Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1839-03-13
A G RICU L T u RAJ.
From the New England Farmer.
AGRICULTURAL MEETING.

rTOIn new England Farmer
AGRICULTURAL MEETING.
The fifth agricultural meeting was
holden on Thursday evening last, and
was as we'll attended as any former one.
showing an undiminished interest in ag.
ricultural inquiry and improvement. The
Hon. Mr.. Thaxter of the Council was in
the chair
Mr.. Smith began the business of the
silk culture in 1881 and then purchased
one ounce of mulberry seed. He has
used seven or eight different varieties of
worms and has fed from most of the diff
ferent kinds of trees.
He expressed diffilence in giving his
opinion ofthe different sorts of mulberry;
but 1t was quite apparent that he thought
the morus multicaulis unsuited to our eli
mate; and preferred to all others the
Canton, the seeds Of which he procured
from DIR. Stebbns of Northampton, who
obtained them through the missionaries,
who had penetrated into the hiIly coun-
try of Pekin where they procured this
seed. The tree is easily propag gated by
cuttings; its foliage is large and sub
stantial and It has suffered very little
from the winter. The white mulberry
will make as good silk as any feed which
can be given to the worms and the only
objection is the smallness of the leaves
and the consequent increased labor in col
Letting them. To the question whether
he could collect more weight of foliage
from the morus multicaulis than from 9TH
err trees, he replied that he could collect
80 lbs from the morus multcauls or Can.
ton, when he could get only 10 lbs from
the white mulberry. He was not fam:I-
lar with the Broussa which he deemed
only variety of the white mulberry. OF
much value though its leaves were com
paratively small, and it could be propa-
gated only from seed. He pronounced
the Alpine highly valuable tree but
he stated that it was the result merely OF
a selection of the best plants for size and
beauty of foliage from great numbers
raised from the Canton or Asiatic seed,
and that the name of Alpine is wholly an
arbitrary designation of the best plants
and not the designation of any new kind.
He considers the morus multicauis as
furnishing from its very rapid growth in
our latitude a leaf which contains too
much water, and was liable to produce
disease in the worms. He says his own
experience and observation have TAUGHT
him that the worm requires a difference
in the nature of its feed according to its
age. At its first coming out it needs a
very tender leaf; and as it advances it re-
quires leaf much more substantial; that
in short its appetite and wants correspond
to the progress of vegetation in the tree.
the leaves at first being tender and acquir-
ing in their progress TO maturity more and
more substance. He purchased at one
time the multicaulis plants to the amount
OF AIS dollars, but they would hot answer
his purposes. They could not be left out
IN the ground in winter and he had lost
many of them in the cellar. He prefers
to set his trees in hedge lows or clumns.
keeping them low and not suffer them to
become standard trees. He thinks the
best mode of gathering the leaves of the
white mulberry is to cut the tops and then
pick off the leaves but there is danger Of
destroying the young worms if too much
foliage was laid upon them. He consid,
ers it an easy and interesting labor for fe-
males and young persons.
The silk worm has five ages and peri.
DDS of moulting; after the last mouitino
the worm requires 4-5ths of his whole
feed. When begun to be FED he should
be fed with the young leaf Every DAYS
Matching is to be kept by ITSELF and The
worms are not to be fed on the fourth dav
of their lives. He thinks that there is no
injury accruing from giving his worms
wet leaves. They must not be fed with
leaves that have been heated, but he deems
it oftentimes Of use to give the worms wet
leaves and with that view very often
sprinkles his leaves with a pailful of wa.
ter TO 100 lbs of leaves. Too dry a room
Is Injurious TO the worm. He does not
hesitate to give them wet leaves In all
stages of their growth.
lie says that many losses occur from
covering the worms too closely when thev