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of the advantage of its monopoly by one, could scarcely be perceived or estimated.

The first known plant of this variety, was brought to France from the Philippine islands, by Perottet, a French botanist. It has since been called the Chinese mulberry; and some of those who have attributed to it every possible virtue, and falsely as often as truly, have asserted that this is the kind in general use in China; and to this circumstance, they have ascribed the superiority of Chinese silk and silk-culture. But there can be no ground for this supposition; and it may well be doubted whether there is a single plant of this kind in the vast empire of China. It is a seedling variety, different from its own parent stock, and incapable of reproducing its own kind by its seeds. This being the case, its origin may as well be recent as ancient, and the plant which Perottet brought from the Philippines, and which, by its peculiar appearance, attracted his notice, without his reporting or probably suspecting its value, possibly, might have been the only individual then existing in the world. If, as has been asserted, this was the kind of mulberry tree in general use in China, it is impossible that its peculiar appearance, so different from any known in Europe, should not have attracted the attention of some missionary, or some other of the few, but intelligent and observant travellers who have had opportunities of passing through that great country, and who have published their observations. In addition, the compilation of extracts from Chinese works, before referred to, though describing several kinds of mulberry trees, does not speak of one which can be confounded with the morus multicaulis.

do what they have always done, or seen done, although they are in different localities, and although the temperature varies from year to year. Thus the most skilful culturists fail sometimes. Either a laboratory badly situated, badly ventilated, the continuance of rain when leaves have not been provided in advance, or other causes, occasion diseases of the silk-worms, and may cause the failure of a particular stock. But this year, the evil has been general, and of course there must have been a common cause.

The grasserie, [gras] or yellows, prevailed generally in this region. Very few proprietors have been spare 1 by this plague, which has occasioned enormous losses. Those culturists who have had half a crop of cocoons considered themselves fortunate.

Some persons attribute this disease to the [late] white frosts, which destroyed the leaves of the mulberry trees. They say that the second putting forth of leaves, called aftermath, is less suitable for the food of silk-worms. I cannot admit this explanation.

When the mulberry trees, stripped of their leaves in May and June, and the branches pruned or lopped the following months, shoot out a second time, it may well be supposed that this kind of aftermath is of inferior quality; that the tree exhausts itself by the leafing process, so forced by our industry; and that the sap is less elaborated, and in great part has exuded from the numerous wounds of the branches made by both the gatherers and pruners.

But when, at the commencement of spring, the frost affects the young buds, often it is but their outer envelopes which are blasted; and even if To conclude. If the facts, which have been entirely killed, when the weather becomes mild, stated, and the arguments founded on them, are other buds come out in a few days. If other frosts both correct, then there can be but little ground still follow, as in this year, it is certainly a great for doubt or question of this important general de- evil; but it is more easy to nature, I believe, and duction-that the combined advantages for silk-costs less of vegetative force, to produce a new culture now possessed by Virginia, are superior to those of most of the successful silk-growing countries in the world, and inferior to few, if indeed to any.

shoot at this season, than to again cover the tree with leaves after it has been stripped and pruned.

It is certain that after late frosts, the trees furnish fewer and smaller leaves, and that the total weight of those produced by a tree may be less by a third, or even by a half. But their constituent principles are the same with those spared by the frost. The water, the gum or resinous principle, the green fecula, the fibrous residue, are in the same proportions, in either case, if the trees Translated for the Farmers' Register from the Annales de l'Ag- are of the same kind, and in the same soil and ex

ON THE CAUSES OF FAILURE OF THE CROP OF COCOONS, IN 1834, IN THE DEPARTMENT

OF GARD.

riculture Francaise.

posure. The insoluble residue only is in smaller proportion in the young leaves.

I will add, to sustain my opinion, that some rearings of silk-worms upon the leaves called aftermath have succeeded, while some others made on leaves which had escaped the frosts, have failed. Every one has observed this, as well as myself.

The cocoons have generally failed this year in the arrondissement of Alais, (in Gard,) which furnishes a large quantity, and of the best quality; they have succeeded no better in the other parts of our department, and in the neighboring country. The deficiency of this crop is so much the more severely felt, in as much as it may be said to be the only one that brings us in any money. It is my opinion that the ill success of the silkThe silk-culturists of Cevennes have great rep-worms was owing to the wintering of the eggs, utation, which they deserve by the labors they perform, and their attentions and watchfulness. But the greater number of them are opposed to any change of their routine; they all continue to

*The department of Gard is one among the most southern in the olive, or the best silk region of France. It extends to the Mediterranean, at the western mouth of the Rhone.-ED. F. R.

and to the variations of the temperature during the hatching. I do not yet pronounce as to the sole cause of the disease (the yellows ;) I propose to make, next year, some experiments to determine the point.

The yellows does not manifest itself but little until the third moulting; but the gras, which appears to have the principle of the other, appears from the begining of the feeding. And since,

this year, all the laboratories were affected, and at each moulting the evil increased, and this distemper reigned throughout, it must be, as I said before, that the cause must be common to the whole country. I find such a cause in the temperature which we have experienced, and of which I am about to submit some details.

The winter of 1833 4 was warmer than any has been for many years, as is established by meteorological observations kept by my father from 1802, and since continued by myself. The thermometer rarely sunk as low as the freezing point,* [zero of cent. or 32 Fahr.]; and two mornings only, February 1st. and 2nd., the thermometer was at 5 below zero, [23 Fahr.] It rose many times as high as 14 and 15 degrees [28 and 29 Fahr.] in December, January, and February. We have had delightful and very hot days for days of winter.

The mean tempera

ture of this season,+9°.98 cent. [50 Fahr.] The mean tempera

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ture of December,+9°. 85 [50 F. nearly.] January, ÷ 8°.75 [48 Fahr.] February, =+ 8o.80 [48 Fahr.] March, : +10°. 60 [51 Fahr.] It has frozen three times in January, five times in February, three times in March, but slightly. The first freeze took place on January 21st. The lowest point of the thermometer in open air was+3°, [37 Fahr.] The thickest ice that I observed in the fields, February 1st, was only 10 millimetres [about half a line, or one 25th part of an inch,] in thickness.

Rains fell but five times in January and once in February; which produced but 71 millimetres of water, [27 hundredths of an inch.] In average years, there falls four times as much in winter.

The greater num

means of some sheltered trees.
ber threw away part of their stock, thinking, and
rightly, that if there were fewer cocoons, their
price would be higher, and that, towards the close
of the feeding, the leaves would be very scarce
and dear. There were some proprietors who gave
up this gathering entirely, to take care of their
mulberry trees; and proceeded to prune them
forthwith. These trees have well ripened, and
are at this time very fine.

The diminution of the leaves was supposed to be fully a fourth, and yet there remained many upon the trees. In general, the crop of cocoons did not pay the expense of the leaves they consumed, although the cocoons sold for more by nearly half, than in average years.

All the culturists had observed that the eggs changed color from the second or third day, whilst, in common years, eight days are necessary. The winter, warmer than temperate, had prepared the eggs, and the first exposure to heat was enough to make them begin to hatch; but arrested at that time by cold, reanimated and benumbed anew, this alternation of life and death, if I may so express myself, was necessarily very prejudicial to the insects. The seed of a plant which should be moistened and dried many times, would perish finally; as would the eggs of a hen if set upon one day, suffered to cool the next, and so on by turns, heated and cooled. We may postpone the hatching of all eggs, and consequently of those of the silk-worm; but once commenced, it is necessary to keep up the warmth proper for hatching them.

In other years, we have been accustomed to take accounts of the laboratories which succeeded badly; but this year it was those which did not fail, which were remarked and cited. The most successful culturists were those whose eggs were wintered most carefully, who knew how to guard them from the early heats, used precaution in hatching them, in moving them and giving them air the most frequently; and those whose mulberry trees being less damaged by the frosts, could avoid protracting the feeding season.

CH. D'HAMBRer-Firmas, Mayor of St. Hyppolyte-de- Caton, Member of the Agricultural Society of Gard, &c.

There has fallen no snow on the plains; and the snow which covered Aigonal and Lozere this winter, and served to increase the coldness of the winds which pass over these mountains, remained on them for a shorter time than in common years. The field labors, and vegetation, were advanced more than ordinarily. Some culturists, seeing the buds of the mulberry trees about to open, put the eggs to hatch fifteen days earlier than other years. Some worms had been hatched when, from the 16th to 23rd of March, severe white frosts killed the leaves in many cantons. It was necessary to throw away the worms, and to procure new eggs, which were very dear. The end of March and begining of April, were very fine and hot weather. Some persons had sought to retard the coming Grafting is a mode of propagating varieties of forth of the worms by putting the eggs in cool fruit of esteemed quality. Grafts may be cut at places; but others continued the process of hatch-any time after the fall of the leaf in autumn, and ing. The temperature was sufficient to produce the change of color and make the eggs hatch. Cold again, from the 17th to 19th of April, arrested the hatching of the worms, destroyed the leaves which the first frosts had spared, and the buds of the trees which had [not] perished the

month before.

But few leaves are wanting in the first age of the worms, even for a considerable stock for raising. Some few culturtsts saved their worms by

* In the original the degrees of temperature are marked according to the centigrade thermometer, which are here accompanied by the equivalents according to Fahrenheit.-ED. F. R.

From the Farmers' Cabinet. GRAFTING AND INOCULATING.

before the buds begin to swell in the spring. They should be of the preceding year's growth, and are best from bearing trees and exterior limbs. They may be preserved by imbedding their larger ends in clay, a potato, or in moist earth, in a cellar in winter, or in the open ground, partially or wholly covered, in the spring. Grafis are frequently sent across the Atlantic. The great care should be, that they are not kept too warm or too moist, so that the buds swell before they are wanted for use. The rationale of grafting will suggest the time and the manner in which it should be done. The scion and graft are to be so adjusted that the sap-wood of the stock, by which the sap ascends from the roots, comes in contact with the

cut off from two to four inches from the ground during the season; they will far out-grow the others in size and height, they also grow more erect and free from craggy twigs, a great saving in pruning. The improvement in their appearance is admirable. Picture to yourself trees from the nurseries such as I have received, and at full prices, with old stocks, half closed over, and budded two to three feet from the ground. The con

sap-wood of the scion ; and a like adjustment must advantageously budded. If the operation be skilbe observed between the inner bark of both, ful, they will take; and if otherwise, they receive through which the sap descends from the graft to no perceptible injury. The advantages of early the stock, after it has been elaborated in the budding are numerous and great. First, the job leaves. Without the first precaution, the sap will contemplated is over: you cannot have any uneanot reach the graft, which will consequently shri-siness about it from any delays. Your trees are in vel and die. Without the last, the graft cannot a much better state for coming to perfection; they knit or unite to the stock; for it is the descending will thrive much better, notwithstanding they are sap which forms the new wood, and which indeed causes the graft to send its roots down into the earth, upon the outside of the wood, but under the bark of the stock. The union can only take place after the sap has begun to circulate in the stock, which is when the buds are bursting. The clay or composition is applied to exclude the drying influence of the air and sun, and also rain, from the wound, until a complete union has taken place. The graft does not become injured by being some-trast is great. what shrivelled before it is inserted; but if it ap"The disadvantage from suffering nurseries to pears too much so, it may be buried a few hours remain till a number of years old, before budded, in moist earth before used. The compositions is obvious. The wound necessary for the bud, in used as substitutes for clay are many. A good thick and old bark, and especially if the bud does one is one part tallow, two parts beeswax, and four take, is of some injury. The cutting off the large parts rosin, melted and incorporated like shoema- old stock, leaving the bud alone while the stock is ker's wax. If the weather is cold this will require closed over-meantime the quantity of roots withto be softened by immersing it a time in warm wa-out a top in proportion, are great checks, and of ter. A thin layer of this covering the end of the stock and the slit, will suffice. With the addition of a little more tallow, the composition may be spread upon linen or cotton cloth, when warm, and the cloth cut to the required size for a graft, and applied with less trouble in the form of a prepared plaster. The different processes of grafting are so generally known that we need not detail them; our object being only to throw out such suggestions as may tend to render the success of the ope

much injury to the growth of the plant; and most ultimately affect the growth and health of the tree.

"I make these remarks from the authority of my own experience in inoculating a nursery in its different stages as above described.

"I shall now attempt to describe my process in budding. I was instructed to strike a horizontal cut through the bark, with a sharp knife, at a suitable place, on the north side of the stock; striking from this a perpendicular cut about an inch long, opening the bark with a knife or some The following is the account of Mr. Robinson, instrument for the purpose; then taking a bud of Portsmouth, N. H., of his method of perform-from the scion, having a care to take off a small ing the operation:

ration more certain.

Persons intending to graft or inoculate to good advantage, should in August procure their scions containing their buts and grafts. It is well to have for their better preservation, a portion of the larger limbs connected with them. If taken off immediately, they must be thrown, when bundled up and labelled, under the north side of your thick yard or garden fence, where they will be secure, if exposed to the influence of the atmosphere; having an eye in case of too warm and dry weather, they are not too much exposed. If so, just enter their but ends under the surface of the earth. This method is better than covering them up bodily, or keeping them in a cellar.

portion of wood with the bud-then carefully taking away the wood, leaving the stem or eye of the bud whole and smooth-then thrusting in the bud with a due proportion of bark, three-fourths of an inch long, and half as wide. The bark of the but to be thrust in Iree from the bark of the stock above-then closing over the bark of the bud with that of the stock, binding it carefully, with elm or bass rind, or with coarse woollen yarn. This process has not yet proved perfect; it has with me often failed. I have sought for a more perfect and sure process. Accordingly I have varied, as my judgment has led me, for a better method. I have found that instead of striking a horizontal, it is best to cut quite a slo"Experience has taught me that there is a great ping stroke, splitting down from this slope perpenadvantage in procuring cuttings in this way, over dicularly so slow as to admit the bud, taking off the practice of neglecting till too late. I shall in an oval shape, in the same careful manner as now attempt to show the best method to manage above described; having a care to preserve a lita nursery, as to securing good fruit in the most tle wood at the eye of the bud as I had in taking economical and speedy manner. To do this, it away in the former process. The bud then is grafting and inoculating is my text. The nursery to be thrust under the raised bark, down so low is supposed to have been judiciously managed, and of one year's growth from the seed. Of course the plants are from one to two feet high, and as large as a Dutch quill; some much larger. All of this size never will be more fit to bud. There should be no delay. These little young trees have their peculiarly smooth and pliable bark; they are very thrifty, and consequently may be budded somewhat later than others of a different character. A nursery in this stage may be most

as to admit the bark of the stock to come in its former place, above the bud, for half an inch, where it immediately receives its usual nourishment; being bound up with coarse woollen yarn, which I prefer to any thing else. In winding on the yarn, I am careful to draw it gently over the wound, omitting to cover the bud till the last, over which I then draw the yarn very softly. In this process, every part works so natural and so smooth, that if unbound the next day, it would be difficult

to distinguish the bud from a natural one; and in- | that she should give milk until the time of her deed, the bud as well as the bark of the stock | calving, and if she but possesses this quality it is seems not in the least affected. In this mode of to them a sufficient recommendation, if they wish inoculating, there is no such thing as not taking. to make sale of her, and that it is the great and On the other hand, the bark being cut square only criterion by which to judge of a good or poor across, and the bud not being sufficiently thrust cow. down, the bark of the stock coming to bear on the outer bark of the bud, at the top of the slit, there is nothing to support it; but it dries and shrinks from its primitive place, admits air, and if the wood is taken out of the bud, it all fails together, especially if the eye of the bud is a little rubbed: at any rate, live or die, a dangerous wound is inflicted.

HENRY BUTMAN.

Now sir, so far as my experience goes, it is at variance with this argument, from the facts that cows that are milked to near the time of their calving, will not give so much nor so good milk during the year; as being milked at an unseasonable time, they loose much of their vigor and strength at a time when most needed--their bags do not have their natural fullness-their calves "The mode that I would recommend, is a safe come weak and puny, and consequently are not and fast way of budding: it all works natural; a worth so much, and that it is not possible by any lad having his hand in, will put in from two to four subsequent keeping of the cow, to bring to a conhundred per day. I now proceed to give an ac-dition to give the same quantity and quality of count of inoculating in the spring of the year. milk, which she would have produced had she This was an experiment, with me, altogether. In gone dry some two or three months. the season of grafting, I chose a few trees that were With much respect, of common size for grafting; some had two good I am yours, equal branches, one of which I grafted, the other Dixmont, Feb., 18, 1839. l'inoculated at the same time. I carefully cut out the bark of the branch where I chose to place a bud, cutting downward, turning my knife in and out in such a manner as to take off the bark in the form usually given in taking of the bud; taking at the same time so much of the wood, as to compare with the bud from the scion; and, if the first To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. cut failed, I carefully mended my hand, until it well suited. Thus the bark being all well done, the bud was laid in, inside comparing with inside; of course a space was left on the edge of the bark of the stock not covered from its extra thickness on the old stock. The buds thus being left somewhat sunk in the stock, were then secured in the usual way of budding."

TREATMENT OF CATTLE.

From the Maine Farmer.

PROFIT OF IMPROVING POOR LAND.

Fairfax county, Va., Feb. 12th, 1839. Dear sir-The first number of the 7th volume of the Farmers' Register, like the preceding volumes, has safely come to hand, and herewith you will receive a check for my subscription for the current volume of your most valuable Register. I also send you a memorandum from my log-book, not in any vain boasting spirit, because although the results therein stated are rather large for Virginia, and especially for Fairfax farming, still many of your readers north of Mason and Dixon's line, may be not a little amused at the selfcomplacency with which I send forth results, which, among them, would be deemed unworthy My experience demonstrates the fact, that of record. But it is not the well, it is the sick, where dry fodder is occasionally dealt out to neat that need the physician. It is not the thorough cattle, they will drink from six to eight times per practical farmer, whose highly improved lands alday, and I find by an examination of the stock ready return him 50 or an 100 fold, who stands in through the country, that their good or bad con- need of advice or example to stimulate him to still dition is generally, if not invariably, in proportion greater exertions. But it is the great mass of Virto their facilities for obtaining water. Neat cattle ginia farmers who, like myself, have poor and exare perhaps an exception from most animals, in hausted lands to operate on; lands which, in their extreme nicity in partaking of their food and their present impoverished condition, are scarcely water, (hence the term neat). Their timidity in capable of supporting the labor necessary for their overcoming trifling obstacles to obtain water is no cultivation. Hence, in many instances, they are less observable. I have known them to endure thirst abandoned by the sons and daughters of the Old and cold with an apparent stoical indifference, ra- Dominion, who flee to the far west, in search of ther than to make any attempt to pass over ice or rich lands; which, to be sure they find, but with it, snow drifts. I could name some persons in this the yawning grave stands ready to receive the vicinity who are considered good farmers, whose mortal remains of a moiety at least of emigrants; cattle every spring are like walking skeletons, liv- who, had they have displayed but half the ener ing dead ones, mere shadows, not for any lack gy, and have expended in manures, judiciously of good hay and comfortable barn room, but all for applied, less than a moiety of the cost of removwant of a convenient water fountain, that greating to the south or west, might have found themrestorative and corrector of dry fodder.

Before closing my hasty remarks, I would call your attention (If I am not out of place,) to one more error which I think many and even good farmers have fallen into with regard to a certain quality in a milch-cow, which they seem to think is all important in order to a good one: that is, VOL. VII-20

selves in possession of fruitful farms in the land of their fathers; surrounded by all the comforts and pleasures which flow from health and competency, and the enjoyments of society with which they had mingled from the hour of mirthful youth to the noonday of manhood. Is this mere fiction, a picture of fancy, or are such enjoyments real ?

Are they not worth one small effort to secure it upon which I have applied lime, only_comthem? for one I say they are real, and are worth menced with six years ago, is first-rate. Buildan hundred times what they will cost to obtain ings to the amount of ten thousand dollars have them. I have tried it, and may now speak ad- been erected, and of live-stock, and agricultural visedly. The first steps toward it, are to cultivate implements there is an abundant store. And next less land and do it better, collect and apply at pro-to the comfortable provision which I have thus per times, and in due season, all the manure that made for the accommodation of my family, when can be raked and scraped about the premises. If I am no longer present to supply their wants, is your land is deficient of calcareous matter, supply the satisfaction of seeing the success of my experi it either by the application of lime, marl, or bone- ment not altogether unheeded by my neighbors, dust. Cost what it may, it will repay you, and with who begin to think that Fairfax lands may be imdouble interest, and although your means may not proved, though some are not yet quite sure that admit of your improving more than one single the experiment may not be a little like the Indian's acre the first year, the increased products of that gun, "cost more than it will come to." To such I acre will enable you to improve two the second, would say, try it for yourselves, begin with a sinand from those two you may improve (with the gle acre if no more. Others there are among us help of the first one) six the third year, and who will not improve their land because their twelve or fifteen the fourth year, and so on pro- taxes would increase as the intrinsic value of the gressively. For if it be true, that money makes mo- land is enhanced! This I assure you, is a weighney, so too, in a pre-eminent degree, does manure ty argument with some, especially with the tenantmake manure, for there is no usurious law to limit ry, whose rents would also be increased if they the interest which the farmer may draw from his should improve; and in the total absence of any manure bank. legislative encouragement to the agriculturist, this rule of taxation has something the appearance of imposing a fine on a man for improving his land!† THOS. AP C. JONES.

I was thirty years of age when I commenced farming, and I affirm that no regular farmer in Virginia ever commenced under such appalling circumstances as I did. In 1819 I found myself in possession of 140 acres of land, one half in wood, the other in hen-grass and deep gullies, without a pannel of fence or a building of any description on it, and without a wheel-barrow load of manure or any thing to make it of. 'Tis true, I was in the receipt of about $700 a year from another source; but what was that when compared with my wants? Houses to build, laborers to hire, feed and clothe, farm to stock, myself with somewhat extravagant habits to support, &c. &c.; in short, every thing to buy, and nothing to sell!! and what was worse than all, discouraged at every step by my neighbors, who, mostly affirmed, that Fairfax land could not be improved; and some went so far as to say, that clover and plaster would even impoverish it, whilst others declared that plaster-of-Paris would not act at all in Fairfax, to which my general reply was, "I'll try it." I was adrift in the world, without any spot on the wide earth to which I could point as my home. I had to choose between the life of a wanderer, wasting my little income in hotels and boarding houses, or in struggling against the thick array of difficulties above enumerated, in endeavoring to build up for myself a home and a resting place in my own native land. I chose the latter, and I rejoice in the decision, and a kind providence has smiled upon my exertions, and spared me to enjoy the fruits of my labors, which have not altogether been lost, (though often injudiciously applied) even on Fairfax land. To what extent I have succeeded, it would not become me to say; suffice it that my farm on which I reside in the enjoyment of wife, children, and friends, has grown from 100 (for I sold 40 acres of the original wood lot, to get money to help along with) to 420 acres, including the 40 sold, which I have since bought back. The whole amply stocked with the choisest varieties of fruit-trees, all planted by my own hands. The arable land is in good heart, some of

This lot of 140 acres was designated in the division (by which it fell to me) of a large landed estate, by the commissioners, as lot No. 3, "Poor Hill."

Product of ten acres of land on the Sharon Farm, in Fairfax county, Va., improved by liming and manuring, for the year 1838.

Five acres of wheat produced 117 bushels,

at $1.60,

Straw of the same,
Three acres produced eleven tons 16 cwt. of
cured clover hay, worth on the farm 50c.
per cwt.

Clover seed from the same ground, 24 bush.
worth now $15 00 per bush.
Rye-the straw from one-fourth of an acre,
Three-fourths of an acre in sugar-beets, ru-
ta baga, carrots and turnips--not more
than one-fifth of an average crop, in con-
sequence of drought, but according to pre-
Fruit and cider sold from peach and apple
sent prices worth $75 00,
One acre of turnips. gross amount, as per
trees growing on the above land,
statement No. 1, (below,)

Apples and cider and other fruits consumed
at home, and what remains on hand at this
time,

Five pigs raised in a pen, and fed on grass
and offal fruit from the above ground, and
kitchen slop, killed at ten months old,
weighed 734 lbs. at 8 cents, is $58 72
deduct two bbls. of corn for
last feeding,
8.00

$187 20 28 25

130 00

37 50 12 00

75 00

251 50

255 20

86 00

}

50 72

50 72

1,113 37

It is not to be understood that these buildings have been erected, or the additions to my land been paid for directly out of the proceeds of the farm. But the farm affording me a living, has enabled me to apply other resources to these objects; which, without the farm, would have been exhausted in the current support of myself and family.

last session of the assembly, has added just 100 per The county assessor, acting under a law of the cent. upon the value of my land; of course I shall have to pay double taxes; but I don't consider myself much the worse for it, seeing that my products have increased in a much greater ratio.

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