Cheraw gazette and Pee Dee farmer. [volume] (Cheraw S.C.) 1838-1839, 1839-09-13
NUMBER Xiv,

the silk business, is the beginning to make
silRtoo soou. The country is not supplied
with mulberry trees-not an hundredth
part of the number wanted to supply the
country will be produced this year. The
consequence viii be, the prices Of trees will
induce people 10 sell, andtlsus 10 defer plan.
ting permanent orchards. Heucs, allthe
worms raised this year, or the msior part as
least, must be fed on the native mulberry
from The woods at a cost more than equal
to the value ofthe silk produced. This will,
or at least may serve to disappoint many,
and to disgust others. But when the coun-
try shall be well supplied with trees: and
thsprice Of them consequently reduced 50
that there viii be no object 10 selling. shen,
may the culture Of silk be expected to tgo
ahead Ia another paper, .howeves, ia the
present number, we have made condensed
statement of the cocooneries now feeding
in many. The factsset forth, we feel as.
suied, will satisfy any reasonable person
that we are making silk even now, to an
extent that very few have heretofore sup.
posed possible.
Another reason why We can succeed,
though our predecessors failed, and one, toos
greater than all others, IS to be found in
the advantages We possess 10 the norus
muliicaulis. They had not this invaluable
tree. They were obliged to wait i've 70
eight years for their white mulberry trees to
grow large enough to afford leaves fof
their worms. 1t is not too much to be
wondered at that our peculiar people
were discouraged by the very distant
pro spect this afforded them cfprofit. We
can plant our norus multicaulis trees one
year and make more silk from an acre Of
them the next, than can generally be made
from an acre Of white mulberry trees eight
years old. Besides, it 10 less labour and
expense to produce ten acres Of nofus fnul.
ticaulis trees than one of white mulberry
These facts, which every one acquainted
with the business knows full well, have
caused trees TO be comparatively and appa..
rently very high prices. A tree costs say
one dollar; we'll, the purchaser GUS Il up,
and in six months he win have at least tea
and not impobably thirty trees, equal every
way 10 the one he had purchased. Thus
for one dollar, and not :wo hours labour. he
has obtained, say 6feen first rate trees.
Now apply the same test 10 the white null
berry, the tree used in Europe for silk
worms, and with which we have heretofore
failed. Suppose you only have to pay ten
cents for It, you must plant It and cultivate
it FIVE or six years before you can use its
and even then il will be only one tree sill;
for you cannot multiply it as you can the
morus multIcauiis. But suppose you SOW
an ounce ofwhite mulberry seed, that VIII
cost one dollar, and you obtain 5000 trees
from it; still it will be six or eight years be.
fore they are ct to afford leaves and ID
that same time you might have produced
100000 trees from the single morus multis
caulis tree that cost one dollar. Therefore,
in the morus muhcaulis we have q great
and powerful influence, that will, even
though all other advantages were absent,
insure success to The great cause.
q. B. 8.