subject, and to directly encourage and
protect this very important branch of domestic industry.”

DELAWARE.

From that state we derive the fondest expectation of
success in the pursuit of the rich produce of silk. By an
act of their legislature at a last sitting, an appropriation of
thirty thousand dollars was passed for the propagation of

105

the mulberry, and other means of encouraging the raising
of silk worms, and manufacturing silk, by bounties and
gifts of medals, &c. Our information from that quarter
represents already a considerable quantity of the necessary
plants in readiness, and respectable cultivators with
annual nurseries of thirty and forty thousand worms. This
is a quantity which every family, well trained and organ-
ised, may always conveniently obtain, and thus secure
from ten to twelve pounds of pure and reeled silk. They
have it as usually mixed, of the white, orange, and straw-
coloured silk; but they speak of the black (tigré) worms
which can spin in twenty-six days. These are of course
of the tri-moulting kind, which are known to produce a
less quantity, but a finer silk, and which is highly recom-
mended by Dandolo. We may not perhaps have well
understood our informant.

PHILADELPHIA.

The reader may remember that in our introductory
discourse, page 23, we observed that this capital had not
been favoured previous to the revolutionary war, by the
Colonial Government, with any proper step or encourage-
ment for the culture of silk ; that it was commenced under
the advice and patriotic services of the great Dr. Frank-
lin, and by the help of a company organized for the
creation of a stock to be appropriated to this all-import-

_ ant object. Subsequent events, however, soon put an
end to this laudable and efficient undertaking ; we do not
know, however, that it was entirely given up throughout
that State, which is well known to have always been fore-
most in all agricultural and scientific improvement. So
gees of late years, considerable progress has been made

~ in both the city and country as to leave a full prospect of

104

success not in'the least doubtful. The Pennsylvania So-
ciety for promoting the Culture of Silk, has recently
been formed in Philadelphia: the following are the names
of the officers :—

President, Benjamin R. Morgan.

Vice-Presidents, Joseph Hemphill, Turner Coat

Secretary, Matthew Carey. -

Treasurer, Nathan Bunker.

Acting Committee, F. Dusar, Samuel Alexander, Dan-
iel J. Rhoads, Joseph P. Grant, James Mease, Joseph
Ripka, Isaac M’Cauley.

The annexed premiums have been offered by the so-
ciety, to silk culturists.

1. A premium of sixty dollars for the greatest quantity
of sewing silk, of the best quality, produced within this
state, from cocoons raised within the same, and in one fa-
mily, not less than twenty pounds; forty dollars for the -
next greatest quantity, and best quality, produced under
the same conditions, not less than fifteen pounds; and
twenty-five dollars for the next greatest quay and best
quality, not less than ten pounds.

-2. A premium of fifty dollars for the greatest quantity
of good cocoons, raised within this state, not less than one
hundred pounds: thirty dollars for the next greatest quan-
tity, not less than seventy-five pounds; and twenty dollars
for the next greatest quantity, not less than fifty pounds ; :
to be claimed before the first of September.

3. A premium of fifty dollars for the largest number of
the best white mulberry trees, raised within twelve miles of
this city, not less than four hundred; thirty dollars for
the next greatest quantity, not less than three hundred;
and twenty dollars for the next greatest quantity, not less
than two hundred.

105

The premiums for the mulberry trees to be claimed
within three years from the second day of April, 1828.

VIRGINIA.

In consequence of some slight encouragement, offered
by the last legislature of the commonwealth to the pro-
‘duction of raw silk, we are informed that several of our
agriculturists have undertaken to rear silk worms, with
prospects of success. The raising of worms has been
engaged in with much spirit, in the neighbourhood of
Petersburg, Va. One gentleman, Mr. Hannon, of that
place, has near one hundred thousand worms, just ready
to spin. ‘They have been fed upon the leaves of the
common mulberry. If experience should show that a
portion of our industry canbe best employed in produc-
ing this article, its cultivation will open to us a new
‘source of national wealth.— Patriot, July 7, 1828.

4

OHIO.

‘This State is in a line, beyond the mountains, with
many others which, from Canada and Acadia down
to the mouth of the Mississippi, were anciently visited
by French settlers and adventurers, even before the At-
lantic colonies were established (vide Charievoix, F.
Hennepin). Although in those years we cannot find any
record alluding to attempts towards the culture of silk
by Europeans, it is nevertheless a fact, that the white
mulberry tree has been frequently seen in those regions,
besides the other natural species of the genus which are to
be seen every where. It is another fact also, that from
the Michigan and the Illinois to the gulf of Mexico there
are more French families, by descent and language, than
on the eastern shore: it will not, therefore, appear un-

14

106

founded to our apprehension, that there ‘is actually as
great a disposition in that part of the country to favour
the culture of silk as in any of the maritime and commer-
cial states.

We read in the Western Tiller of Cincinnati, April 17th,
2 communication to the Agricultural Society of Hamilton
county, respecting a considerable provision of seeds made
up and presented by James Prentiss, Esq. of this city, for
distribution among his friends in that State ; the whole of
which were deposited with Benjamin Drake, Esq. the
chairman of a-silk committee in that place. They were
sent with our printed instructions for the sowing and ma-
nagement of seedlings. Success to all! of which we enter-
tain very little doubt, if the attempt is perseveredin. We
beg leave, nevertheless, to tender our respectful thanks to
our friend Mr. Prentiss and to the editor of the Tiller,
William T. Ferris, for the good report they have given of
us in that interesting journal.

We have lately read a No. of the Republican Com-
piler, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, June 23, 1829. It con-
tains the address of the agricultural society of Hamilton
county, Ohio, by Messrs. B. Drake, E. D. Mansfield,
and Charles Fox, committee of the same institution,
dated April 1, 1829. It is, in general principles, an in-
teresting and instructive document, from which we would
except nothing but the recommendation of using chesnut
leaves as brushwood for the worms to spin upon ; this is
worse even than a simple bit of paper rolled in a cone; for
the latter would not, like the dried leaf, be broken and
mixed with the entangling tow, and cause a long and tedi-
ous work tobe removed. The silk grower must at least be
as good a mathematician himself as the insect, which is
seeking for equilateral triangular supports, to establish its

107

last abode, with: conveniency and free circulation of air.
Among the heath kind of shrubs or plants, that which is
neither thorny nor very high, and has no leaves, answers
to the above principle, and will be the best to produce
the least quantity of tow, and the most regularly formed
cocoon. On that subject more anon.

MASSACHUSETTS.

The tollowing from the New-England Farmer, June
12th, 1829, must convince the friends of American im-
provements, that many a Jason among them can, without
any expedition beyond the seas, be put in possession of
the golden fleece.

‘« At a meeting of the trustees of the Worcester
County Agricultural Society, especially convened April
23d, 1829, it was voted, that in compliance with the in-
_ Junctions of the legislature, in their late act, continuing
and extending the liberality of the government to the en-
couragement of agriculture and manufactures, the follow-
ing premium be proposed ;—to the proprietor of THE
BEST Nursery oF MULBERRY TREES, within the
county, in number and quality, on the first Wednesday of
May 1832, to be determined upon inspection and com-
parison by a committee to be appointed by the Trustees
for that purpose, upon the application of those who shall
claim to be competitors twenty days next preceding the

said first Wednesday-of May, $60.00.
‘W. D. WHEELER, Rec. Sec.”

SOUTH CAROLINA—STATESBURG.

In the American Farmer, Baltimore, July 3, 1829,
we find a doleful account of the great mortality which
happened this year in an immense nursery of silk worms,

108

the abové place, and which swept off nine hundred anc
fifty thousand insects out of one million! The calamity.
is attributed to various causes, namely the rainy constitu-
tion of the weather, the wet state of the leaves, or to
change of the fodder, from white to red mulberry, &c.
Whatever causes may have induced this disease and:
rendered it so fatal, and what useful hints or advices
could be inferred to avert a like danger and destruction,
it would be difficult to tell; owing to a statement in the
narrative, with respect to the size of the building whicl
was appropriated to the nursery, for the accommodation

of one million of worms : it is said to be eighty feet im
length by thirty in width; it is, therefore, evident that it

could not contain such a quantity of silk worms, which

is the result of twenty-five ounces of their seed. The

dimensions of the building, appropriated by Count Dan-
dolo to the raising of five ounces only, which gives two
hundred thousand worms, were seventy-seven feet by

thirty. There is, we know, some difference in the mea-

surements here mentioned ; it is not, however, so great but

we could well overlook it; from the above authority and

from that of Monsieur M. Bonafoux we calculate that
one million of silk worms require twelve thousand nine
hundred and thirty-seven square feet of space on hurdles,
and a nursery of the same width as the above, should at
least be three hundred feet long. Were we permitted.to
offer a conjecture of the remote cause of the sad event in
Statesburg nursery, we would find it similar to the cata-
strophe which happened to a certain noble culturist in
France, and which we have related at page 39; that
is, an error or oversight upon the space necessary to ac-
commodate your caterpillars, on sound and clean litters.
As for the proximate cause which rapidly must have en-

a it
best ’ ’
pat r

i iL

109

_ gendered pestilence, whether it was wet fodder, er a long
continuation of damp atmosphere, it is all likely; but
nothing more direct and judicious than the remarks of
_the editor, of the ordure itself of the worms, a powerful
absorbent of moisture and becoming terribly deleterious.

Tn reference to the definition given of the above pesti-
lence we think it very difficult to describe by names the dis-
eases of the silk worm, they are different in both the French
and Italian language; the first call ¢rip’s those worms
which are found dead and yet preserve an appearance of
_ life and health; they call them also morts-blanes, morts-

flats. The same is meant by Dandolo, page 289.

FRANCE.

Extracts of a letter from M. Alex. Eyries, Member of
the Royal Horticultural Society of Paris, &c., to the
editor.

‘‘ Havre de Grace, December 26, 1828.

‘* A friend of ours has just completed, in Pondicherry,
an establishment of silk culture on such an extensive
scale as to secure 9000 pounds of silk per annum. He
of course has attended to all the requisites for a suflicient
quantity of the mulberry tree, and for the filature of silk.

“¢ Our government has thought it necessary to propa-
gate forthwith the morus alba sinensis in our meridional
departments. This species gives larger foliage, and
puts forth earlier in the spring than any of the white kind.
I have seen an ample collection of it in the Botanical
Royal Garden of Montpellier. Besides the attributes
above described, this kind of mulberry will better weather
out the cold season of our northern departments, &c.”

11Q

[From the same. ] wae ™
“ April 9th, 1829..

*¢ 'The white large leafed mulberry continues to be dis-
tributed by order of government, and is propagated by —
cuttings, a great quantity of which have been provided for .
and prepared principally in the Botanic Garden of Mont-
pellier. It has been intended by the same authority, that
those who make it a business to cultivate the tree in nur-
series should be served the first, until a certain fixed
quantity has been thus disposed of, other applicants may
afterwards be attended to. There cannot be, therefore,
much of the seeds to be expected for the ensuing sum-
mer ; but I hope to be able to transmit you a few sap-

lings by next autumn. Yours, &c.”

The following is an account in part, of some effects pro-
duced by electrical experiments on silk worms.
New-York, July 8, 1829.

DEAR SIR,
HavinG been gratified by your entire confidence

in the management of a little silk worm nursery, in which
you placed an equal number for experiment, I would beg
leave to submit my report.

The spring vegetation has been so much retarded
by unfavorable weather, that I could not venture the
hatching of our silkworm seeds until the latter part of
May.

This process was done in a dry and properly aired
room, but without the aid of artificial heat, trusting only to
the progressive and spontaneous influence of the season:
the hatching went on pretty well after the 23d, but an
unseasonable return of cold and rain deprived us of foli-

11]

age, and the insects were kept four days on garden let-
tuce, and we lost many.

The remainder of our stock (about 1500) had no other
advantage, until the 17th of June, but a sufficiency of excel-
lent white mulberry leaves, change of litters, and occasional
airing of the rooms ; and no correction, by artificial heat,
of the standing temperature, the range of which often
varied ten or more degrees; they nevertheless attained
to their third age or moulting in general good health,
although with some mixture of unequal and small sizes.
You observed at this time that the worms that had been
procured from Connecticut, (and which had not been
mixed with my seeds,) were of the black and spotted kind
called by the French tigrés ; and that as many of this sort
as were found among my lot might be put with the rest so
as to have the litters more uniform in kinds and to select
the strongest for future experiments.

The t#igrés indeed appeared more healthy than the white
or yellow kinds; they were therefore divided and spread
over two separate hurdles, and, as you directed, there was
placed under them a sheet of strong twilled silk, on which
new litters might be formed to replace old ones, thereby
intercepting the circulation of the air through the hurdles,
so much desired by others.

But you think this insect to be electric, and even to pos-
sess the faculty of abstracting electricity from the atmos-
phere ; and that by effecting the insulation of the insect, you
favour the accumulation of that element. Indeed the
rapid growth and healthy state of these worms would
seem to illustrate and corroborate the principle.

hortly after, and when the worms reared over silk had
attained the fourth age, you caused one hurdle to be
insulated completely by glass supports, and the worms

112

thereon to be fully electrified, which operation was per-
formed under the direction of Mr. Everett, medical-electri-
cian of this city, and by means of his very complete and
powerful portable machine. It was a clear day, the ther-
mometer at 77 degrees Fahrenheit; the litter had just
been renewed with fresh mulberry leaves, which proved
excellent conductors of the fluid. The first contact
seemed to agitate the whole litter, and the insects previ-
ously torpid commenced eating voraciously. The opera-
tion lasted an hour, and was afterwards repeated as often
as the state of the air would permit, until the 28th of June,
when so many of the worms showed a disposition to mount
and spin, that we could delay no longer to furnish them
with cabins of brushwood for that purpose, and these were
soon filled with our industrious family, their period of ex-
istence with respect to that of the others being abridged
by a full week.

Their cocoons, which have been examined by many
visitors, were declared much larger than any others of this
country, and are uniformly white, slightly tinged with a
green hue.

Hurdle No. 1, has averaged 16 or 17 cocoons to an
ounce troy weight, of the first quality.

The worms of hurdle No. 2, which were experimented
upon by insulation with silk, are inno way inferior to the
first, except in point of time, being a week later in mount-
ing.

The other division of our spinners, together with the
respective quantities and qualities of silk, will be the sub-

ject of a future communication.
Yours, most respectfully,

T. M. KERRISON.

To Dr. F. Pascants.

ERRATA.

Page 12, last line of note, add April, 1829,
—— 25, line 16, for 3 or 400, read 3 or 4,000,

—— 29, —— 9 from bottom, for cases read cares,

—— 44, —— 14, for dicotyledenous, read dicotyledonous,
—— 44, —— 16, for there exists read there exist,

— 51, —— 3 from bottom, for drilling read dibbling,

—— 80, —— 1, for at 15 or 20° colder, read at 10 or 159.

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EN, AON Ae oe

THE

SILK CULTURIST, 9

No: 1. De ign!

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Ay sth JER AN a5!
eas” ay e558” ‘es %ay3°”

NEW-YORK, JULY 15, 1829,

TO BE PUBLISHED QUARTERLY. |

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A superficial glance at the pages of the Silk Culturist will show 3s

the reader that in many and distant parts of the United States con- 2 14 a
siderable advances in the art of raising Silk haye already a sue:
made; and although often perhaps without co-operation or mutual bs

interchange of information, often, too, carried on with very different A te
grades of instruction and success, yet always with intelligence and we
industry. To elicit therefore and propagate all the desirable im. ¢ ¢
provements which experience inay suggest to some few, before the
like is attained by others, nothing seems wanting but a channel of 2
communication, a circulating repertory of knowledge and practicai @
matter among the culturists themselves, who would be benefited SS
by an exchange of their observations, and by comparing the state- £
ments of their operations and successful results, &c. This is not %
all. The value and use of silk as a staple or produce of the coun. #@o,
try, or as a commercial article‘of manufacture, cannot be well as- $%) 3)
24, certained, save when there is a proper and certain scale whee SS
és to judge its quantity and quality; then it becomes a tangible capital, SZ >”
readily disposible by those who possess it, and are acquainted with & \¥

the calland demand for it, And where or how to barter for it, 7

In these views we enterfain much hope of encouragement from %
American Silk Culturists, hose subscription is respectfully solicit-
ed, to be forwarded (post paid) to the publisher, W. B. Gilley, 94 .

Broadway, or to the editor, 71 Liberty-street, New-York. Com. %4

«

munications for the Work also will be thankfully received, and
advertisements inserted. ie

The Second Quarterly No. of the Silk Culturist will be issued 3
with the second volume of the Practical Instructions, in October Sfp
1829, price 75 cents to the subscribers to the latter. The terms of She
subscription for a continued series will be proportionate to it. future =f

&

ev 92
auee™ as

éateut and demand.

* Sto, or Stee ’