n 
 
 
 A ' 
 
 
 MANUAL 
 
 
 , CONTAINING 
 
 1 
 
 
 INFORMATION RESPECTING THE GROWTH 
 
 
 OF THE * 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 MULBERRY TREE, 
 
 
 ! WITH SUITABLF DIRECTIONS 
 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 
 CULTURE OF SILK. 
 
 
 IN THREE PARTS. 
 
 1 
 
 
 I 
 
 ' BY J. H.COBB, AM. 
 
 
 PUBLISHED BY DIRECTION OF HIS EXCELLENCY GOV. LINCOLN, 
 
 A 
 
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 AG 
 
 REEABLY TO A RESOLVE OF THE COMMO" WEALTH. 
 
 Ostendens hujus moneris u;iim. 
 
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 NEW EDITION. 
 
 
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// ^c^/l^ MANUAL 
 
 j^-y^'^ 
 
 u A*7 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 INFORMATION RESPECTING THE GROWTH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MULBERRY TREE, 
 
 WITH 
 
 SUITABLE DIRECTIONS 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 CULTURE OF SILK. 
 
 IN THREE PARTS. 
 
 Bt J. H. COBB, A. M, 
 
 PUBLISHED BY DIRECTION OF HIS EXCELLENCY GOV. LINCOLN, 
 AGREEABLY TO A RESOLVE OF THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 Ostendens hujus muneris usum. 
 
 Vida in Bombyx. 
 
 NEW EDITION. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 CARTER, HEN DEE AND CO. 
 
 M DCCC X±XIII. /If 3 i. 
 
 D. H. HILl LIBRARY 
 N. C. STATE UNIVERSITY 
 

 * t 
 
 »*•''»• » . 
 
 I. R. BUTTS, SCHOOL STREET, BOSTON. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 
 
 Thursday, Feb. 24, 1831. 
 Mp. Wheeler, from the Committee on Agriculture, 
 who were instructed to consider the expediency of en- 
 couraging the growth of the Mulberry Tree, and the 
 Culture of Silk, made the following 
 
 REPORT. 
 
 The Committee have examined the subject attentively, 
 and find it to be of much greater importance than was at first 
 supposed. They are surprised to find hnw great a field is 
 here open, and how long it has been neglected ; they are 
 satisfied beyond a doubt, that we have the power to produce 
 and manufacture Silk in this Commonwealth to an immense 
 extent, and that no difficulty is to be encountered either from 
 soil or climate. 
 
 The nations of Europe are generally engaged in the cul- 
 ture and manufacture of silk. France, more than any other 
 nation, derives her power and resources mainly from this 
 branch of her industry; her example has induced England, 
 
ri INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Holland, Germany, Prussia and Sweden to engage with zeal 
 in the same pursuit. 
 
 The culture of silk is important in relation to the amount of 
 silk imported and consumed in this country, which exceeds 
 seven millions of dollars, while the amount of bread stuff 
 exported is on the average less than six millions of dollars ! 
 Facts like these need no comment ; yet it is proper that we 
 should bear in mind, that the vast sums thus expended for 
 silk in its various forms, arc paid indirectly to enrich the 
 Agriculture and manufacture of other nations, the raw mate- 
 rial of which may be produced here with as much certainty 
 as cotton or any other staple product. 
 
 The article of silk has already been produced by a few of 
 our citizens in small quantities, of a quality not inferior to the 
 best imported. Jonathan H. Cobb, Esq. ofDedham, has com- 
 menced the culture of silk with success, and has introduced 
 some valuable improvements, especially in the art of reeling 
 from the cocoon, and it is due to that gentleman, that the 
 Committee should remark, that it is from practical information 
 communicated by him, that they have derived some important 
 facts in relation to this subject. 
 
 The state of society in this Commonwealth is well adapt- 
 ed to promote the successful culture of silk : it is an em- 
 ployment, in which females and children may be honorably 
 and profitably engaged ; with the exception of planting the 
 Mulberry tree, the Avhole labor may be performed by that 
 class of the community. The Committee feel warranted in 
 saying that so soon as the article can be produced, a good 
 home market will be found at such prices as to aftbrd a profit 
 
INTRODUCTION. VU 
 
 on the expense and labor bestowed upon it. The White 
 Mulberry tree is easily cultivated, does not require the best 
 soil, serves a valuable purpose for hedges, and is highly or- 
 namental. 
 
 The Committee are satisfied that little capital is required 
 to commence the culture ofsilk, except that capital which con- 
 sists in knowledge. It is information which is the founda- 
 tion of Agriculture, as well as other arts. Nothing is so well 
 calculated to call the attention of the public to this subject as 
 information respecting its value, and the means by which 
 our citizens may avail themselves of the advantages which 
 are connected with it ; for the purpose of disseminating this 
 information the Committee have thought it their duty to re- 
 port the following resolution. 
 
 Which is respectfully submitted. 
 
 For the Committee, Abel Wheeler, Chairman. 
 
 House of Representatives, Feb. 24, 1S31. 
 Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be requested 
 to cause to be compiled and printed a concise Manual, to 
 contain the best information respecting the growth of the 
 Mulberry tree, wilh suitable directions for the culture of 
 Silk, — and that this manual be distributed in suitable num- 
 bers in the city of Boston, and to every town in the Common- 
 wealth.— That to defray the expense thus incurred, he be 
 authorized to draw his warrant on the treasury for a sum not 
 exceeding six hundred dollars. 
 1* 
 
ADVERTISEMENT TO THIS EDITION. 
 
 Since the publication of the former edition of this little 
 work, the Legislature of Massachusetts having farthernoticed 
 it by ordering an additional number of copies to be purchas- 
 ed for further distribution in the different towns of this Com- 
 monwealth ; and the Congress of the United States having 
 also resolved to purchase 2000 copies for distribution in that 
 honorable body ; the author has thought it his duty to enlarge 
 the present edition by giving such further information as he 
 could obtain ; and, as late experience has suggested, both in 
 regard to the Mulberry tree and the cultivation and manufac- 
 ture of silk. He has now in operation all the requisite ma- 
 cihnery for manufacturing various kinds of silk stuffs, and has 
 manufactured during the past year over three hundred weight 
 of raw silk, and still continues to operate his looms and spin- 
 dles, although since the repeal of the duties on silk goods, he 
 has been obliged to confine his attention chiefly to sewings 
 and such narrow goods as will sell to profit. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In preparing this Manual the author has been guided 
 by the personal experience which he has had for several 
 years in the culture of the Mulberry Tree and rearing of 
 Silk Worms in the State of Massachusetts. 
 
 In addition to the instruction which his own practical 
 knowledge in the business has suggested, he has made 
 use of the following works, from some of which he has 
 made considerable extracts, where he found the instruc- 
 tion conveyed was such, as from the test of experience 
 he could recommend, viz. — The Manual published 
 under the authority of Congress ; the two first numbers 
 of the Silk Culturist, by Dr Felix Pascalis, of New York ; 
 Mr Wm. H. Vernon's abridgment of the large French 
 work of M. de la Brousse ; Essays on American Silk, by 
 Messrs D'Homergue and Du Ponceau, of Philadelphia ; 
 a pamphlet published by Gideon B, Smith, Esq. of Bal- 
 timore, and the •22d No. of Dr Lardner's Cabinet Cyclo- 
 pedia, The author tenders his thanks to several of the 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 above-named gentlemen for the liberty which they have 
 permitted him to take, as also for many personal com- 
 munications on important branches of the business, 
 which they have suggested to him in the short interviews 
 he has had with them. From two of these gentlemen, of 
 the highest respectability, he has received the subjoined 
 testimonials. 
 
 Philadelphia, 27th June, 1831. 
 
 Dear Sir — I have read with great satisfaction the 
 Manual for the Culture of Silk which you have prepared by 
 order of His Excellency the Governor of Massachusetts, in 
 pursuance of a resolution of your State Legislature, and am 
 well pleased Avith the manner in which you have treated the 
 subject. Availing myself of the permission you have given 
 me, I have, with the aid of Mr D'Homergue, taken the 
 liberty to suggest a few ideas on the blank leaves of the 
 manuscript, of which you will make what use you shall think 
 proper. 
 
 The works of foreign writers on the cultivation of mulberry 
 trees and raising of silk worms, particularly in the latter, 
 are by no means suited to the meridian of this country, and 
 are rather calculated to discourage than instruct our farmers. 
 You have with great propriety discarded their artificial heat, 
 thermometers, barometers, hygrometers, and all their variety 
 of troublesome methods, minute regulations and useless im- 
 plements, which make the culture of silk a difficult and in- 
 tricate science. I see no more difficulty in cultivating the 
 mulberry than any other fruit tree ; and the art of raising 
 silk worms seems to reduce itself to a few simple rules easy 
 of observance. 1 know but of one European author who has 
 had the courage to break through the fetters of habit and 
 prejudice ; and in a late work on the culture of silk published 
 in the German language at Vienna in 1829, adopted what I 
 
XI 
 
 call the American System, the same which your Manual 
 recommends, and which in fact, has been followed in this 
 country for more than 70 years. The author is the Cheva- 
 lier von Heint, an Austrian nobleman, the owner of large 
 estates in the imperial dominions. He appears to have 
 completely succeeded, by following this simple American 
 method, and he even ventured to raise silk worms on mul- 
 berry trees in the open air, on the frontiers of Hungary, in 
 44" N. Lat. ; and he assures us that he met with the same 
 success. 
 
 On the subject of reeling the silk from the cocoons, I 
 think it is an art to be acquired only by practical instruction 
 and experience. It is not to be learned from books alone. 
 The description, however, which you have given of its pro- 
 cess, is in general correct, and has been with propriety in- 
 serted. It may lead to some useful experiments, and will 
 diifuse, at least, the knowledge of the theory of the art. 
 The present method of reeling silk in Connecticut, will not 
 be long, I believe, persevered in, after a better one shall 
 have been generally introduced. It is well, however, to re- 
 cord it as a matter of fact, and for the benefit of those who 
 still choose to pursue it. 
 
 Upon the whole, I consider your work as a good practical 
 directory for American farmers, and as a fair and judicious 
 execution of the duty committed to you. 
 I am, with great regard. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Peter S. Dv Ponceau. 
 
 Jonathan H. Cobb, Esq. 
 
 New York, June 29, 1831. 
 I have read the work of Mr Jonathan H. Cobb on the Cul- 
 ture of Silk, which is intended by him, for a popular manual 
 of instruction, and have been much pleased to find that it 
 
Xn PREFACE. 
 
 unites brevity with all the most important precepts required 
 in that valuable branch of domestic produce. It is also clear 
 and lucid, and free of all accessary details, little to be called 
 for within the short period of time necessary to make a silk 
 crop. It is evident that Mr Cobb has been many years a 
 practical culturist, and could also embrace the interesting 
 cares of the filature even further than that of making market- 
 able raw silk, which is not frequently attended to by silk 
 growers. It is on this principle only, meaning that of divid- 
 ing among various branches, hands and stages, all the opera- 
 tions required for the cultivation and manufacture of silk, 
 that national wealth from this rich produce can be depended 
 upon. One only individual cannot be a perfect operative in 
 all stages and divisions of the art, but he can become skilful 
 in many or several of them, if at each degree he command a 
 marketable produce. I conclude with observing that the 
 work of Mr Jonathan H. Cobb deserves the confidence of the 
 public, and its circulation should be encouraged. 
 
 Felix Pascalis, M. D. 
 
PART I. 
 
 CULTURE OF THE MULBERRY TREE. 
 
 The only appropriate food for the silk worm is the 
 leaf of the mulberry tree. It should be the first busi- 
 ness therefore of the silk grower to provide himself with 
 the source of a constant supply of mulberry leaves. 
 The greater his supply of this article, the greater will be 
 his crop of silk, as the eggs of (he insect are procured 
 to any amount with ease and cheapness. Having the 
 eggs of the insect and a sufficient quantity of food at 
 hand, ordinary care on the part of the proprietor will in- 
 sure a good crop. It is now abundantly proved that 
 there is no great obstacle in the soil or climate of these 
 United States to raising silk to a vast amount. As there 
 is a difference in the quality of the mulberry leaves for 
 raising silk, it should be the object of the cultivator to 
 propagate the best kind. The white mulberry * has 
 been found superior to the purple or native red,t and the 
 plants are easily produced from the seed. 
 
 * See the leaf, Fig. 1, Plate 2, reduced to one fourth its natural 
 size. 
 
 t See the leaf, Fig. 2, Plate 2, reduced to one fifth its natural 
 size. 
 
14 
 
 The white mulberry tree differs from the red in its 
 general appearance. The bark is smooth and of a lighter 
 color. The leaves are thinner, smaller, and of a lighter 
 green color. The fruit is of a whitish grey color 
 and of a vapid sweetness to the taste, and is of little val- 
 ue for the table compared with the black. But the silk 
 insect prefers the leaves of the white to those of the 
 black, the red, the Tartarian species, or the paper mul- 
 berry, and it has been found upon experiment, that if 
 these different species are given at the same time to the in- 
 sect, it will eat the white first. This species came orig- 
 inally from China, and it is said that it is always used in 
 China. 
 
 THE SEED OF THE MULBERRY. 
 
 One ounce of good seed will be sufficient to produce 
 6000 trees. The seed is easily obtained from the fruit 
 in the following manner. When the fruit begins to ripen, 
 every morning the tree should be shaken and the fruit 
 that falls gathered with that which had fallen before ; if 
 enough is not gathered in one morning, several succes- 
 sive gatherings rr%y be collected ; but the fruit should 
 not be kept*^0' ;r three or four days before the seed is 
 extracted, which may be done by putting the fruit into a 
 tub and mashing it till the berries are completely worked 
 into a common mass. Then pour water into it and stir it 
 briskly, and the pulp may be separated from the seed. 
 Then pour off the water, with all the seed that floats, 
 (for that is worthless) and renew the washing till the seed 
 is clean, when it may be drained, spread out on cloths 
 and dried in the shade. When perfectly dry it should 
 be put into a tight vessel and kept in a dry place. It 
 
16 
 
 should never be exposed to the light, air or dampness 
 more than is absolutely necessary. The seed may be 
 obtained at a reasonable rate at most of the seed stores, 
 and I have bought it in Mansfield, Conn, at the rate of a 
 dollar per pound. 
 
 SOWING THE SEED, CHOICE OF SOIL, ETC. 
 
 A soil rich, warm and mixed with much mold, is re- 
 commended as the most proper for a nursery of mulber- 
 ry trees. New shoots should have ground easy to pen- 
 etrate. The ground should be ploughed the preceding 
 fall, and again ploughed two or three times in the spring 
 and made light and friable ; two or three dressings of 
 manure well ploughed in would be of essential service ; 
 the ground may be levelled with a hoe or rake and the 
 seed sown in drills about the first of May, much in the 
 same way as our farmers sow carrots. The weeds must 
 be carefully destroyed, and in dry times watering will be 
 beneficial. I have sown the mulberries in July, and they 
 have sprouted and come on rapidly, but the frosts of win- 
 ter in our climate (New England) have been too severe 
 for them. I would recommend to sow the seed in the 
 spring. From a quarter of an acre of ground the last 
 season, I had over 10,000 plants, produced from seed 
 sown in the spring in the way above-mentioned, some of 
 them upwards of a foot in height. Those that are in- 
 tended for transplanting may be taken up in the fall and 
 put out of the way of frost in a cellar, the roots being 
 covered with loam. Those left standing may be covered 
 with light manure or old hay. The frost will be apt to 
 kill the young and tender tops, but the shoots will start 
 2 
 
16 
 
 from the bottom in the spring with great luxuriance. The 
 seed plant is undoubtedly best, both for food, for worms 
 and duration : it is also the most convenient mode of get- 
 ting the trees, as seed enough can be sent by mail to any 
 part of the Union to produce an orchard sufficient to 
 feed several millions of worms. I cannot believe that 
 any other mode can be pursued to much advantage in 
 this country ; but as some may be fond of trying experi- 
 ments in other modes of culture, the following are laid 
 down as sometimes used in Europe. 
 
 MANNER OF MULTIPLYING MULBERRY TREES BY 
 CUTTINGS. 
 
 The soil chosen to receive the slips of the mulberry 
 tree should be prepared much in tlie same way as has 
 been described for the seed. The cuttings of the mul- 
 berry are to be planted in the same manner as the cut- 
 tings of the vine ; that is, by making furrows by a line at 
 the distance of six feet from one to the other, and by cross- 
 ing them by furrows at the same distance, in order to form 
 squares. A two-year old branch of a mulberry tree, hav- 
 ing wood of four or five years at one end, must be select- 
 ed, and the extremity of the old wood must be interred 
 to the depth of about ten inches. The branches chosen 
 from the white mulberry must be taken off in the spring at 
 the first rising of the sap. Two or three incisions must 
 be made in the joints or knots of the old wood, because this 
 operation will facilitate the shooting of the roots, which 
 always put forth from the joints of the old wood. The 
 cuttings must then be covered with a well manured and 
 friable earth, and the end of the branch which rises from 
 
17 
 
 the soil must be cut off at the third bud from the surface. 
 If rains should not frequently occur after the plantation 
 is finished, it would be necessary to water the plants 
 often. The multiplication of mulberry trees by means of 
 cuttings is said to have the important advantage of two 
 years in advance over the establishment of a nursery by 
 means of seed in Europe. 
 
 BY LAYERS. 
 
 To make layers is to force a branch or a shoot of a tree 
 or of a shrub to become itself a tree or a shrub, by putting 
 a branch or a shoot into the ground without separating it 
 from the parent tree. The spring is the most suitable 
 season for this operation. The shoots which arise at the 
 foot of a tree, the youngest smooth branches found about 
 the lower partof the mulberry, any other branches that 
 are long and supple enough to be secured in the ground, 
 and lastly, the shoots of a young tree whose trunk is not 
 high and which may be laid easily, maybe used. If there 
 arise some vigorous shoots at the foot of a mulberry tree, 
 a hole must be dug six or eight inches deep near each 
 shoot, into which the shoot must be laid without twisting 
 it or separating it from the tree. It is then to be secur- 
 ed in its place with crotchets of wood and covered with 
 good mold, which must be pressed over it, and the end 
 of the shoot which rises above the ground must be cut off 
 above the second bud. It will be further necessary to 
 place by the side of the layer a stake to mark the place 
 and prevent its being trodden. It must likewise be wa- 
 tered immediately after the operation, and as often after- 
 
 
18 
 
 wards as may be necessary to maintain about it a proper 
 state of moisture. 
 
 The young and smooth twigs among the branches of 
 the mulberry may be passed through a basket or vase 
 perforated at the bottom and filled with earth well manur- 
 ed. The twig must be cut off four or five inches above 
 the vase or basket, and the mold kept in a due state of 
 moisture by frequent waterings. 
 
 When a mulberry tree is well spread and the boughs 
 nearest the ground have not been lopped, some of the 
 branches at the distance of six feet from each other may 
 be bent down and secured in the ground, so thai the ends 
 shall not rise more than six or eight inches above the 
 surface. 
 
 All the layers made in these different ways may be 
 separated from the parent tree in the autumn of the sec- 
 ond year. They may be cut off four inches from the 
 parent trunk, be taken up carefully with their roots and 
 small fibres and placed in the nursery, or permanently 
 established in an orchard. In the nursery they may be 
 set at the distance of six feet from each other, and in the 
 following year, by heading them down, four or five layers 
 may be made from each. By these means one hundred 
 trees may be increased in four years to eighteen hundred ; 
 for the parent trees, after the layers are separated from 
 them, being replaced in a straight position, secured to a 
 prop, manured, and watered, generally retrieve their 
 strength and make productive trees. 
 
 TRANSPLANTING FOR HEDGES. 
 
 After standing in the nursery a suitable time, the trees 
 may be transplanted for making hedges. I prefer trans- 
 
19 
 
 planting in the spring. Great care should be taken to 
 preserve the very fine roots. If hedges for fences be want- 
 ed, the young trees may be taken from the seedlings of the 
 last year. The white mulberry forms an excellent live 
 fence, and when once established is probably the most 
 permanent of any other. Cattle must not be allowed 
 free access to the hedge while young, as they would de- 
 stroy it altogether ; but after it has become a good fence 
 they may approach it with advantage. The more it is 
 broken and lacerated by cattle, the more impenetrable it 
 will become ; as for every branch broken, a half dozen 
 shoots will immediately start out, till the bush forms a 
 perfect bramble. This mode is therefore recommended 
 as accomplishing three important objects : supplying food 
 for silk worms ; keeping the trees low, that the leaves may 
 be gathered from the ground by children, and furnishing 
 a good and almost never ending fence. In transplanting 
 young trees for hedges, they should not be pruned ; but 
 the second year, or at least the third, the tops should be 
 cut off and the side branches trained laterally with the 
 hedge by interweaving them. 
 
 SETTING OUT STANDARD TREES. 
 
 It is an axiom in rural economy, that the greater the 
 disbursement in improving the land the greater will be 
 the proportional income. The land where the trees are 
 to be set, will be much better for the purpose if ploughed, 
 harrowed and manured. The trees may be three years 
 old if taken from a rich soil, or four if from a poor soil ; 
 they should be from four to eight feet in height, and at 
 least an inch in diameter. The holes should be dug at 
 2* 
 
20 
 
 about the same distance from each other as for setting 
 apple trees, and be made eighteen inches deep and three 
 or four feet in diameter. The bottoms of these holes 
 may be covered with a few inches of fresh mold. The 
 young tree should be placed in its proper range, ascer- 
 tained by a stake at each extremity of the line, and it 
 should be held there till its roots are well covered with 
 friable and well manured earth, free from stones, and 
 must be well trodden down and watered, if necessary ; a 
 small cavity round the stem to retain the rain is very 
 proper. Two or three dressings a year with a hoe and 
 manuring occasionally may be of essential advantage. 
 
 GRAFTING AND BUDDING. 
 
 In grafting it is essential to adapt the bark of the scion 
 at its extremity to the bark of the stock, and to place the 
 scion on the northerly side in order that it may be less ex- 
 posed to be withered and dried by the sun. Budding 
 should be performed with the same care as in other fruit 
 trees in order to insure success. But these and many of 
 the modes of improving and propagating the mulberry, 
 which have been resorted to in Europe, will be unneces- 
 sary in this country. With us, land is so cheap and la- 
 bor so high, that the easy and convenient mode of propa- 
 gating by seed will be chiefly resorted to, and no essen- 
 tial permanent advantage will result to us from grafting 
 or budding, except in propagating the rare varieties. 
 
 PRUNING. 
 
 The imperfections in the form and growth of the trees 
 may be remedied by a judicious pruning, once in two 
 
21 
 
 or three years ; and with regard to that, the good sense 
 of every cultivator will direct him how to form a tree the 
 most beautiful, as well as the most productive. June is 
 the best season for doing this, and the young branches 
 that are taken off will afford their leaves for the worms.* 
 
 GROWTH OF THE MULBERRY TREE. 
 
 Standard trees, when once well rooted, will thrive in 
 any soil that is not too wet ; the gigantic size to which 
 the wild native mulberry attains in the western country, 
 and numerous examples of large and thrifty trees in the 
 Atlantic states, furnish abundant evidence ot this. The 
 mulberry tree attains to a very great age, and no other 
 tree of equal growth and beauty resists so well the influ- 
 ences of the sea atmosphere. Two or three grand 
 specimens of this beautiful tree, says Mr Phillips, stand- 
 ing on the most exposed situation of the northeast coast 
 of England, not only defy the enemy, but delight in their 
 situation : throwing out their noble limbs in all direc- 
 tions, and assuming a foliage rich, full, and tufted to its 
 topmost boughs : one of them is of the greatest magni- 
 tude, though some of its vast limbs have been torn from 
 it ; it is still in vigor, and in point of richness of effect, 
 
 * For taking off the small branches of larger trees which could 
 not be reached by hand, I saw an ingenious contrivance at Balti- 
 more by G. B. Smith, Esq. It was nothing more than a pair of 
 pruning shears attached by one of the handles to a ten foot pole, 
 which is held in one hand, and operated upon by means of a cord 
 passing through a pulley, and attached to the other handle with the 
 other band ; by this simple contrivance the twigs and branches 
 were taken od" with ease, and so smoothly as not to lacerate the 
 bark or injure the appearance of ibe tree. 
 
2a 
 
 the oak itself is scarcely superior. They are abund- 
 antly prolific. The red, or, as it is more commonly 
 called, the purple mulberry, is considered as the only 
 species indigenous in this country.* The northern ex- 
 tremity of Lake Champlain is, according to Michaux, its 
 most northern limit. It is found in all the states of the 
 Union, south and west, and Dr James found it as far 
 west as the river Canadian. 
 
 Everything is useful in the mulberry tree. Its leaves 
 are valuable in the silk which they produce by nourishing 
 the silk worm ; its fruit is excellent for poultry, and the 
 wood is useful for the joiner and for fuel. The mulberry 
 tree may also serve as an ornament to our gardens and 
 streets, very ditferent from the Lombardy poplar, which 
 harbors a loathsome insect, or the elm, or the ash, which 
 are barren and do not afford so thick a shade ; and as 
 this tree is always handsome and useful, the Author of 
 nature has been pleased to add cleanliness, as on account 
 of the acrid bitterness of its sap but few insects will har- 
 bor upon it. 
 
 The first mulberry tree that was planted in France 
 was near Montelimart, and nearly three centuries after 
 (in 1802) the original tree was still in existence. 
 
 In England it was first planted in the year 1548 ; Mr 
 Phillips saw at Sion House the original trees. He found 
 their interior so decayed that the timber crumbled on 
 being touched: the propped branches were nevertheless 
 so well nourished, that the fruit and foliage were not in- 
 ferior to those of the youngest trees. Of the plantations 
 formed during the reign of James I. many venerable 
 
 * See tlie leaf in Figure 2, Plate 2. 
 
23 
 
 remains are still seen in England. Mr Phillips found a 
 black mulberry tree in a garden adjoining Greenwich 
 Park, which is supposed to be one of the oldest in 
 England. ' It throws out,' says Mr P., ' ten large branch- 
 es so near the earth, that it has the appearance of half a 
 score of large trees rather than one, and notwithstanding 
 many of the projecting branches have been sawed off, it 
 completely covers a circumference of one hundred and 
 fifty feet ; and although the elder trees have fixed their 
 abode in some parts of the trunk, and other parts are 
 covered with ivy, it continues to give shoots as vigorous 
 as the youngest tree and produces the finest mulberries 
 in England. It is a regular bearer, and the gardener 
 assured me that he gathered more than eighty quarts per 
 day during the season. 
 
 THE CHINESE MULBERRY. 
 
 Besides the varieties of the mulberry tree heretofore 
 mentioned, there is one, which, if we may believe the 
 recommendations of it, is superior to all others for the 
 culture of silk : I mean the Chinese mulberry.* 
 
 The following account of it I derive from the second 
 No. of the Silk Cukurist, a valuable and useful work, 
 published by Dr Felix Pascalis, of New York. It is con- 
 tained in a letter to the author from Havre. 
 
 ' Samuel Perrottet, a member of the Linnaean Society 
 of Paris, employed by government as a travelling- botanist, 
 returned to this port after a voyage of thirtyfour months. 
 He brought with him eightyfour boxes of various dimen- 
 
 * See the leaf ia Fig. 3, Plate 2, reduced (o one twelfth of its 
 natural size. 
 
 •t» 
 
24 
 
 sions, containing one hundred and fiftyeight species of 
 living plants, of at least eight feet in height, to the quan- 
 tity of five hundred and thirtyfour individuals. All these 
 productions had been procured in the seas of Asia, or 
 gathered on the coast or in the lands of Cayenne. From 
 the commencement of the present century, there had nev- 
 er before been so vast an importation — one so extensive 
 in number, for rare genera, species and families, and 
 vegetable productions, or of their seeds. All of them 
 passed under my examination, and they rather appeared 
 to have come out of a green house than from a ship. 
 
 * In this immense collection was the Blorus multicaulis, 
 thus called by Perrottet, for the first time ascertained to 
 be the real Chinese mulberry. Morns alba sinensis, of 
 which every silk grower and cullurist should endeavor 
 to multiply the species. It has been deposited in the 
 Royal Garden. Monsieur Perrottet says that it grows 
 with many shoots from the roots, with tender stems and 
 large foliage, of a much more nourishing nature than the 
 European mulberry. 
 
 ' Chinese inhabitants assured him, that to this tree the 
 disciples of Confucius are indebted for the prosperity and 
 solidity of their empire. 
 
 * The Morus multicaulis is already propagating in 
 many parts of France, and probably will be substituted 
 and preferred to all the other varieties. Among the other 
 qualities of the plant, it is aflirmed in China that a less 
 quantity of this foliage is required for the precious insects 
 than of that which we are obliged to provide for them. 
 
 I have received half a dozen shrubs from Mr Prince's 
 Nursery on Long Island, which comprise six different 
 
25 
 
 varieties of the mulberry, one of which is the Morus mul- 
 ticaulis, and Mr Prince writes to me that he has them 
 for sale.* During my late visit to Madame Parmentier's 
 Nursery at Brooklyn, N. Y., in June 1S31, I saw several 
 hundred of these plants which looked very thrifty, bore 
 very large leaves, seemed to take well to the soil, and 
 grow with uncommon rapidity. I picked several leaves 
 from them, each of which n\ore than covered the crown 
 of my hat. The leaves were given to the silk worms in 
 my presence, and were devoured by them with great 
 avidity. This lady has also twelve different varieties of 
 the mulberry in her nursery, but this seems to be fast 
 taking the place of all others. 
 
 I have two of the trees of this species growing in my 
 garden now (1833) which I obtained at that time and 
 brought home with me. They have stood the severities 
 of two of our northern winters, and survived without any 
 protection or shelter from the weather. 
 
 Mr Richard K. Haight, an intelligent merchant of the 
 city of New York, has one hundred of these plants, which 
 were imported from France the present season, which I 
 saw in his nursery at Brooklyn in a flourishing condition. 
 He has also some Chinese mulberry trees of a different 
 character, which he has imported with great care, and 
 which may prove upon experiment to be valuable. 
 
 * 1 have seen a few of the plants of the ^Morus multicaulis in 
 the Kenrick Nursery at Newton, which were transplanted from Mr 
 Prince's the present season, (1831) and are now in a flourishing 
 condition. Oar nurserymen will find it for their interest to propa- 
 gate this plant as extensively as they can for the present, by inocu- 
 lation and grafting. 
 
26 
 
 I obtain the following additional particulars in regard 
 to this variety, and also that of the Dandoio mulberry, from 
 Mr Kenrick's valuable treatise on fruits, just published. 
 
 MORUS MULTICAULIS. 
 
 This is a new and most valuable species of IVIulberry, 
 for the nourishment of the silk worm, which is lepresent- 
 ed as possessing such decided superiority over all others, 
 as to be speedily substituted for them in every region of 
 the globe. 
 
 This tree has not yet to my knowledge borne fruit in 
 America. It was even unknown in Europe as a fruit 
 tree, till in 1830, for the first time, it produced its fruit 
 in France. The fruit, according to M. Audibert, was 
 produced in great abundance ; it was long, black, and of 
 sufficiently beautiful appearance ; its taste very good, 
 having a taste intermediate between the red and black 
 mulberry. The tree is very vigorous and upright.in its 
 growth. The leaves, in a light, friable, rich, and humid 
 soil, are large and cordiform, but in a dry and arid soil, 
 they are of less size, eliptical, and without the heart- 
 shaped indentation ; their breadth is stated to be six 
 inches, and their length eight ; but in rich soils they are 
 sometimes eight inches in breadth, and ten in length, or 
 even more. They are curled or convex on their surface, 
 of a deep shining green, and eminently beautiful. 
 
 Remarks on the culture and uses of the Morus Ululticaulis, 
 hy M. Perrottct, Agricultural Botanist, and Traveller 
 of the Marine and Colonies. — FVom the ' Annales of 
 Promont.' 
 ' The Morus Multicaulis, which we noticed for the first 
 
27 
 
 time in the Annates de la Societie Linnenne de Paris 
 for 1824, appears to have originated in the elevated 
 regions of China ; from whence it has been disseminated 
 throughout the low plains near the sea shore. It is be- 
 lieved it is cultivated in all parts of that vast empire, 
 where the education of the silk worm is an object of 
 commercial importance. From Canton it was introduced 
 into Manilla and all the Islands in the Asiatic Archipel- 
 ago, where it was only cultivated for ornamenting gar- 
 dens. The Chinese are entitled to the credit of this in- 
 troduction, who in emigrating from their country have 
 from motives of industry, endeavored to multiply it, that 
 they might render it useful to them, in the new country 
 of their adoption. 
 
 ■' The fortunate discovery of this precious shrub occur- 
 red in the garden of a Chinese cultivator at Manilla, 
 who, after having informed us of its properties, and the 
 important purpose for which it was used in his own 
 country, yielded to our solicitations and sold us two 
 bushes for ten Spanish piastres, assuring us that he had 
 introduced it into Manilla, where it had been considera- 
 bly extended. 
 
 ' In August we brought it from Manilla, the capital of 
 the Phillippine Islands, and first introduced it into the 
 Isle of Bourbon, from thence into Cayenne and France. 
 At a later period it was sent from Cayenne to Martinique, 
 and from France to Guadaloupe, and also to Senegal, 
 where it has been considerably multiplied. The numer- 
 ous plants which are already disseminated in the divers 
 climates of Africa, America, and Europe have beea ali 
 3 
 
28 
 
 produced from the two individuals, which we procured at 
 Manilla. 
 
 * * * ' Among the number of mulberries, now culti- 
 vated by the Chinese, for the education of silk worms, 
 the Moms MulticauUs appears to be the most esteemed 
 of all, not only for the facility with which it is propagated 
 and grows, but still more for the essentially nutritive pro- 
 perty which the leaves possess. We have been enabled 
 to verify this important fact during the five years which 
 we passed in Senegal.* * * The characters which essen- 
 tially distinguish this mulberry from the other varieties, 
 are those which result, 1st, from the remarkable property 
 which the roots possess of throwing up numerous small 
 flexible stalks, without forming a principal trunk ; 2d, 
 from the great length which these stalks assume in a very 
 short time; 3d, from the remarkable development which 
 the thin, tender, and soft leaves speedily acquire, and the 
 promptitude with which they are renewed.* * * And 4th 
 and lastly, from the extraordinary facility with which the 
 stalks and branches strike root, as cuttings, vvitliout par- 
 ticular care, even before they have acquired a ligneous 
 consistence. 
 
 * * * ' Besides the advantages which we have already 
 named, we may still add, that they are admirably calcu- 
 lated for forming regular plantations ; it not being natural 
 to grow tall or form any trunk properly so called ; they 
 can be placed very near without an injurious effect ; and 
 by heading down the stalks annually near the ground, a 
 rich vegetation is produced, with a complete development 
 of vigorous branches and leaves ; and finally it is easy to 
 multiply them by thousands from the roots in the course 
 
29 
 
 of a year and to form vast and regular plantations of them 
 the second. But a few years then are sufficient to ob- 
 tain considerable fields of them in full vigor, sufficient to 
 support an immense quantity of silk worms, and that 
 with the greatest facility, as they are reproduced in a 
 manner almost indefinite. * * * Regular plantations of 
 it can be found without difficulty, by planting the shrubs 
 at a distance of six or eight feet from each other, a 
 space sufficient for the extension of the branches, to fa- 
 cilitate the culture and for collecting the leaves. This 
 last operation is so much facilitated by the flexibility of 
 the stalks, that a child is sufficient for furnishing the food 
 of a large establishment of silk worms. 
 
 Climate, Son,, dec. — * * * < Xhis species will be 
 readily acclimated in Europe ; because it originated in 
 an analogous region as to climate, to that which we in- 
 .babit. It appears not to sufier from the excessive cold of 
 the northern, or the intense heat of the intertropical re- 
 gions ; for the plants deposited in the gardens of the 
 government at Cayenne, acquired in the space of eight 
 months a truly remarkable development, and at the time 
 of our departure from that colony, in June, 18'21, they 
 were clothed with leaves of an extraordinary size. Those 
 also which we cultivated at Senegal, although situated 
 under a dry and scorching sky, and planted in an arid 
 soil, offered an appearance sufficiently satisfactory, but 
 they had acquired less development in all respects, than 
 those which ftave vegetated under the humid climate of 
 Guiana. It appears expedient then, that plantations of 
 this mulberry should be made upon a humid rather than 
 a dry soil, to obtain in all respects a satisfactory result. 
 
30 
 
 » ♦ » * * Besides, this mulberry braves the most vigo- 
 rous winters. We saw on our arrival at Havre, in July 
 last, in the field of M. A. Eyries, plants, which had en- 
 dured, in the open ground, the winter of 1828, and 
 which appeared vigorous and beautiful.' — Thus far 
 M. Perrottet. 
 
 On this last and other points, let us now hear the 
 testimony of M. Poiteau in the Annalcs (THoriicul- 
 ture, 1830. 
 
 ' By the information which we receive from all quarters, 
 it appears that this mulberry is destined to replace tho 
 common white mulberry, everywhere, for nourishing silk 
 worms ; its property of continuing low and bushy, so 
 that the leaves can always be gathered without a ladder ; 
 and the large size, abundance, and tenderness of the 
 leaves, cannot fail to give it a decided preference. It 
 has been sufficiently ascertained, that they are eaten with 
 avidity by the silk worms, and that the silk which they 
 form is of the first quality. This mulberry has not suf- 
 fered in the least from the rigors of the last severe 
 winter. 
 
 ' The zealous traveller, who has given to France, 
 America, and Africa, this precious plant, has acquired a 
 just claim to public gratitude, and it is not only easy, but 
 proper, to give him at this time a proof of it, by affixing 
 his name to the tree which has given him celebrity, and 
 which will contribute so much to the prosperity of French 
 Industry. * * * ' Note to the Perrottet Mulberry (Moras 
 Multicaulis.) 
 
 M. Audibert is also decidedly of the opinion that the best 
 mode of cultivating the Mortis Multicaulis, for the sup- 
 
31 
 
 port of silk worms, is in hedges with low stocks, M. 
 Barthere of Toulouse in the South of France, who has 
 considerably extended their cultivation, fully coincides in 
 the same opinion ; and is confident that in grounds and 
 vineyards which could hardly give two per cent, this tree 
 will now insure ten per cent. 
 
 This tree, according to M. Perrottet and Dr Deslong- 
 champs, is easily propagated either by layers, by cuttings, 
 or even by cuttings of a single eye, placed beneath the 
 surface and shaded from the noonday sun. 
 
 The experiments instituted at Paris by Dr Deslong- 
 champs, have confirmed all that had been previously as- 
 serted respecting the quality of the silk produced by this 
 plant ; he has further stated that the cocoons, made by the 
 worms fed only on this plant, are even rather heavier. 
 
 Dr Felix Pascalis in an article in Silliman's Journal of 
 Science for July, 1830, after informing us that in the 
 preceding March he had received two plants of this mul- 
 berry from France, has added — ' After the discovery of 
 this plant, a doubt no longer exists, that two crops of silk 
 may be raised in a single season.' 
 
 At Madam Parmentier's Horticultural establishment, 
 two crops of silk were produced in the summer of 1832. 
 The first were fed promiscuously on the 3Ioriis Multicau- 
 lis, Morus Alba, and other mulberries. The cocoons thus 
 produced were about two thirds white and the remainder 
 of an orange color. A suitable portion of these cocoons 
 were collected for seed, having no regard to color; — These 
 being subjected to the hatching process, produced a sec- 
 ond crop the 30ih of July. These last were fed exclu- 
 sively on the Moms Multicaulis : they passed through the 
 3* 
 
32 
 
 different stages of their larva existence in the short space 
 of 26 clays. The cocoons which were obtained from this 
 second crop were of a much larger size than those of the 
 first crop, but what is of still more consequence they 
 loere of the whiteness of snow, and have a most beautiful 
 shining appearance. (See New England Farmer, vol. 
 xi. No. ii.) At Madam Parmentier's in 1831, I witness- 
 ed the silk worms feeding with avidity on the leaves of the 
 Morus Multicaulis , and was informed that they had left 
 eleven other species of mulberries to feed on this. At 
 that place we are also informed, the Blorus Multicaulis 
 has withstood the rigors of the last six winters uninjured 
 and unprotected. Although bein^ possessed of an ac- 
 tive and prolonged vegetation, it is not to be expected 
 that the unripened wood of the tender tips should always 
 escape. 
 
 I introduced this plant to Massachusetts in the spring 
 of 1831, from the Messrs Prince of the Linnajan Botanic 
 Garden, Flushing ; I also received plants of the same 
 from Madam Parmentier's of Brooklyn L. I. and I have 
 also received them from France from M. Andre Michaux, 
 author of the American Sylva. 
 
 DANDOLO OR MORETTI MULBERRY. 
 
 A new and most valuable species of mulberry for the 
 nourishment of the silk worm. It was first discovered 
 about 1815, by M. Moretti, Professor in the University 
 of Pavia, and from a single young tree he had in 1826, 
 multiplied them to 120,000. The tree is presumed to be 
 hardy ; the fruit which is at first violet, becomes at ma- 
 turity perfectly black. The leaf is ovate, sharp pointed, 
 
33 
 
 entire, cordate at the base. It is thin, smooth on the 
 under and especially on the upper surface, which is of a 
 beautiful and rather deep shining green ; it is not near so 
 thick as that of the large white mulberry, called in France, 
 the AdmiruhJc, and is thinner than those of the Spanish 
 mulberry, (Moms Xigra.) It is neither wrinkled or 
 plaited. It is in general nearly eight inches wide, and 
 ten inches long. This mulberry will be most profitably 
 cultivated in the form of a hedge, and from the superior 
 size of the leaf, they are gathered with the greatest fa- 
 cility. Its superior quality has been proved by the ex- 
 periments of xM. Gera and the Count Dandolo, who as- 
 sert, that they produce silk of a more beautiful gloss and 
 of finer quality than common silk. See the whole article 
 Inserted hy the Hon. 11. A. S. Dearborn, in the New Eng' 
 land Farmer, vol. 8, J^o. 29. It is from the Annales d' 
 Horticulture, and is extracted from the Report of Dr 
 Fontaneilles, on a letter published by M. Gera in 1826, 
 in the Journal of Physics, and of Chemistry of Pavia. 
 
 The following statistics of a mulberry orchard of two 
 acres, are by the late Andrew Parmentier, Esq. of New 
 York; 
 
 650 standard trees in the low parts of tlie ground, each 
 
 20 feet apart. 
 250 standard trees on the rising places, 12 feet apart. 
 650 dwarf trees on suitable portions of the ground. 
 
 1550 
 
 This ground to be fenced by mulberry hedges. The 
 
34 
 
 purchase money for about two acres, with cost of manure 
 and neceesary tillage, is estimated at $500. 
 
 Supposing that to secure full success to this orchard by 
 using none of the foliage, and tilling and replacing dead 
 trees during five years, counting loss of interest and 
 other expenses accruing, we have an increase of debt of 
 8375, and a capital of $881 ; but commencing from the 
 fifth year up to the twentieth of its existence, the author 
 of these statistics forms three different periods of five 
 years each. The plantation will give in the first period 
 from 90 to 95 quintals of foliage, that is, 9000 lbs. or 
 fodder for five ounces of worm seeds ; 35 pounds of 
 silk, about $180, that is, 20 per cent on $881. The 
 second period will annually afford for fourteen ounces, 
 15,000 quintals, or 95 lbs. of silk, equal to 47 per cent 
 on $881. But the third period to the twentieth year of age 
 of the orchard, from 500 to 650 quintals may be expect- 
 ed, which will feed 28 ounces and give 196 lbs. of silk, 
 worth nearly $1000, or more than 112 per cent. 
 
 The following are remarks and calculations of my esti- 
 mable friends Messrs. Abner Brownell and John Macomber 
 of Westport Mass., who are engaged in the cultivation 
 of the Mulberry tree, and have a large number of them 
 of various sizes for sale. I furnished them with 
 buds of the Morus Multicaulis, from my nursery last 
 season. Although it is very evident that all calculations 
 on these subjects must be uncertain, yet I have thought 
 the following from judicious farmers might not be un- 
 acceptable. 
 
 Mr J. D. Ilomergue, in his letter to the Hon. Andrew 
 Stevenson, Speaker of the House of Representatives in 
 
35 
 
 Congress, says — ' In one acre of land there are 43,560 
 square feet, on which may be planted 3000 mulberry 
 trees, (from 4 to 3f feet apart.) These will yield, at the 
 age of seven years, 90,000 pounds of leaves, — 30 pounds 
 to a tree — producing 7,500 pounds of cocoons. At 
 25 cents per pound, these cocoons would sell for f 1,875; 
 at 40 cents, $3000 ; at 50 cents, $3,750.' 
 
 In Fessenden's American Gardener, page 272, it is 
 said, 'one ounce of seed will produce about 40,000 
 worms, who consume about 1000 pounds of leaves, and 
 produce from SO to 100 pounds of cocoons ; and 12 pounds 
 of cocoons give about one pound of Silk.' In the Franklin 
 Journal, vol. II, pages 23, 94 and 139, Count Dondola 
 says, ' The quantity of leaves actually consumed by 
 200,000 worms, is, in the first age, 20 lbs. second, 55 lbs., 
 third, 215 lbs., fourth, 620 lbs., fifth, 3,820 lbs., making 
 in all, 4,731 lbs. of leaves ; and that where trees are 
 convenient, two persons will attend and feed 240,000 
 worms, until ten days from spinning, when five or six ac- 
 tive children are necessary.' It is also known, that four 
 or five weeks, where the worms are well fed, completes 
 the time of feeding. The Massachusetts Journal, of 
 1828, Vol. X, No. 2, page 137, says, ' A single acre plant- 
 ed with the mulberry, will produce from 5 to 600 pounds 
 of raw silk,' but the number of trees is not mentioned. 
 
 According to the above calculations, 240,000 worms 
 will consume 6000 pounds of leaves, requiring the time 
 and attention of two women, for five weeks, which, at $3 
 per week each, including board, is $30; and 6 children, 
 ten days each, at $2 per week, is $17, making the cost 
 147 for 6000 pounds of leaves. At that rate, 90,000 
 
36 
 
 pounds of leaves — the produce of one acre — would feed 
 3,600,000 worms, and cost for feeding them, $705, which 
 being deducted from $1,l!<75, the price of the produce, 
 leaves $1,170 for the annual income of one acre of trees. 
 Thus, by the above calculations, differing but little in the 
 amount, it is seen that the income afforded by one acre, 
 after seven years, must be immense. This acre, it is to 
 be presumed, must be of the best quality, and the trees 
 highly cultivated, to produce so much. Mulberry trees 
 will grow on poor land, but the produce will be compara- 
 tively small. But supposing Mr Homergue's calculations 
 to be made from the best kind of land, and that we have 
 much poor, rocky land, let us call the product of leaves 
 only one-tenth as much as is estimated above, we have 
 only three pounds of leaves from each tree, and lest it may 
 require more help to feed the worms, we will say four 
 wornen and twelve children, which will reduce the 
 cocoons to 750 pounds, and the sales to $187 50, and the 
 cost of feeding will be 1141, and there will then remain 
 $46 50 for the annual income of one acre. 
 
 All the uncertainty in these calculations, arises from 
 the quantity of leaves produced on an acre, and that must 
 vary according to the quality and cultivation of the soil ; 
 all the rest can be ascertained from actual experiment. 
 But I understand it is the practice of some to let their 
 trees on shares — one fourth of the cocoons to those who 
 gather the leaves, one-half to those who tend and feed 
 the worms, and the other fourth to the owner of the trees, 
 which, if the trees produced 90,000 pounds of leaves, and 
 the cocoons sold for $ 1 ,875, would be for one half, $937 50, 
 and one fourth $468 75, But supposing the trees to pro- 
 
37 
 
 duce one tenth only of this quantity, then one-half would 
 be 193 75, and one-fourth, $56 87^. This amounts to 
 about the same thing as calling the labor of gathering 
 the leaves and feeding the worms, double what it is calcu- 
 lated in the Franklin Journal, at the price of wages and 
 board which I have calculated. 
 
 Now taking the smallest estimate of income, and in 
 what way can a farmer, remote from a seaport town, ac- 
 quire so much, with so little capital and labor, in about 
 five weeks time ? If any person will point out any way, 
 and prove it, to the satisfaction of the Legislature, or 
 Agricultural Society, I think he would merit a great 
 reward. But this business may be particularly recom- 
 mended to Overseers of the Poor in every town, who 
 have a farm, — and every town ought to have one — to 
 keep their paupers ; for if one half their paupers are able 
 to gather leaves and feed the worms five weeks, this 
 business would support all of them a year, exclusive of 
 the cost of an overseer. Permit me to suggest one con- 
 sideration more, — if all the highways in country towns 
 were ornamented with a row of mulberry trees, on each 
 side, half a rod apart, each mile would contain 1380 
 trees, the income of which, after seven years, would pro- 
 bably pay for repairing all the highways and the expense? 
 of the public schools, if the inhabitants would restrain 
 their cattle and sheep from going at large. There is 
 another method of producing silk from mulberry trees, 
 one year after transplanting them ; which is, to plant 
 them in rows 3 feet by 2 apart, which would give about 
 7000 to an acre, and every other year with a sharp in- 
 strument to cut them off within three or four inches of 
 
38 
 
 the ground and feed them out or cut off every year. 
 But whether this method will produce as much or more 
 Silk, than to omit picking the leaves for seven years, I 
 have not obtained information sufficient to decide. 
 
 I further remark, that the education of youth is of the 
 utmost importance to the public. May I be permitted to 
 address the inhabitants of every school District, that they 
 would seriously and without delay, consider the importance 
 of connecting the silk business with summer schools, by 
 procuring two or three acres of suitable land near eacli 
 school house, and have them well covered with mulberry 
 trees and fenced with a mulberry hedge, with sheds near 
 the school house, for feeding the worms and reeling the 
 silk ; and having a suitable mistress and twentyfour schol- 
 ars and over, to be employed in gathering leaves and 
 feeding worms at times not interfering with regular school 
 hours, for the term of four months, the silk worms to be 
 hatched in succession, once in eight or ten days, and the 
 produce of silk will be more than enough to pay the vvage.« 
 and board of the mistress at $20 per month, and the 
 board of the scholars at 61 per week during that time. 
 This can be proved by actual experiment and arithmetical 
 demonstration, if we may believe the testimony of all 
 the silk growers and authors on the silk business. 
 
 A shed may be erected near a school house of the 
 following dimensions, viz. 20 feet long and 16 wide, with 
 nine feet posts boarded with square edged boards, the 
 roof shingled, but no floor, two small windows, one at 
 each end ; two frames made like ladders for four tier of 
 shelves, fifteen feet long and four and a half wide, the 
 lower ends of the ladders to be two and a half feet abovo 
 
39 
 
 the ground, and two and a half feet between them ; at 
 one end of the shed four more shelves the height of the 
 others, thirteen feet long, one foot and eight inches wide ; 
 these twelve shelves will serve for one hundred thousand 
 worms, and will consume about twentyfive hundred 
 pounds of leaves previous to their spinning cocoons, after 
 each hatching, and produce two hundred and eight pounds 
 of cocoons and make twentysix pounds of reeled silk, 
 according to Messrs Homergue's and Cobb's calculations ; 
 and by hatching the worms in succession for sixteen 
 weeks, the second hatching in fourteen days after the 
 first, and then in ten days, and then once in eight days, 
 until there is ten hatchings, which at that rate will make 
 two thousand and eighty pounds of cocoons, and two 
 hundred and sixty pounds of reeled silk, which at the 
 lowest price that Mr Cobb has sold his for, 84 50 per 
 pound, amounts to §1170, or selling the cocoons at 40 
 cents the price at Philadelphia, they would amount to 
 $832 ; or say 25 cents, the lowest price offered any- 
 where, they amount to $520. Then allowing the mis- 
 tress 820 per month, and the board of the twenty four 
 scholars for sixteen weeks, each at 81 per week, it 
 amounts to 8464, which deducted from 8520, there re- 
 mains 856 ; which allowing three acres of land and the 
 trees to cost 8600, the 856 will pay the interest of the 
 money and 820 left to pay interest for two sheds which 
 will be wanted if the silk is reeled ; thus you have the 
 children schooled and boarded without any expense to 
 their parents or the town, and interest on the capital in 
 the bargain. What more do you want, but faith and 
 resolution. 
 
 4 
 
40 
 
 Additional remarks. 
 
 I have taken Mr J. D'Homergue's calculations, and 
 compared them with many others, and then made deduc- 
 tions so great, as to make the produce of leaves from an 
 acre of trees, when 20 years old to amount to only one 
 third of what he says the same number of trees will pro- 
 duce when 7 years old, and so much, I think, land of a 
 medium quality will produce. An acre of land, with 
 3000 mulberry trees planted upon it, and a shed, will cost 
 1300. At the end of four years, the ,$300 and interest, 
 will amount to §378 73 ; two pounds of leaves from each 
 tree, will produce 500 pounds of cocoons, which, at 25 
 cents per pound, amount to $125. Deducting three 
 fourths for labor, and there remains 631 25 net profit, 
 which being deducted from $378 73, reduces the capital 
 to $347 48. 
 
 5//j year — Capital and interest $36S 32 ; produce, 
 2^ lbs. leaves from each tree ; value of cocoons, $15625 ; 
 net profit $39 OGJ- ; reduced capital $329 25. 
 
 Qth year — Capital and interest, $349 ; produce, 3 lbs. 
 of leaves from a tree; value of cocoons, $187 50 ; net 
 profit, $46 871 ; reduced capital, $302 12f 
 
 Ifh year — Capital and interest, $320 25 ; produce, 
 ^ lbs. ; value of cocoons, $218 75 ; net profit, $54 68 ; 
 reduced capital, $265 56. 
 
 ^th year — Capital and interest $281 19; produce 4 
 lbs. ; value of cocoons $250 ; net profit $62 50 ; reduced 
 capital, $218 69. 
 
 Qthyear — Capital and interest $231 81 ; produce 4^- 
 lbs.; value of cocoons $281 25; net profit $70 31}; 
 reduced capital $161 49. 
 
41 
 
 10th 1/ear — Capital and interest $171 17; produce 5 
 lbs. ; value of cocoons ^'S12 50 ; net profit $78 1'2^ re- 
 duced capital $93 044^. 
 
 ll//t i/ear — Capital and interest 898 621; produce 
 51; lbs. value of cocoons $343 75 net profit $85 9'3^ ; 
 reduced capital ,^12 68. 
 
 \^th year — Capital and interest J^I344; produce 6 
 lbs. ; value of cocoons ^375 ; net profit !j^93 75 — which 
 pays the debt of $13 44, and leaves a credit of $80 31. 
 
 I'^th year — The above S$0 31 hired out on interest, 
 amounts to ^$5 12; produce 6^ lbs; value of cocoons 
 ^4061; net profit ^101 561; accumulated capital $186 
 68. 
 
 14:lh year — Accumulated capital and interest $197 
 S8; produce 7 lbs. ; value of cocoons $437 50 ; net profit 
 $109 37 ; accumulated capital $307 25. 
 
 loth year — Accumulated capital and interest $325 
 68; produce 7i lbs.; value of cocoons $468 75; net 
 profit $117 18|^; accumulated capital $442 86. 
 
 Y^th year — .Accumulated capital and interest $469 
 43 ; produce 8 lbs. ; value of cocoons $500 ; net profit 
 $125; accumulated capital S-594 43. 
 
 llth year — Accumulated capital and interest $630 
 09 ; produce 8i lbs. ; value of cocoons $531 25 ; net 
 profit $132 81^; accumulated capital $762 90. 
 
 \Sth year — Accumulated capital and interest $808 
 67; produce 9 lbs. ; value of cocoons $562 50; net 
 profit $140 62; accumulated capital $949 294. 
 
 19^/t year — Accumulated capital and interest $1,006 
 24 ; produce 9^ lbs. ; value of cocoons $593 75 ; net 
 profit $148 43|; accumulated capital $1154 67. 
 
42 
 
 'HOthyear — Accumulated capital $1223 95; produce 
 10 lbs; value of cocoons $025; net profit $156 25; 
 accumulated capital and interest $1463 ; which remains 
 after paying for the land, trees and shed, together with the 
 labor of gathering the leaves and feeding the worms, and 
 compound interest on the purchase money until paid, and 
 the land and trees at the expiration of twenty years 
 worth more than double the cost, and the trees will proba- 
 bly continue to increase in size 10 years longer. 
 
 I think this calculation of the produce cannot be con- 
 sidered exaggerated, for it is not one-eighth as much as 
 Homergue says an acre will produce. Now calculating 
 10 acres at this rate, and in twenty years you have 
 the establishment clear of debt, and $14,630 in money 
 or, 100 acres, and you have $146,300. And further, 
 these calculations are made on the supposition that the 
 cocoons are sold before they are reeled ; and if a Com- 
 pany should be formed with a sufficient capital for reel- 
 ing, throwsting and weaving, and manufacturing silk in 
 various ways, the business would undoubtedly be more 
 profitable than raising cocoons, or manufacturing cotton 
 or wool. Let the company have a plantation of mulberry 
 trees of 150 or 200 acres, and carry on all branches of 
 manufacturing silk, they would thereby create a village 
 of industry and wealth, and produce a good market for 
 the necessaries of life, and increase the value of real 
 estate contiguous thereto, besides having stock of their 
 own without buying, and in the end of acquiring immense 
 wealth for themselves, by converting mulberry leaves into 
 silk, and impoverishing no one. 
 
 The reader is requested to consider that these calcula- 
 
43 
 
 tions are predicated upon an increase of half a pound of 
 leaves a year to a tree after they are transplanted, until 
 they are full grown,, and this must be low ; for in Mans- 
 field, Conn, it is said full-grown trees produce from 50 to 
 60 lbs. each. And in these calculations the proprietor 
 does none of the labor, except putting the leaves out on 
 shares; and those who take them make more than com- 
 mon wages at the business. It is an honorable business, 
 for in ancient times virtuous women were clothed with 
 silk. See Proverbs, xxxi, 10,22. 
 
 Now, let a young man of 21 years of age, of steady hab- 
 its purchase such an establishment, and mortgage it for 
 security of the payment, and get it insured against fire 
 and other casualties, and put the leaves out on shares, 
 and work himself at some mechanical or agricultural em- 
 ployment, he would at the expiration of twenty years, if 
 a temperate man, undoubtedly acquire double the pro- 
 perty which the greater number of professional men at- 
 tain to, who must have a large sum expended upon them 
 previous to commencing business. Upon the correctness 
 of the foregoing calculations and remarks, every one 
 will judge for himself. 
 
 4* 
 
PART II. 
 
 ON REARING SILK WORMS. 
 
 The silk insect affords a display of the wisdom of 
 Divine Providence in the adaptation of means to ends, 
 calculated to excite high interest and admiration. 
 
 The extraordinary effect produced by this little animal 
 in the short space of six weeks is no less than the c on- 
 version of the vegetable substance of the mulberry leaf 
 into threads of rich and durable silk. Well might the 
 Emperor Justinian be astonished to find that the rich and 
 beautiful material of his magnificent robes was first pro- 
 duced and worn by this feeble insect ; and well might 
 he repay with munificence the monks by whose exertions 
 the eggs of the silk worm were smuggled in a hollow 
 cane from India to Constantinople. This hollow cane 
 was the ark whence came out the germ of those numer- 
 ous tribes of this insect which have spread over the whole 
 of Europe, and whose descendants are now fast settling 
 in these United States. Let us commence with the eggs 
 of this insect, and trace its operations, its wants, and 
 various changes, till it forms the cocoon, from which pro- 
 ceeds the moth, which in its turn produces the egg. 
 
rJ.ATV I . 
 
 
 %J! 
 
 ^ 
 
 J''V' 
 
 
 rf.,s 
 
 /'>/^, ^ 
 
45 
 
 THE EGGS. 
 
 The eggs are of small size.* When first laid, they are 
 of a pale yellow color, but in three or four days turn to a 
 light slate color, and subsequently to a dull brownish slate 
 color. Those which remain yellow have not been fecun- 
 dated, and of course are worthless. The most proper 
 place for keeping the eggs until they are wanted for 
 hatching is a dry cellar. They should be kept in a tight 
 box, to protect them from mice or insects, and dry, so 
 that the mold and mildew may not injure them. 
 
 THE H.\TCHING, LE.WES, ETC. 
 
 The advance of the season determines the time of 
 hatching the eggs. As soon as the leaf of the mulberry 
 begins to unfold — which is generally in this climate (New 
 England,) the latter part of May — and you observe that 
 there is a prospect of having a sufficient quantity of food, 
 it is time to expose the eggs to hatch. No other process 
 is necessary than to expose them to the air in a room ; 
 they hatch voluntarily in a day or two after the exposure. 
 Various modes are adopted in Europe — hatching them in 
 ovens, carrying them about the person, tSoc, — but no- 
 thing of that kind is necessary here. 
 
 It is best to preserve those insects for rearing, that 
 come out as nearly at the same time as possible. As soon 
 as the worms begin to appear,! lay over them young and 
 tender mulberry leaves ; they will soon attach themselves 
 
 * Vide Figure 1, Plate 1. 
 t See figure 2, Plate 1. 
 
46 
 
 to the leaves, and by taking hold of the stems of the 
 leaves, you may remove them easily. They ought now 
 to be supplied with fresh tender leaves three times a day. 
 As the leaves when very young will dry so much in a 
 short time if exposed to the air as to be unfit for use. 
 you may put them in a glazed vessel or keep them cover- 
 ed in a cellar or cool place ; by which means the leaves 
 may be kept good for two or three days.* Besides, it is 
 well to have always in your house at a time, a stock of 
 leaves sufficient at least for three days' provision for your 
 worms in case of wet weather. If leaves are given when 
 wet they will cause disease. Be careful never to pull the 
 leaves when wet, either with rain or dew, except on abso- 
 lute necessity, and in that case you must spread them and 
 turn them, that the leaves may be perfectly dry before you 
 give them to the worms ; rats, mice, spiders, ants and 
 fowls are very destructive to the worms ; care must be 
 taken therefore to keep them out of the way of all such 
 enemies. 
 
 THE NURSERY, SHELVES, ETC. 
 
 In Europe laboratories have been constructed with 
 great care and expense ; but however convenient these 
 may be, they are by no means necessary to success in 
 
 " Mr D'H. proposes tlie following method to preserve leaves ; 
 Put them under cover on a brick pavement, or gravelled lloor ; 
 turn tlicin over and plice them further where it is not damp (for 
 they always leave a dampness where they lie) three or four times 
 a day or an hour before you feed the worms; you may thus keep 
 them three or four days. The leaf wants air to keep fresh. 
 
47 
 
 rearing silk worms ; almost any building will answer for 
 that purpose. 1 have reared them myself with success in 
 a barn, in ray cellar kitchen, and other rooms of my 
 dwelling-house, and in the lower story of Tremont House 
 in Boston. It was found in France that the cocoons 
 brought to market by the peasants, raised in hovels so 
 full of cracks as easily to be seen through and to admit 
 the air freely, were richer and heavier than those reared in 
 palaces and in the confined rooms of dwellings in cities.* 
 The apparatus of the Rev. Mr Swain, I should think might 
 be worth adopting, for those who are beginning on a small 
 scale; in fact I have had something like it constructed 
 for my own use. This apparatus consists of a wooden 
 frame four feet two inches high, each side ; sixteen inches 
 and a half wide, divided into eight partitions by small 
 pieces of wood, which form grooves in which the slides 
 run and are thus easily thrust in or drawn out of the 
 frame. 
 
 The upper side is of paper only and designed to re- 
 ceive the worms as soon as hatched ; the others are of 
 
 * I saw at Philadelphia on the 21st of June (1S31) worms raised 
 by Mr D'Ho.i;ergue in a yard of mulberry trees, which bore 
 heavy rains and thunder storms, as well as cold windy days, a few 
 of which spun in 30 days and produced excellent cocoons. They 
 began to mount 32 days after hatching. I also saw a few worms 
 raised from eggs which were laid on the outside of a brick wall in 
 a northern exposure, which had stood all the severity of the winter. 
 I saw many thousands of excellent cocoons raised by Mr Du Pon- 
 ceau under the care of Mr D'Homergue in the heart of the city of 
 Philadelphia. I tried some on trees in the open air the present 
 season (1832) but they did not succeed; they obtained however to 
 a considerable size, but the frequent rains destroyed them. 
 
48 
 
 wicker work, the opening being about a quarter of an 
 inch square : under each of these are slides. This occu- 
 pies little space and is neat, and the persons using it can 
 easily remove the litter. I have used three tiers of rough 
 pine boards fixed upon upright po.sts, about four feet in 
 width, one above the other, with a space between of two 
 and a half feet, aflbrdiug room sufficient to pass all round 
 the frame, so that I could conveniently reach any part of 
 it. In making the shelves it is well to have the lowest 
 one six inches broader than the one above it, and to make 
 the same difference in the other shelves above, so as to 
 break the fall of such worms as happen to tumble down. 
 A good form for the shelves is that adopted by Mr J. Y, 
 Tomkins of Baltimore, and which I saw in the nursery of 
 Gideon B. Smith, Esq. of that place. It is about 2^ feet 
 wide, by five or six long, made of thin board*, with a piece 
 two inches wide nailed flat on the upper edge along the 
 sides and ends, with legs about a foot long in the corners. 
 The legs do not pass through the table, but leave a part of 
 the hole on the upper side for the feet of another table to 
 set in. Thus contrived, five or six of these tables are set 
 one above another, and are taken down, cleaned and 
 again set up with facility. One of these shelves will ac- 
 commodate 500 worms.* It might be as well to put old 
 newspapers on the shelves, which might be taken off 
 whenever it was necessary to clean the worms, and then 
 replaced. — Thus I have done. 
 
 * Farmers, however, who would make it profitable, siiould raise 
 one or two hundred thousand, and rough boards will make the 
 cheapest and most ready shelves for use on an extensive scale. 
 
49 
 
 THE DIFFERENT AGES, MOULTING, ETC. 
 
 There are several varieties of silk worms.* The most 
 common varieties change their skins four different times. 
 These changes are called moultings, and the intervening 
 times the different ages. The time requisite for the 
 several changes depends greatly on the temperature. If 
 the weather is warm, they will generally happen as fol- 
 lows ; the first moulting on the fourth or fifth day after 
 the hatching ; the second begins on the eighth day ; the 
 third on the thirteenth and fourteenth days, and the last 
 change on the twenty second. 
 
 The fifth age lasts about ten days; at the end of which 
 the worms have reached their ultimate growth, being 
 three inches in length, t and are prepared to spin their 
 cocoons. Thus thirtytwo days intervene between the 
 hatching and the beginning of the cocoon, and I have 
 known the period retarded to sixty days. These changes 
 will only be noticed by accurate observers. 
 
 FEEDING, CLEARING THE LITTER, ETC. 
 
 Too ?nany leaves should not be given to them at once, 
 and the leaves given should be spread very thin, because 
 if put on too .thick, a great number of the worms when 
 
 * I saw in the Nursery of Gideon B. Smith, Esq. of Baltimore 
 four different varieties. I would recommend, as most profitable for 
 rearing, the large white. 
 
 t See figures 2, 3, 4, 5, or the different appearance of the insect 
 in its different stages. 
 
50 
 
 small will run the risk of being lost and carried out 
 among the litter. When the worms are in the first age, 
 you need only clean the litter once or twice, as you find 
 it necessary. During the whole of the first age, the 
 leaves of the young plants of the mulberry, as being the 
 tenderest, are preferable to the leaves of older trees for 
 the food of the young worms. It is well therefore to sow 
 some mulberry seed every year so as to have a succession 
 of young plants. During the temporary sickness produced 
 by the changing of the skin they should be fed with a 
 very sparing hand. The sign, by which it is known that 
 worms are sick and about to change their skins, are these . 
 they hold their heads up, are motionless and appear to 
 sleep ; — this should be noticed. 
 
 During the second age it is advisable still to continue to 
 feed your worms with leaves from the young plants, as 
 they are still preferable for them. You must now begin 
 to be attentive to clear away the litter from time to time, 
 so as to prevent all danger from its heating, which proves 
 highly injurious, though some people never clear away 
 the litter at all. These insects are remarkably fond of 
 cleanliness, which besides helps to enliven them and 
 gives them a keen appetite for the leaves that are given 
 them. The litter is taken away in the following manner ; 
 you scatter some fresh leaves upon one corner of the shelf, 
 to which the worms having attached themselves, which 
 th^y will readily do, you then take up the worms by means 
 of the leaves and stalks they cling to, leaving the litter 
 underneath. Having thus taken up all the worms from 
 that corner and placed them in a clean place, you then 
 clear away the litter from that corner and carefully sweep 
 
51 
 
 together with a little broom or wing, all the dirt, which 
 you remove entirely : you then remove the worms next 
 adjoining to the clean place thus prepared and put them 
 into it ; in this manner you proceed with the rest.* 
 
 During the third age the full grown leaves of the 
 largest trees may be given — though it would be well to 
 reserve the largest and toughest leaves till the last age, 
 when they are the most voracious. During the third 
 age, the litter should be removed at least three or four 
 times ; worms that die or appear to be diseased should 
 be immediately removed. 
 
 The same treatment will be required during the fourth 
 and fifth ages as in the preceding. As they advance ia 
 age the greater will be the proportion of food required and 
 the oftener the litter must be removed ; by these means 
 the process is sooner brought to a conclusion, and the 
 worms always kept in high health and appetite. During 
 the four or five days previous to their rising, the worms 
 consume an incredible quantity of leaves, eating with 
 great voracity, and at this time the labor of tending them 
 is most fatiguing. You will know when the worms are ripe 
 or ready to rise and form their cocoons by observing them 
 with attention when you give fresh leaves. Those that 
 are ripe, instead of eating, avoid the fresh leaves, and 
 run over them as fast as they can wander about, and try 
 to climb ; they will look transparent, of the color of a 
 green gage plum, and somewhat diminished in size. 
 
 * If the worms are laid on a newspaper, it is easy to take out the 
 newspaper, lay it on a table, and transport the worms, who gener- 
 ally adhere to the leaves and branches, to another newspaper, 
 which is put on the shelf after sweeping it. The litter on the other 
 one may then be thiown a.vay. 
 
 5 
 
52 
 
 In the fifth age the worms should have new leaves as 
 often as the old ones are consumed, until they are observ- 
 ed to creep on the leaves without eating. At night they 
 should have a double portion. 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR THE COCOONS. 
 
 Previous to the rising of the worms, some little arches 
 or cabins should have been prepared of brushwood or 
 broom corn, by setting their branches with their top 
 spread, pressing against the bottom of the upper shelf to 
 hold them in their position. The worms will readily find 
 and climb these little trees and spin their cocoons in 
 them ; the worms will be three or four days spinning 
 their cocoons,* and they will all generally be finished in 
 eight days. The brush may then be taken down, the 
 cocoons taken off", cleared of the loose tow and prepared 
 for reeling. I have found that the branches of the oak, 
 
 ' Dr Pascalis of New York, a gentleman of great literary reputa- 
 tion and highly scientific attainments, has by the uso of f^leclricity 
 been enabled to hasten the progress of silk insects ; ami worms 
 reared by him, to which this powerful agent was applied, have spun 
 their cocoons in 27 days from the time they were hatched. I have 
 never made any experiments in this way myself, but doubt not 
 that this, as well as many other improvements will bo introduced. 
 The same gentleman has also recommended in his valuable work, 
 the Silk Culturist, (No. 2, page 105) artificial mounting slides, upon 
 which the worms may mount and spin their cocoons. Those who 
 have curiosity to see these improvements, will find a drawing of 
 them in the work referred to. 
 
 * See the Cocoon, Fig. 7, Plate 1. 
 
53 
 
 with the leaves on, answered the purpose for these arches 
 very well, as the leaves are strong and do not crumble 
 in taking oif the silk. They should be cut some days 
 before hand, and be dry when used. Some prefer to 
 have the brushwood, entirely stripped of ils leaves, Mr 
 Smith of Baltimore, uses and recommends the broom 
 corn. 
 
 SEED COCOONS. 
 
 Those cocoons that are intended for seed may be 
 Stripped of their tow and strung upon a thread — care be- 
 ing taken not to pierce entirely through the cocoons — and 
 hung up until such time as the moths come out,* which 
 will be in one or two weeks, when the males and females 
 will couple ; they may be taken by the wings in pairs 
 without separating them and placed on large sheets of 
 paper, (old newspapers will do,) where they are to re- 
 main ; as many pairs of moths as can conveniently lie on 
 the papers may be placed there. The room in which 
 these are placed should be secure from mice and ants, 
 and the sun should not be permitted to shine on them in 
 any stage of their existence ; as soon as the moths on 
 one sheet have done laying their eggs, it should be folded 
 up and put down cellar, or in some cool, dry place until 
 wanted for use the next spring. 
 
 The moths (see fig.) are in the form of a grayish 
 white butterfly and generally begin to lay their eggs in 
 24 to 36 hours, after leaving the cocoon. Each female 
 moth will lay from three so four hundred eggs, general- 
 
 * See the Fly, Fig. S, Plate 1. 
 
54 
 
 ly handsomely disposed and firmly attaclied to the paper 
 in a circular form. 
 
 Should the eggs be permitted to remain exposed to 
 the warm weather, they will sometimes hatch the same 
 season, and unless another crop be desired, they will be 
 lost. The moths eat nothing after leaving the cocoons, 
 and die in a few days after depositing the eggs. 
 
 DISEASES OF SILK WORMS. 
 
 The foreign writers enumerate and describe a variety of 
 diseases to which silk worms are liable in their different 
 ages, and particularly in the fifth, which all agree to be the 
 most critical. But to all these diseases they prescribe the 
 same means of prevention and the same remedies when 
 they have occurred. It is therefore unnecessary to de- 
 scribe their various symptoms, as it would lead to no good 
 practical result. 
 
 The diseases of silk worms generally arise from the 
 want of sufficient air and space, from their not being 
 kept dry, and being fed with damp leaves, and also from 
 their not being kept sufficiently clean, particularly in the 
 fifth age. The fermentation of their litter, the dampness 
 and the bad air which it occasions, are the most frequent 
 causes of mortality among them. The greatest care 
 therefore should be taken to keep them constantly clean 
 and dry, and to give them a sufficient quantity of space 
 and air ; a current of air in fine warm days, should al- 
 ways be let into their nursery. If, notwithstanding all the 
 care taken, some general sickness should declare itself 
 among them, the remedy recommended by the writers, is, 
 
55 
 
 to give them a change of air, by transporting them into 
 another room. But this may not always be convenient. 
 It is with these animals, as with our species, easier to 
 prevent diseases than to cure them. If nothing better 
 can be done, the diseased worms must be thrown away. 
 The chloride of lime and soda have been used with good 
 effect in some nurseries to cleanse the air. 
 
 Before the worms begin to mount and spin their co- 
 coons, they void themselves of their excrements, and they 
 generally do it on or near the edge of the board on which 
 they are placed. Those who have not strength enough 
 to cast off their excrements, die in the attempt, and in the 
 morning numbers of them are found dead. They should 
 be carefully taken up and thrown away. When many 
 are found in that condition, it is a sign that the litter is 
 fermenting and that a cleaning is necessary. 
 
 It is possible that there may be diseases of the silk 
 worms peculiar to the climate. Experience will enlight- 
 en us on the subject. I have heard that ladies in one of 
 our Southern States have lost all their worms this year, 
 from \\\e plague getting in among them. It is certain that 
 there are epidemic disorders by which whole nurseries 
 of silk worms are sometimes destroyed. But these are 
 of rare occurrence in our country ; and it is hoped that 
 they may be prevented by careful attention to the rules 
 prescribed. 
 
 CURING THE COCOONS. 
 
 Were it possible to wind off all the cocoons before the 
 insect naturally pierces them, it would be best to do it, 
 because the silk at that time winds off with greater ease 
 5* 
 
56 
 
 than afterwards. But as this is sometimes impossible 
 and often inconvenient, various methods have been de- 
 vised to stifle the chrysales in the cocoons. This may be 
 done by placing them in an oven, moderately heated, or 
 in the steam of boiling water ; even the sun is sufficient 
 for this purpose in southern latitudes, by acting upon 
 them several days. I have used the first method with 
 success. The oven being moderately heated, the co- 
 coons were spread out, in oblong baskets eight inches 
 deep, in box covers, pans, &c, and permitted to remain 
 in the oven half an hour. In being cured they lose about 
 twentyfive per cent in weight. Mr Smith of Baltimore, 
 says, he has found the following method preferable to any 
 other, and that the object is perfected without danger of 
 injuring the silk. I put the cocoons, says he, into a tight 
 tin vessel with a cover, closely fitted, and put this vessel 
 into another a little larger, containing such quantity of 
 water as will nearly fill it, when the other is put into it. 
 
 Fire is then applied, and the water kept boiling, half 
 an hour or more, according to the size of the vessel, and 
 until the cocoons in the inner vessel shall have become as 
 hot as the boiling water. The cocoons are then spread 
 out in a dry room, that the moisture may evaporate. 
 Afier this operation, the cocoons are ready for the reel 
 or for sale.* 
 
 * This might do, peihap-i, for a small quantity of cocoons, but I 
 think, for a large one, it would cost too much, and give too much 
 trouble. 
 
57 
 
 SPACE REQUIRED FOR SILK WORMS. 
 
 It is calculated that the worms proceeding from one 
 ounce of eggs, which in numbers are estimated at 35 to 
 40,000, should have a space on the shelves, 
 
 squ. ft. in. 
 
 In the 1st age of 7 4 
 
 In the 2d age of 14 8 
 
 In the 3cl age of 34 10 
 
 In the 4th age of 82 6 
 
 In the 5th age of 183 4 
 
 As a general rule they ought not touch one another. 
 
 QUANTITIES OF SILK YIELDED BY VARIOUS PARCELS 
 OF COCOONS. 
 
 Eight pounds of cocoons (16 ozs. to the pound,) pro- 
 duced from ]6 to 18 ounces of silk, 6 to 9 cocoons to 
 the thread. Mrs Williams obtained nearly one ounce 
 and a half, from 244 cocoons. 
 
 Miss Rhodes had on an average one ounce from 244 
 cocoons. 
 
 The estimates of the number of worms to make a 
 pound of spun silk are various. 
 
 Mr Storrs, of Conn, says 4000^ Mr Tufts, of Dudley, 
 3000 ; Mr D'Homergue says 2400, of 350 to a pound, 
 the moth not stifled. 
 
 I should say the last estimate was the most correct, and 
 even a less number will produce a pound if they are well 
 taken care of. I have had three pounds from 8000 in 
 one season including floss. 
 
58 
 
 WRIGHT OF COCOONS. 
 
 Two hundred cocoons, from worms raised in the early 
 settlement of Georgia, weighed a pound. In Pennsyl- 
 vania, 30G cocoons from worms fed by the late Mr Busti, 
 and from 490 to 000 in the establishment of Mr Terho- 
 ven, weighed a pound.* 
 
 It is very evident that there is a great difference in the 
 weight as well as the quality of cocoons ; and the quanti- 
 ty required to make a pound of reeled silk. This may 
 depend upon the different variety of the worms or the 
 greater or less care in nursing them. 
 
 The following calculation of the labor attending and 
 connected with the culture of silk, is by John Fitch, Esq. 
 of Mansfield, Conn, and is taken from the manual pub- 
 lisher by order of Congress. One acre of full grown 
 mulberry trees, set one and a half rods apart, will pro- 
 duce 40 pounds of silk. 
 
 The labor may be estimated as follows : 
 
 * Mr Pintaid of Philadelphia, has raised Silk Worms from eggs 
 produced on Messrs Teihoven's faiin, 335 of the cocoons of those 
 worms, cht-ysales not killed, weighed one pound. PJr D'Homer- 
 gue aided him in counting and weighing them. 
 
 Of the cocoons raised in Philadelphia hy Mr D'Homergue the 
 present year, which I saw, the eggs were partly from South Caro- 
 lina and partly from France ; the former were large and were fouud 
 when weighed, to contain .337 to a pound. The Frencli cocoons 
 were small, and ."587 weighed one pound. The chrysalis not stifled 
 and the cocoons just gathered. 
 
 Of cocoons raised in Massachusetts, by Mrs Davenport of Milton, 
 from eggs furnished hy mc, and tended agreeably to my instruc- 
 tion, 206 weighed one pound, before the chrysales were killed, and 
 407 weighed two pounds. 
 
69 
 
 For the three first weeks after the worms are hatched 
 one woman who is acquainted with the business, or chil- 
 dren who would be equal to such a person. 
 
 For the next twelve or fourteen days, five hands or 
 what would be equal to five if performed by children. 
 In this period two men with other help would be employed 
 to better advantage than all women and children. This 
 period finishes with the worms. For picking of the balls 
 and reeling the silk, it will require about the same amount 
 of labor for the same length of time as the last mentioned 
 period, which may all be performed by women and chil- 
 dren. The aforesaid labor and board may be estimated 
 at eighty dollars ; spinning the silk at thirtyfour dollars; 
 forly pounds of silk, at the lowest cash price is worth two 
 hundred dollars, which makes the following results. 
 
 40 pounds silk at $5 per pound - - - $200,00 
 
 Labor and board ... - 80,00 
 
 Spinning 34,00 
 
 114,00 
 
 Net profit per acre $86,00 
 
 The principal part of the labor may be performed by wo- 
 men and children. But when the business is carried on to a 
 considerable extent, it is considered more profitable to era- 
 ploy some men for the last period of the worms. 
 
 COST OF RAISING SILK BY 3IR d'hOMERGUE. 
 
 Four ounces of eggs, each ounce containing about 
 35,000 eggs, making, in all, 140,000 eggs. 
 
GO 
 
 Jf the mulberry trees are on the farm where the eggs 
 are raised, two vvoaieu are sufficient to gather the leaves, 
 until the fourth moulting. The worms should be fed 
 three times a day, and cleaned once after each moulting. 
 
 In the last ten days additional help is necessary, as 
 the worms require more frequent cleaning, in consequence 
 of the greater quantity of leaves which they consume ; 
 and to prevent fermentation, and consequent sickness, 
 more attention is required at this time. 
 
 Mr Du Ponceau has raised seven ounces of eggs with 
 only the labor of two persons, and these not employed 
 the whole of each day, except on the last ten days, and 
 some occasional help, who were employed to bring leaves 
 from the country, two miles distant. In the three first 
 weeks, one person could have done the whole business, 
 except gathering and bringing the leaves. This was 
 done in the city of Philadelphia. 
 
 The following is the calculation of Mr D'Homergue. 
 
 An acre* contains 45,537 square feet. 1500 mulberry 
 trees, six years old, will produce each 30 lbs. of leaves, 
 which makes 45,000 lbs. An acre will contain 1500 mul- 
 berry trees, planted at the distance of twelve square feet 
 from each other. This is in case it is wished to grovi^ 
 corn or wheat in the intervals between the trees. 
 But if the ground is to be devoted to mulberry trees alone, 
 3000 trees maybe planted on an acre at six square feet 
 distance, and these at six years old will produce 90,000 
 lbs. of leaves. Selling the leaves at half a cent per 
 pound, the purchaser gathering them, or at one cent per 
 
 * It is evident that Mr D'Homergue does not mean the English 
 acre. 
 
61 
 
 pound delivered to the purchaser, would produce in the 
 first case 8900, in the latter $450. 
 
 According to the calculation of Dandolo, which appears 
 exaggerated, 90,000 pounds of leaves, at twentyone 
 pounds of leaves for one pound of cocoons, would pro- 
 duce at least 3700 lbs. of cocoons, which, at twentyfive 
 cents per pound (the moth not being stifled,) would pro- 
 duce $925. After killing the chrysalids, the cocoons, 
 will produce a higher price, say thirty, forty, or perhaps 
 fifty cents per pound, according to the quality and the 
 abundance, or scarcity of the articles, and the profit will 
 be proportionate. 
 
 The said 3700 pounds of cocoons, being good and 
 well reeled, will produce, at .eight pounds of cocoons 
 for one pound of silk, 420 pounds of the raw article 
 which at S3 per pound, the price China silk sells for in 
 our seaports, will amount to $1260 ; and if perfectly.well 
 reeled and suited to the European market may produce 
 $2520, at the rate of $6 per pound. 
 
PART III 
 
 REELING AND MANUFACTURING SILK. 
 
 Those who do not chose to proceed any farther in the 
 business than to raise the cocoons, may realize a reward 
 for their industry, by selling the silk in that shape. There 
 will probably be regular advertisements in the papers, 
 offering cash for cocoons ; and there is no doubt but that 
 there will soon be established throughout the United 
 States a regular market price for the article. 
 
 But as raw silk is the shape in which the article must 
 be sent to foreign manufacturers, if exported, and in 
 which it meets with a cash market in almost every part 
 of Europe, and in many parts of our own country ; it be- 
 comes of great importance that we should reel the co- 
 coons, at least, and that in the most economical and pro- 
 fitable manner. The art of reeling was formerly carried 
 on to considerable extent in Georgia, and large quantities 
 of raw silk were exported. It has been carried on in 
 Connecticut for seventy years, in a way which will be 
 mentioned hereafter. Dr Franklm addres.sed a letter on 
 the subject to Dr Cadwallader Evans, from London, Jan- 
 
63 
 
 uary 15, 1770. The Philosophical Society of Pennsylva- 
 nia, to whom he sent the work of the Abbe Sauvage, a 
 summary of which has been published by Mr Odell, of 
 Burlington, resolved to petition the Legislature for the en- 
 couragement of this new branch of industry, and propos- 
 ed to raise a fund by subscription, for the purchase of co- 
 coons and a filature. Eight hundred and seventyfive 
 pounds, were obtained the first year among the citizens, 
 and this money was laid out for the purpose. But unfor- 
 tunately the war of the Revolution put a stop to the 
 scheme. Lately, however, Peter S. Du Ponceau, Esq. of 
 Philadelphia, the friend and companion in arms of Lafay- 
 ette, has made successful exertions in this department. 
 He has associated to his labors Monsieur J. D'Homergue, 
 who is a native of Nismes in France and was educated in 
 that country in an extensive manufactory of silk, and is 
 familiar with all the processes used in that country. 
 These gentlemen have published a valuable series of es- 
 says on the subject of silk culture, the impulse of which 
 has been felt throughout the Union, and their publication 
 has on the whole, thrown great light on the general sub- 
 ject. And although the establishment of a national 
 school of filature as contemplated by these gentlemen, 
 has not yet received the patronage of the government, 
 there is strong reason to believe that something will be 
 done to aid this business by Congress at a future session. 
 Mr Du Ponceau sent me some of the silk reeled by Mr 
 D'Homergue the last year, which was of excellent quali- 
 ty. I had it throwsted and returned to him. In a late 
 letter to me Mr Du Ponceau stated that he had been hon- 
 ored with letters from all parts of the continent from Maine 
 6 
 
64 
 
 to Louisiana, requesting information on this subject. 
 That the impulse given by the operations of Congress had 
 been felt even in Europe ; that he had caused one hun- 
 dred copies of the Report of the Committee on Agriculture 
 of the House of Representatives of the United States, to 
 be printed in English, and one hundred in French, and 
 to be disseminated throughout Europe. The result had 
 been that numbers of silk manufacturers, throwsters, 
 dyers and weavers, had come to this country from Eng- 
 land, France and Germany, having heard at home that 
 the silk business was encouraged here; but they have 
 found no work for want of raw silk, and were obliged to 
 turn to the cotton manufactories for employment. That 
 no reelers were among them. Mr D. had about sixty 
 pounds of raw silk reeled at his filature, which he has 
 sent to different markets to try the prices.* 
 
 * Since writing the above I have visited the city of Philadelphia, 
 and was politely favored by Mr Du Ponceau, with liberty to make 
 several visits to his nursery and filature. The filature was estab- 
 lished by Mr Du Ponceau under the direction of Mr D'Homergue, 
 in which ten reels have been employed, eacli of which is worked 
 by two women under the superintendence of Mr D'Homergue. 
 This filature is not in a room, but under a shed entirely open on 
 one side with hangings from the roof on the other, which may be 
 opened when required to promote a free circulation of air. The 
 reels of this filature are made cliiefly on the model of the Pied- 
 montese reel, (vide plate) somewhat simplified by Mr D'Homergue. 
 Mr D'Homergue put one of these reels in operation in my presence, 
 and it appeared to work very easily. The silk reeled by Mr 
 D'Homergue, at that time, I have preserved as a specimen, and 
 have since been informed by an intelligent merchant of New York, 
 that it would bring seven dollars a pound in France. I was also 
 shown several parcels of sewing silk, manufactured by Mr D'Hoin- 
 
65 
 
 Mr D'Homergue divides the raw silk into three quali- 
 ties, graduated according to their different degrees of 
 fineness. These different qualities, before they undergo 
 the operations that are to fit them for the loom, are dis- 
 tinguished as first, second and third qualities beginning 
 with the finest. They assume other names as soon as 
 they have been prepared and ma^e fit for the manufac- 
 turer. Then they have ceased to be raw silk, and they 
 are called singles, organzine and tram silks, according 
 to their different degrees of fineness, and the manner in 
 which they have been passed through a certain machine 
 called a mill. 
 
 Singles (called in French le poil) that is to say, hair 
 silk, is made of the first quality of raw silk, consequently 
 the finest, as the name implies. It is made of a single 
 thread. This silk is used for the woof of the lighter 
 stuffs, the warp which is made of cotton thread. 
 
 Organzine (in French organsins) is the next in fine- 
 ness. It is employed in weaving to make the warp of 
 those stuffs, that are made entirely of silk. 
 
 'J'ram silk (in French La frame) which means woof 
 silk, is thickest of the three and is the thread of which 
 is made the woof of silk stuffs. 
 
 Of the three qualities of raw silk of which these differ- 
 ent threads are made, the second, that which makes 
 
 ergue, from the rcfijse cocoons. I take this opportunity to acknowl- 
 edge the fiiirness anJ liberality of these gentlemen in introduc- 
 ing me to every department of the silk business, and for the polite 
 attentions I received from them during a visit of two or three days 
 to their city. — Ed. 
 
66 
 
 organzine, is the most in demand in foreign markets. 
 It was in extracting the silk to form this quality that 
 Mr D'Homorgue discovered the superior fineness of the 
 American silk, by finding that it required a much greater 
 quantity of threads to produce the different qualities of 
 raw silk above-mentioned than the cocoons of Europe. 
 
 In regard to the imperfect cocoons, Mr D'Homergue 
 makes use of the excellent paragraph from scripture, 
 ' gather up the fragments that nothing remain.' He says 
 there are a great variety of these, whose threads are not 
 susceptible of being prepared for the manufacture of silk 
 stuffs. They are called in French chiques. The mate- 
 rial extracted from these cocoons is employed in the 
 manufacture of sewing silk. This silk is of two kinds, 
 each of which has its first and second quality. The 
 name of sewing silk is exclusively appropriated to the 
 finest of these two species, the other is called cordonnet 
 or twist. 
 
 The sewing silk, so called, is employed in the sewing 
 of silk stuffs, the cordonnet is used for working button- 
 holes, and working woollen and cotton stuffs. The one 
 is for the use of tailors, the other for milliners and man- 
 tau-makers. Tailors employ it only in the more delicate 
 works. The raw silk for these purposes is e.\lracted from 
 the bad cocoons, reeled and wound into skeins, according 
 to its different degrees of fineness, in the same manner 
 and by the same process (varying only in details) as that 
 intended to be used for the manufacture of fine stuffs. 
 It is sold in market under the name of raw silk, but does 
 not bear so high a price as the other. 
 
 There is a loose, furzy substance on the outside of the 
 
67 
 
 cocoons, which is neither fit for use in the silk manufac- 
 tory, nor for sewing silk. This is commonly called floss. 
 To this are added all which either from some defect in 
 the cocoons or from the awkwardness of the reeler, either 
 break or come out uneven, or are otherwise unfit for use, 
 and which are called waste silk. This mass boiled in 
 soap and water, and afterwards carded and spun on the 
 spinning wheel, makes excellent yarn for stockings. 
 
 Mr D'Homergue classes the ditferent kinds of silk ex- 
 tracted from the cocoons into six different kinds, viz. 
 
 1st, Silk of the first quality or singles. 
 
 2d, Silk of the second quality or organzine, 
 
 3d, Silk of the third quality or tram silk. 
 
 4th, Sewing Silk of the first and 2d quality. 
 
 5th, Cordoiinet or twist Silk of the first and 2d quality. 
 
 6th, Floss Silk. 
 
 The whole of the labor of extracting these difTerent 
 silks from the cocoons, and all the preparatory work un- 
 til it is put to the mill is done in France by women, who 
 have separate tasks assigned to them in each of the 
 various complicated branches of this business ; the work- 
 shops are superintended by an overseer who is master of 
 the whole business. 
 
 Mr Murray, a European writer, says that he visited an 
 establishment for unwinding the silk at Buffalora on the 
 Milanese frontier. Women were arranged opposite each 
 other and conducted the process; the cocoons contained 
 in baskets on one side, were thrown by handfuls into 
 cauldrons of water, kept boiling by charcoal fires be- 
 neath. Each (by a whisk of peeled birch) collected the 
 threads en masse ; the first confused portions were re- 
 6* 
 
68 
 
 jected till the threads unwound regularly, frecl) passing 
 over the glass rods to prevent the injuries of friction. 
 The first portions, necessarily useless, are separated by the 
 hand. When the thread came off uniformly, the co- 
 coons were raised, suspended to the hand by their re- 
 spective threads, and thus handed over to those on the 
 opposite side, who in their turn threw them into cauldrons 
 of water, the temperature of which was nearly that of 
 blood heat and more than milk warm, thus sustained by a 
 steam pipe. The water was thus kept clean and the 
 silk preserved pure and unsoiled ; from these the threads 
 were finally wound. The proprietor informed him that 
 this establishment cost about C0,000 francs, or about 
 twelve thousand dollars. 
 
 This was probably Gensoul's apparatus, on which 
 great encomiums have been passed. In this apparatus 
 the water is heated by steam ; but it is expensive and 
 has not yet got into general use even in Europe. 
 
 We in America are not obliged to pur.'^uc the same 
 couise that is followed in Europe. The ingenuity and 
 intelligence of our community will soon arrange a reeling 
 apparatus by the family fireside ; and that part of the year 
 which cannot be employed in rearing the worms will be 
 advantageously improved in reeling the cocoons to any 
 given pattern or degree of fineness ; nor is there in fact 
 any iDore difficulty in it than in the manufacture of straw, 
 and many other employments which have engaged the at- 
 tention of our females. Tiie time is not probably far 
 distant, when America* will excel Europe in her silk 
 manufactures as much as she now does in her cotton. 
 
 The great requisite in reeling i.s evenness and equality 
 
69 
 
 ill the threads. After the cocoons by reeling have been 
 converted into rmc siik, that silk, before it can be used 
 in the manufactory of fine stuffs, must undergo the oper- 
 ation of i/irotcsfiJig, that is to say ticisting, which is done 
 by means of a machine called a throwing or throtcsting 
 mill, and the mechanics who perform that work are called 
 silk thruivsters. There are several of them already in the 
 United States, chiefly from England, but they have as yet 
 been mostly employed in throwsting foreign silk, imported 
 chiefly from China. *Tlie operation of throwsting is the 
 test of the good or bad reelinir of raw silk. If it be entan- 
 gled, or not sufficiently freed from its gum, the threads 
 break in the preparatory operation of winding, and 
 that occasions much loss. If the threads are not 
 equal, that is to say, if there is not in each thread 
 as nearly as possible the same number of fibres, as the 
 twisting is done by machinery which works by an equal 
 regular motion, the force which will only twist the strong 
 parts of the thread will break the weak ones, and that 
 with the loss by winding, produces what is called waste. 
 In proportion to the greater or less quantity of waste that 
 is found in raw silk is the price or value in foreign mar- 
 kets. 
 
 Mr Du Ponceau has communicated to me a letter 
 which he has received from an eminent silk merchant 
 in Paris, in which he tells him that the best French raw 
 silks of i5 to 20 fibres, lose only by waste 1 to 2 per 
 cent; those of Asiatic Turkey, from G to 8 ; those of 
 Calabria, 8 to 12; those of Valencia in Spain, 6 to 8; 
 
 * I have had three of them in ray employ. 
 
 m 
 
70 
 
 those of Syria, 15 to 20; and those of Suloniki and the 
 Morea, he says, are still worse. That gentleman re- 
 quires two years for the American women to learn to 
 reel silk in perfection ; but there is no doubt that they 
 will learn in a much shorter time. The silk reeled last 
 year at Philadelphia, by women, under the direction of 
 Mr D'Homergue, was pronounced in England to be a 
 fair beginning. At the last news received from that 
 country, it had not yet been thrown, except a small sam- 
 ple at Manchester, which was said to have undergone 
 every test, and produced a result highly satisfactory. 
 In quality it was said to be superior to most Bengal silk, 
 and equal to the silks of Friuli and Trent. 
 
 Mr Richard Radnell, a late English writer, in his view 
 of the English silk trade, published at London in 182S, 
 states the average waste in different silks to be as follows : 
 — French, silks 4 to 10 per cent ; Lombardy silks 4 to 
 12 per cent; Friuli silk. 4 to 15 per cent. So that it 
 would seem that French silk is belter reeled than Ital- 
 ian silk, which is different from the opinion before gene- 
 rally entertained. On silk from Persia, the waste is es- 
 timated from 8 to 20 per cent ; and on Brutia silk, from 
 4 to 18. 
 
 As to Bengal silk, that which is reeled in the Com- 
 pany's filatures, which is distinguished by the name of 
 Novi silk, because it is reeled under the direction of an 
 Italian, from Novi, in Piedmont, is estimated to lose by 
 waste from 4 to 8 per cent, which would make it supe- 
 rior to French silk ; while that reeled in the native fila- 
 tures as they are called, is estimated to lose from 5 to 
 15 per cent. See Radnell's View, p. 34. 
 
71 
 
 The reeling of silk from the cocoons requires skill, 
 practice and experience. But let not those who under- 
 take it be easily discouraged: perseverance and attention 
 for a short season will enable them to become expert at 
 the business, although their first efforts may seem discour- 
 aging. 
 
 The following instructions for reeling silk, I have found 
 from practical experience of several years in my own 
 family, to be useful. They are chiefly extracted from 
 the manual published by authority of Congress. 
 
 The reeling may be done at any season, but best in 
 dry weather; it may be carried on in the dwelling-house 
 or in a shed, or other convenient out-building. 
 
 The softest water should be chosen for soaking the co- 
 coons. The proper temperature cannot be ascertained 
 until the reeling is commenced, owing to the different 
 composition of the silk. It is as well to raise it to near the 
 boiling point, and then, if necessary to lower it, cold wa- 
 ter may be added. The soft or satiny cocoons require 
 water less heated than the others. If too hot water be 
 used they furze out in unwinding. The dupions or dou- 
 ble cocoons require the hottest water. The fire under 
 the basin may be lessened or increased, as the occasion 
 may require ; a little attention will soon enable the per- 
 son who has the management of the basin to preserve 
 the water at the proper degree of heat. The reeling is 
 effected by use of a silk reel, (vide plate) and a basin of 
 water set over a moderate fire in a small furnace. The 
 person charged with the management of the cocoons in 
 the basin must be provided with a small whisk of broom 
 
72 
 
 corn, or sharp twigs, cut sharp at the points , and being 
 seated beliind the basin, previously tilled with hot soft 
 water, and placed upon a furnace, containing burning 
 charcoal, she must throw into the water a handful of the 
 cocoons, and press them gently under the water for two 
 or three minutes, in order to soften the gum of the silk, 
 and thereby to loosen the ends of the filaments. She is 
 then to stir the cocoons with the end of the whisk as light- 
 ly as possible, until one or more of the fibres or filaments 
 adhere to it; when, disengaging it, and laying aside the 
 whisk, she is to draw the filament towards her, until it 
 come off quite clean from the floss which always sur- 
 rounds the cocoon, and the fine silk begins to appear ; 
 then breaking off the thread, and collecting the floss first 
 taken off, she must put it aside ; the whisk is then to be 
 applied again to get hold of the firm fibres, and again, 
 until a sufficient number are procured to form the thread 
 of silk required to be wound off. This done, she is to 
 unite a number of the fibres, according to the fineness of 
 the intended thread, and deliver the compound thread to 
 the reeler, who puts it through the guides ; another thread 
 is in like manner to be prepared and passed through the 
 other guides, when two skeins are to be wound, and 
 they may be crossed ; the tlireads are then raised for- 
 ward and made fast to one of the arms of it. Both threads 
 being fastened to the reel, it is to be turned with a regular, 
 even motion, at first slowly, until the threads are found to 
 run freely and easily; tor it will happen that some of the 
 ends which were taken to compose the thread were 
 false, because on taking off the floss there may be two 
 or three breaches made in the beginning of the fibres, 
 
73 
 
 which, in winding, will soon end, and must be added 
 anew to make up the number designed for the thread. 
 
 It is proper, therefore, in the beginning of the thread, 
 to put a few more cocoons than it is intended to continue, 
 as they will soon be reduced to the proper number. The 
 crossing of the threads is considered as an improvement, 
 though it is sometimes reeled without crossing. 
 
 As soon as the pods begin to give the threads freely, 
 the reel is turned with a quicker motion. If the pods 
 leap up often to the guide, the reel must be slacken- 
 ed, and the spinner may let the thread pass between the 
 thumb and finger before it reaches the guide. If the 
 thread comes off in burrs, it must be turned quicker. 
 The fire may at any time be increased or diminished, 
 as found necessary, that the reel may be allowed a proper 
 motion, which ought to be as quick as possible without 
 endangering the breaking of the thread, or hurrying the 
 spinner, so that she cannot add fresh cocoons, as fast as 
 the old ones are ended. The quicker the motion of the 
 wheel is, the better the silk winds off and the better the 
 end joins to the thread. One might imagine that the 
 rapidity of the motion might overstrain and break the 
 thread ; but from constant experience it has been found 
 that the thread never breaks from the rapidity of the 
 motion ; but on the contrary, the quicker the motion is, 
 the more advantageous it is for winding the silk. 
 
 While the reel is turning, the spinner must continually 
 add fresh fibres to each thread as fast as she can find 
 the ends, not waiting till some of the number she began 
 with are ended, because the internal fibres are much 
 thinner than those constituting the external layers, but 
 
74 
 
 must constantly prepare fresh ends by dipping the whisk 
 among fresh cocoons, of which such a quantity must be 
 occasionally thrown into the basin as will suffice to supply 
 the threads which are reeling, but not more. 
 
 The cocoons thrown in must be often forced under 
 water that they may be equally soaked, for as they swim 
 with their greater part above water, that part would re- 
 main hard and stubborn, while the part which is un- 
 der water would be too much soaked; some hot water 
 may be thrown upon them frequently with a brush, and 
 also on the cocoons which are reeling, when they grow 
 dry at the top and yield the fibres with difficulty. The 
 supplying fresh ends when the cocoons are exhausted, or 
 diminished, or the fibres break, is performed by taking 
 one end of a fibre and throwing it lightly on the one that 
 is winding, and rolling them between the thumb and fin- 
 ger, or gently pressing them. 
 
 As often, therefore, as the cocoons, partially wound, 
 are exhausted, or the fibres break, fresh ones must be 
 joined to keep up the number requisite, or the porportion ; 
 thus three new ones may be wound and two half wound, 
 or four new ones, and the silk will then be a thread 
 of four to five cocoons. The adroitness in adding fresh 
 ends can only be acquired by practice. The difficulty of 
 keeping the thread even is so great, owing to the increased 
 fineness of the fibre inside, tliat we do not say a silk 
 of three or of four or of six cocoons, but a silk of three 
 to four, of four to five, and of six to seven. 
 
 In coarser silk we do not calculate so nicely as one co- 
 coon more or less, we say for example from twelve to 
 fifteen, from fifteen to twenty cocoons. In beginning a 
 
75 
 
 thread of ten cocoons, from sixteen to twenty will some- 
 times be required to preserve a uniform thread, after a 
 portion of the first layer has been wound off. The quan- 
 tity of silk which can be reeled in any given time, is in 
 proportion to the quickness with which the spinner can 
 add fresh cocoons. Thus, if we suppose that every co- 
 coon at a riiedium, will either break or be wound off at 
 the end of every five hundred feet, then, if five such 
 pods are reeled together, one will be wanted to every 
 hundred feet that are reeled ; if ten are reeled together, 
 one will be wanted at every fifty feet ; if sixteen together, 
 then at thirtyone feet, and so on. The seldomer cocoons 
 end, or break, the greater number of them can one spin- 
 ner attend, which shows the advantage of sound cocoons 
 and of expert management in reeling. 
 
 The cocoons which wind off in part only and the 
 shells must not be permitted to remain in the water, as 
 they will obscure and thicken the water, and injure the 
 color and lustre of the silk, which can then be used only 
 for dark colors. The shells should be buried to prevent 
 their being offensive ; as a general rule, the water 
 should be changed as soon as it becomes discolored. 
 
 When the spent cocoons leap up and adhere to the 
 guide wires, they must be immediately taken away, else 
 by choking the passage they will endanger the breaking 
 of the thread. 
 
 When the reel has remained any time idle, the thread 
 between the basin and the wires may be wet, to cause 
 the thread to run easily. 
 
 In winding off the best cocoons some defective ones 
 will be found among them, which will not wind off or 
 7 
 
76 
 
 are full of knobs ; these should he taken out of the basin 
 immediately in order to be wound by themselves. 
 
 The breaking of the fibres is principally owing either 
 to bad cocoons, viz. being ill formed, (as they will be 
 when the worms were disturbed and interrupted during 
 their spinning,) or the fibres may break by improper 
 regulation of the heat in the water; first, when it is not 
 sufficient to make the silk come off easy, or second, 
 when it is too great and occasions burrs, which may stop 
 at the holes through which the thread runs ; cocoons also 
 which have two worms inclosed will perpetually break ; 
 the whole thread may also break, by burrs stopping at 
 the holes of the guides, or by the reel being turned by 
 jerks. It may be fastened like the fibres, by laying the 
 parts on one another, and giving them a little twist. 
 
 A sharp fork may be conveniently made use of to draw 
 away the spent cocoons, or such as being nearly spent, 
 stick at the holes in the guides; and as the whisk will 
 frequently take up more ends than are immediately to be 
 added, and as the spinner will sometimes have occasion to 
 employ both her hands, the brush may at that time be con- 
 veniently hung up by the basin, while the cocoons which 
 are attached to it remain in the water, and the ends will 
 be in readiness as they are wanted. If the spinner he 
 under the necessity of leaving off work for any length of 
 time, the cocoons should all be raised with a skimming 
 dish out of the water till her return, otherwise by oversoak- 
 incr they would wind off in burrs ; but it is best to continue 
 the reeling without interruption, and to let fresh, but 
 equally experienced persons, succeed those who are tired. 
 The person who turns the wheel should have an eye to 
 
77 
 
 the thread and to the guide wires through which they pass, 
 that he may apprise the spinner when anything is wrong ; 
 for her eyes wiH be sufficiently employed about the co- 
 coons. The reeler may also reciify anything dis- 
 covered to be amiss in those parts of the thread which 
 are near the reel, for one hand will always be employed, 
 and a stop must occasionally take place. 
 
 As the heat of the water in the basin will require to.be 
 varied according to the ease or difficulty with which the 
 different sorts of cocoons give off their silk, the spinner 
 should always have some cold water within reach, in or- 
 der to cool that in the basin quickly, when the silk comes 
 off too easily and in burrs. The water is also necessary 
 for the woman managing the cocoons, to cool her fingers 
 More fuel should also be at hand to increase the heat 
 quickly, when the cocoons do not give off their silk readily. 
 If there should happen to be any sand in the water, 
 the heat causes it to rise to the surface and fix on the 
 cocoons, the thread of which will break as if cut; for 
 this reason the utmost care must be taken to guard against 
 it, and to remove it. Previously to being boiled, the 
 water should be permitted to settle, and the pan must be 
 carefully wiped. If necessary, the basin may be covered 
 while the water is heating. 
 
 When the cocoons are first put in water, if the silk rises 
 thick upon the brush or comes in lumps, it is a sign that 
 the water is too hot ; if the thread cannot be caught, the 
 water is too cold ; when the cocoons are in play if they 
 rise often to the guide wires, the water is too hot ; ifthe 
 cocoons do not follow the threads, it is too cold. It will 
 be seen, by observing the position of the thread upon 
 
78 
 
 the reel, that the different layers do not lie parallel to, nor 
 upon, but cross one another. This is owing to the 
 mechanism of the apparatus, and if particularly con- 
 trived to effect this object, which is essential to the 
 perfection of the process, and one to which the acknowl- 
 edged superiority of the Italian silk is to be ascribed. 
 It is effected by the see-saw motion of the distributing 
 rod, which depends upon the relative proportion be- 
 tween the axle and pulley; without this crossing, the 
 threads, from their gummy nature, would inevitably ad- 
 here and render the subsequent windings and twistings 
 of the silk very difficult ; this sticking together of the 
 silk is called glazing. But the mechanism abovemen- 
 tioned of the distributing rod, prevents the threads ly- 
 ing over each other upon the reel until after it has made 
 many revolutions, and the former threads have dried. 
 During this time the exposure of the threads to the air 
 causes the first layer to completely dry, and hence no ad- 
 hesion between them can take place. 
 
 The effect of the irregularity of the movement caused 
 by the distributing rod is also to imitate in the unravel- 
 ing of the cocoon, the same method employed by the 
 silk caterpillar in forming it ; for it is a fact, that the 
 silk fibres of the cocoon are spun on it in zigzags, 
 like those formed by the silk reel, and consequently 
 the operation of the reel is an imitation of nature, of 
 which the industry of the caterpillar instructed by her is 
 the prototype. Mr Nouaille says, that a woman at Novi, 
 (Italy,) experienced in the buisness with the assistance 
 of a girl to turn the reel and attend to the fire under 
 the cauldron, can with ease reel off one pound of silk 
 
79 
 
 consisting of four or five cocoons of the most perfect 
 quality in a day. I am credibly informed that the price of 
 silk reeled according to the above directions, in Europe, is 
 from four to seven dollars, according to its fineness. Mr 
 D'Homergue says a woman may now reel three pounds 
 in a day. Mr Brown thought he could reel a pound in a 
 day upon my improved reel, but I have never been able 
 to have the finer qualities of silk reeled so rapidly in my 
 family. The silk reeled upon my reel" sells for 5^4,50 
 per pound as it comes from the reel, and some at a high- 
 er price. My reel is similar to the Piedmontese, with 
 some considerable improvements; it is finished in a 
 much neater style than any I have seen in this coun- 
 try ; it is portable and will be furnished to any who may 
 apply, for the sum of twentyfive dollars. 
 
 In preparing the dupions or double cocoons for wind- 
 ing, more are put into the basin at once than of the 
 finest kind. They must be first well cleaned from the 
 floss outside ; the water also must be boiling hot, and as 
 the silk they yield is of a coarser quality than the other, 
 and has a good deal of floss upon it, the person who 
 tur.TS the reel must take the opportunity, while the one 
 who manages the basin is preparing the cocoons for 
 winding, to clean and pick ofl" the loose silk from that 
 which is on the reel. These make a coarser thread of 
 fifteen to twenty cocoons ; and perhaps as coarse as from 
 forty to fifty cocoons ; it is useful for filling in coarser 
 stuffs and likewise for sewing silk. 
 
 * The fringe of the curtains in the house of Hon. Daniel 
 Webster of Boston, was made by Mr Brown from silk raised by me 
 and reeled in my filature. — Ed. 
 7* 
 
80 
 
 The satiny cocoons require water only moderately 
 heated. The proper heat will be found by observing 
 the manner in which the silk comes off from the first of 
 them which are put in a basin, and as already said of 
 cocoons generally, if it come off thick, cold water must 
 be added until the proper temperature be attained. 
 
 For these two years past, I have been principally en- 
 gaged in manufacturing, and the different processes of Silk 
 Manufacture now carried on by me, at Dedham, ]Ms., I 
 will briefly describe. 
 
 Process 1. — reeling from the cocoon. 
 This process is performed by girls on my improved 
 reel* which works better than the Piedmontese reel or any 
 reel known to be in use, and is the same reel for which 
 I received the premium of the Mass. Agricultural So- 
 ciety. The raw silk as it comes from this reel is a mar- 
 ketable article in any part of Europe^ and is preferal)le to 
 the silks which come from Bengal; upwards of a million 
 of pounds of which are used in Great Britain annually. 
 
 Process 2. — wiiNding from the skein that comes 
 from the reel to the bobbin. 
 
 This process is performed on the winding frame by 
 girls and children ; the silk runs from swifts over glass 
 rods, and is guided by a traverse motion to its right po- 
 sition on the bobbin. 
 
 Process 3. — clearing the silk from knobs 
 
 AND husks. 
 This is done on the clearing frame by passing the silk 
 * Vide plate three. 
 
81 
 
 from the bobbin over a glass rod through two plates of 
 iron nicely graduated to another bobbin ; the machine is 
 tended by a little girl. 
 
 Process 4. — spinning the silk single. 
 
 This is done by a man on the spinning frame. The 
 spindles in this frame turn J800 times in a minute, and 
 the wheels are so graduated that any number of twists to 
 the inch may be given. 
 
 Process 5. — tramming or doubling the silk. 
 
 This is done by a girl at an engine constructed after 
 a model, for which a pattern was brought from a patented 
 machine in England, which patent is still in force in 
 England ; but as their patent laws do not reach here it 
 has been put into use and operates well ; by this ma- 
 chine the silk is doubled any number of times required, 
 so as to make a thread of the size required whether it be 
 coarse or fine. 
 
 Process 6. — throwstixg or twisting the silk. 
 
 This is done by a man on the throwsting frame, which 
 is constructed on the model of one imported from En- 
 gland, and is so contrived by means of various small cog 
 wheels, that the silk may be twisted any given number 
 of twists to the inch. The five machines, or engines last 
 named, are driven by water power, and by the assistance 
 of one man, one, boy and four girls, I have caused over 
 three hundred weight of silk to be manufactured the past 
 season. 
 
82 
 
 Process 7. — steaming the su.k. 
 
 This is done by submitting the silk when stretched 
 upon the reels, as it comes from the throvvsting frame, 
 to the action of steam in a large receiver calculated for 
 the purpose. The steam is raised in a tin vessel over a 
 cylindrical stove and passes into the receiver by a lead- 
 en pipe. — The object of this process is to set the twist. 
 
 Process 8. — ungumming or cleansing the silk. 
 
 This is done by boiling the &ilk in soap and water in a 
 large vat for the purpose of clearing it from the natural 
 gum, which is in all silk in its natural state. By this 
 process the silk looses in weight about one quarter. 
 
 Process 9. — dyeing the silk. 
 
 This is done by subjecting the silk to liquid dyes, and 
 the different colors are produced with about the same 
 ease that that they are in woolen and cotton dyeing. 
 
 Process 10 — soft silk winding. 
 This is done on an engine by girls in a manner very 
 similar to that described in the second process, the object 
 of it being merely to get the silk from the skeins to the 
 bobbins. The silk is then fit for the weaver's use. 
 
 Thus the silk is carried tiirough ten different and dis- 
 tinct processes from the cocoon to the weaver's use, each 
 of which processes require skill and care. 
 
 The silk is then taken by the weaver and warped and 
 wove into any kind of stuffs lequired — handkerchiefs, 
 vestings, satins, suspender-webbing and furniture bind- 
 ing have been made chiefly, as also stockings ; but the 
 
83 
 
 weaving of broad goods is attended with great labor, and 
 as there is no protection by government on them of any 
 consequence, T shall not be likely to make them in future 
 to any extent. 
 
 I have six narrow looms and four broad looms in ope- 
 ration ; and could I meet with suitable encouragement I 
 should continue to operate them, but as I intend only to 
 make such goods as will sell to a profit ; I shall not be 
 likely to extend the making of broad goods, unless I can 
 do it by power looms, — but shall confine my attention to 
 the making of sewing silk and such narrow goods as I can 
 sell to a profit. I have not gone into a very minute de- 
 scription of machinery here, as this book is intended for 
 the use of the Agriculturist. 
 
 Something should be done by the nation to foster and 
 encourage this business. Specimens of silk stuffs and 
 sewing silk have been produced in many parts of the 
 Union, but there is want of uniformity and system in the 
 business, and it is evident that no great progress can be 
 made by individual enterprise in manufacturing where a 
 great many experiments are to be tried and considerable 
 capital required. A pattern fil-ature and manufactory 
 should be established by the government and all citizens 
 disposed should have access to it, and then our people will 
 generally enter into the business, and the ten millions a 
 year now sent out of the country will be retained at 
 home. Individuals who are desirous of being instructed 
 in any or all the various stages of the silk business now 
 carried on by me, may obtain that instruction on reason- 
 able terms by coming and residing with me or in my 
 vicinity. 
 
84 
 
 METHOD OP REELING COCOONS AND MANUFACTURING SILK 
 IN CONNECTICUT. 
 
 In the first place the cocoons are stripped of their 
 floss and sorted according to their quality. Then a larwe 
 kettle set in a furnace or in an arch is filled with water 
 and fire is kept under it ; and when it is about to boil a 
 quart of cocoons is thrown into it. They are immedi- 
 ately stirred perpendicularly in the water by a bunch of 
 broom corn tied close together as large as a person's 
 arm, and cut square at the end, or by a corn broom, or 
 something similar. In this way the ends are collected, 
 and attached to the bushy extremity. They are then 
 drawn up by shaking the broom or whatever they are 
 collected with, up and down in order to keep the co- 
 coons in the water, otherwise they would rise. If 
 enough for a thread is not collected the first time, those 
 ends that are drawn up are taken oflT the bush with the 
 hand and drawn to one side of the kettle. The process 
 is then repeated until a sufficient number is collected to 
 form a thread of the size required, which is usually from 
 eighty to one hundred and fifty cocoons. 
 
 Reeling is then commenced on a common hand reel, 
 (such as is in common use in families in New England for 
 reeling yarn from the spinning wheel,) and the silk fibres 
 run off about as fast and with as little difficulty as yarn 
 from a spindle. Some of the cocoons run off before 
 others ; and when on this account the thread becomes 
 too small, all the fibres are broken off, and what 
 is reeled is tied by itself on the reel and another quart 
 of cocoons is thrown into the kettle ; the ends are collect- 
 edand reeled in the same way as before, and each sepa- 
 
85 
 
 rate piece ist ied by itself. When the reel is full the pieces 
 ara all tied together, taken off and immediately dried. 
 
 Most of this silk is manufactured into sewing silk and 
 twist in the following manner : — it is immersed for a 
 kw moments in boiling water, taken out, put on swifts 
 and spun or twisted on a common woolen wheel, begin- 
 ning, at the large end of the piece, that is at the end 
 which was reeled first: and when it becomes too small, 
 which is the case when one half or two thirds is run off, 
 the small end of another piece is added to it, and thus 
 they are twisted together. It is then spooled directly off 
 the spindle ; a sufficient number of spools is put into a 
 small spool frame to make a thread of a proper size, 
 which is twisted again while it is moist. It is then 
 reeled again and cleansed by boiling in strong suds for 
 three hours, then dried and colored. Undergoing this 
 process it shrinks about one half in weight ; after this, 
 for sewing silk, it is doubled, twisted and reeled on a 
 reel two yards long, and is divided into skeins of twenty 
 threads each, as the statute of that State requires. If it 
 be calculated for twist, it is made three threaded, twisted 
 and done up into sticks with a small hand machine, and 
 is then ready for the market. The fioss, or tow, as it is 
 called, is boiled in strong suds for three hours, dried 
 picked, carded, and spun on a common wool wheel. 
 The yarn is woven into cloth, which is worn by the 
 women for every -day gowns. It is sometimes manufac- 
 tured into very strong and durable carpets. 
 
 Those cocoons that the grubs have pierced are boiled 
 as above and dried. The end that is not pierced is cut 
 off ; they then are spun on a linen wheel like worsted. 
 
86 
 
 beginning at the end cut. It is then twisted together, 
 three threaded and knit into stockings. 
 
 The imperfect cocoons, and all that will not reel, are 
 boiled, carded, spun and manufactured in all respects 
 like floss, but they make nicer and finer cloth. 
 
 The Connecticut sewing silk, at present, does not bring 
 a higher price than the reeled silk as it comes from my 
 reel. As it is said that there is a loss of one half of the 
 weight in the preparation of sewing silk, it is evident that 
 to reel it properly and sell it for raw silk would bring a 
 hundred per cent more profit. 
 
 gideon b. smith s impuoved silk reel 
 (see plate.) 
 This is an improvement on the Slik Reel of Piedmont. 
 The improvement consists in the simplicity of the ma- 
 chinery, compared with that of the Piedmontese Reel, the 
 operation of both being exactly the same. A, is a cylin- 
 der eight inches diameter and eight in length. B, a circu- 
 lar groove, half an inch deep, which has a sweep of six 
 inches. To lay out this groove, a strip of paper six inches 
 wide and of the exact length of the cylinder's circum- 
 ference, is doubled, and with the compass a sweep is 
 made from the middle of one end of the doubled paper to 
 the edge and thence to the middle of the other end ; the 
 paper is then turned over and the same sweep made on 
 the other side, in an opposite direction. The paper i^ 
 then laid on the cylinder, and the groove marked upon it 
 for cutting. Thus on each side of the cylinder the groove 
 will form a semi-circle meeting in the middle, and will 
 
 '> 
 
XLATM JIL 
 
thus cause a peculiar motion to the traversing bar, (C,) 
 which it will cause to move slowly at the extremities of 
 its course and rapidly in the centre, thus giving time for 
 the threads to take hold of the rails of the reel on the 
 outside of the skeni before it begins to more back. C, 
 the traversing bar, with the brass hooks through which 
 the silk passes. D, a bar of the frame on which a brass 
 plate is fixed, with small holes, for the silk to pass through, 
 and which stands immediately over the vessel containing 
 the cpcoons. E, the drum, eighteen inches diameter. 
 F, the pulley, ten inches diameter. The size of the drum 
 and pulley precludes the possibility of the band slipping. 
 
 The whole frame is five feet long, four high, and two 
 wide in the clear, and the timber about two inches square. 
 It is put together with kevs, for the convenience of tak- 
 ing down and putting up. 
 
 The necessity of the machinery for producing the vi- 
 bratory motion of the traversing bar, will be understood 
 when it is stated, that, if the threads are laid on the rails 
 as cotton is reeled they would adhere and become use- 
 less, as they could not be separated. The traversing 
 bar causes them to be laid on in such a manner as to ob- 
 viate this entirely. By a small handle near the rim of 
 the drum, the reel is turned. With this reel the relative 
 proportionate diameter of the drum and pulley is neces- 
 sary, to produce the proportionate movement of the 
 traversing bar, and the revolution of the reel, as the bar 
 must move back and forth five times, while the reel 
 makes nine revolutions, and as the groove is formed, 
 one revolution of the cylinder causes the bar to move 
 out and back once. This reel I have not seen, but give 
 the description of it as published. 
 8 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Short Historical Account of the E forts of Silk Culture 
 in this country. 
 
 In America the culture of the silk worm was introduc- 
 ed into Virginia in 1G23 by James I. who himself com- 
 posed a book of instructions on the subject, and caused 
 mulberry trees and silk worms' eggs to be sent to the 
 colony. He made great efforts to have it take place of the 
 tobacco in agricultural pursuits. Thirty years afterwards 
 it was enacted that every planter who should not have 
 raised at least ten mulberry trees for every hundred 
 acres of land in his possession, should be fined ten pounds 
 of tobacco. Five thousand pounds of tobacco were 
 promised to any one who should produce one thousand 
 pounds of wound silk in one year. In 1GG4, Mr Walk- 
 er, a member of the legislature, stated that he had sev- 
 enty thousand mulbi^rry trees on his estate. In 166(5, 
 all statutory provisions were repealed, because the busi- 
 ness was in so thriving a condition as no longer to re- 
 quire protection. The decline of silk business in that 
 state was probably owing to want of perseverance. The 
 new emigrants brought with them new views and habits; 
 and as they brought their slaves, it became necessary 
 that an immediate annual profit should be realized. 
 Hence the culture of rice and indigo was introduced, 
 and on account of the immediate profit derived from 
 their culture, that of silk languished, which would have 
 required a steady perseverance for a course of years. 
 
 The culture of silk was introduced into Georgia at 
 the earliest period of its settlement. The trustees of the 
 colony transmitted mulberry trees as well as seeds and 
 silk worms' eggs. The public seal of the colony repre- 
 
89 
 
 sentcd silk worms in their various stages. In the year 
 1736 a quantity of raw silk was raised in that colony, 
 and was manufactured at Derby, by Sir Thomas Combe, 
 into a piece of stuff and presented to the queen. A 
 few years before our Revolution considerable quanti- 
 ties of raw silk began to be exported to England, which 
 was found equal to the best silk of Piedmont, and to be 
 worked with less waste than the China silk. In 1776 
 more than twenty thousand pounds of raw silk were 
 imported into England from Georgia. 
 
 No result of any consequence seems to have follow- 
 ed the exertions of Dr Franklin to establish a filature 
 at Philadelphia in 1769. The Revolution came on 
 and put an end to the undertaking. There is little 
 doubt that if the United States had continued to remain 
 British colonies, the culture of silk would have made 
 an immense progress in this country, because its promotion 
 was a matter of vital interest to the mother country, whose 
 manufacturers would have been furnished from hence with 
 the raw material, which ihcy are obliged to purchase at 
 a great expense, drawing very little from their domin- 
 ions in Bengal, where it seems it is imperfectly prepared. 
 
 In Connecticut this culture has been attended to for sev- 
 enty years, and it is probable that about- four tons are now 
 raised annually in the county of Windham. I was told by 
 an intelligent citizen of that county during my visit there 
 in 1828, that the culture was found profitable and was the 
 best business they could pursue. I found many families, in 
 some towns nearly all, engaged in raising silk. A family 
 makes ten, twenty, fifty, or a hundred pounds in a season, 
 according to their supply of leaves. It is evident that 
 they will derive much advantage from introducing Eu- 
 ropean skill into their manufacture of the article. I am told 
 that during the present season they have erected a factory 
 and employ several European artists. There is every 
 reason to believe that a rapid increase of production 
 will soon take place in many of the states of the Union. 
 In New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, silk has been 
 
90 
 
 cultivated in small quantities with success. Individuals in 
 Massachusetts have cultivated it with success for thirty 
 years, and there is not, probahly a farm in the state on 
 which it may not be raised. The beautiful specimens of 
 the article produced at the agricultural exhibitions in dif- 
 ferent parts of the Union show the degree of interest exci- 
 ted at the present time on the subject, and indicate that at 
 no distant day great national wealth will be derived from 
 the exertions that are now undertaken in this depart- 
 ment. 
 
 EXPLANATION OF THE SILK REEL OF PIEDMONT.* 
 
 The frame is 6 feet 5 inches long, 4^ by three inches 
 thick. Distance of the upright posts, AB, 4 feet 4^- 
 inches. 
 
 CC." Length of the braces of the frame, 20 inches in 
 the clear. 
 
 DD. Legs of the frame, 2 feet 3 J inches long. E, shaft 
 with a crown wheel at each end. The wheel F, 9j^^ in- 
 ches in circumference, has 22 teeth. The wheel G, 10 
 inches and 2Jj in circumference, has 25 teeth. This 
 shaft has an iron pin at each end 1 inch long. The pin 
 at the end G, plays in a hole in the shoulder near the top 
 of the post O, so as to enable the teeth of the wheel to 
 catch and work in those of tlie pinion at the end of the 
 axle of the reel, which axle, by means of a pin at the end, 
 also plays in a hole in the post O. The pin at the other 
 end of the shaft plays in a hole in the post K, and the 
 teeth of the wheel F, work in the pinion H, fixed on the 
 top of the post K, by means of a burr screwed on the pin 
 projecting from the post and passing through the centre 
 of the pinion. This pinion has 35 feet. On the top of 
 the pinion H, is a crank, having a sweep of 4 inches, 
 and receives on its top the end of the iron wire-carrier of 
 the traversing bar L The crank is fixed half an inch 
 from the commencement of the grooves of (he pinion. 
 
 * See Piate. 
 
91 
 
 This crank is shown in the figure H. I, a traversing bar, 
 2 feet 10 inches long, | of an inch wide, f of an inch 
 thick, playing through the posts BK : height of the post 
 from the frame 17 inches. 
 
 L, an iron carrier of wire. No. 1, 18 inches long, fixed 
 to the bar 1, to work free by a screw. The other end is 
 fixed by a burr to the pin passing through the centre of 
 the pinion H. 
 
 MM. Two wire hooks or eyes, (rampins) 7f inches 
 apart, at equal distances from the ends of the traversing 
 bar through which they pass. The wires to the com- 
 mencement of the turns of the hooks are 5 inches in length. 
 
 N. The reel ; arms, 2 feet 2jV inches long in the 
 clear : 1^ inches wide, and j% of an inch thick ; rails, 
 20f inches long, 2 inches broad, ^s^ of an inch thick ; 
 two of the arms are jointed, to allow the skeins of silk to 
 be taken off when reeled and quite dry. There ought to 
 be an extra reel to put in the place of the one taken off 
 to prevent the work stopping. 
 
 O. Upright support for the axle of the reel, on the ends 
 of which the pinion is fixed, to work with the wheel G, 
 at the end of the shaft E. The pinion of the axle has 
 22 teeth. P, an iron plate with four holes, 12 inches 
 long, slightly hollowed, projecting 3^^ inches from the bar : 
 the outside holes are 3 inches from the ends ; from the 
 centre of one hole to that of the next, f of an inch. 
 Distance from the two inside and nearest holes, 4^^^ 
 inches. 
 
 Q,. The copper basin to contain hot water, in which 
 the cocoons are immersed when reeling off. It is IS 
 inches long, 1 foot broad, and 4J inches deep. 
 
 R. The furnace to contain charcoal, to keep the water 
 hot. 
 
 Distance from the centre of the posts AB and OK, 
 361 inches. Circumference of the reel 6 feet 11 inches. 
 Distance from the top of one arm, where it enters the 
 rail, to another arm, IBg^ inches. 
 
 From the axle of the reel and the traversing bar I, 4 
 feet 8 inches. 
 8* 
 
92 
 
 LETTER 
 
 From Peter S. Du Ponceau to the Hon. Andrew Stk- 
 VENSOiv, Speaker of the House of Representatives 
 OF THE United States. 
 
 Wasliiiigton 8th May, 1S32. 
 
 Sir : The present session of Congress being far advan- 
 ced, and business pressing on your lionorable House from 
 every side, 1 think it my duly to solicit again their atten- 
 tion to the bill ' for promoting the growth and manufac- 
 ture of silk,' now pending before them, and to state some 
 reasons why it is important to the nation that it should 
 be acted upon as soon as possible, and, above all things, 
 that it should not be suffered to go over the present session. 
 As there are many members of the present House who 
 are unacquainted with the history of this bill, and who 
 may not understand on what grounds I take the liberty 
 to address them through you, I beg leave to give here a 
 brief statement of it, which, while it serves as my apology, 
 will, I believe, throw some additional light on the impor- 
 tant subject to which your attention is most respectfully 
 requested. 
 
 When, at the beginning of the first session of the last 
 Congress, I had the honor to present to them a copy of the 
 'Essays on American Silk,' then lately published by Mr 
 D'Homergue and myself, I had nothing in view but to give 
 them a mark of my profound respect, and, at the same time, 
 tlirough them, to extend the knowledge of -the facts 
 which the book contains. I was highly flattered by the 
 honor which the House did to that little work, by refer- 
 ing it to their committee on agriculture ; still, 1 had no 
 idea that that would lead to the recommendation of a 
 legislative measure. 
 
 The idea of deriving a national advantage from the ex- 
 portation of raw silk was entirely new, at that time, in 
 tlie United States. Until then, the culture of that rich 
 production of our soil had been considered only with a 
 view to domestic manufactures. This is so true, that, in 
 
93 
 
 the able report of the Committee on Agriculture, made to 
 the House on the 2d of May, 1S26 ; in the Manual that 
 was prepared and published on their recommendation ; 
 and in the answers, that were sent from all parts of the 
 United States to the then Secretary of the Treasury, Mr 
 Rush, in consequence of his circular queries, (as far as 
 those answers have come to my knowledge,) the impor- 
 tance of the exportation of rmv silk as an article of com- 
 merce, is not any where suggested. Thus, our agricul- 
 ture as far as silk is concerned, was considered only as 
 mvxiliary to domestic manufactures ; while the idea first 
 thrown out and developed in the ' Essays,' contemplates 
 solely the advantage of the agricultural interest of our 
 country, which alone is to be benefited by the sale of our 
 produce to foreign nations in the form of a rmo material, 
 manufactures may follow or not, as it may happen. In 
 either case, our country is to be benefited by the sale of 
 an article exclusively the fruit of agricultural industry. 
 When we consider that the small country of Piedmont 
 exported, in the year 1829, near fiv« millions of pounds 
 of lier raw and thrown silks, we shall better understand 
 the value of this suggestion. France does not permit 
 the exportation of her silks, unless manufactured. 
 
 These reflections could not but forcibly strike the 
 minds of the enlightened committee to whom the work 
 was referred. That committee did me the honor to ad- 
 dress me through their chairman, and desired my inter- 
 ference to retain Mr D'Homergue in this country. I 
 was requested by them to ask him on what terms he 
 would accept to be placed at the head of a national school 
 of filature; in consequence of which, after having ascer- 
 tained the lowest terms that could reasonably be offered 
 to him, and obtained his assent, not without difficulty, as 
 his pretensions were higher, and these I found justified 
 afterwards by a letter from his father, in which, appealing 
 to his experience of forty years, he told him that forty thou- 
 sand dollars would hardly be sufficient to enable him to 
 execute what he had undertaken ; I submitted a plan, 
 which the committee immediately adopted, and presented 
 
94 
 
 to the House in the form of the present bill, to which 
 they subjoined my letter to them, and an able report warm- 
 ly recommending the measure, in which is ibund this 
 remarkable expression, that it would be a national mis- 
 fortune if Mr D'ilomergue were suffered to leave this 
 country. 
 
 That report was made on the Vlih of March, 1830. 
 The session was then far advanced, and the House could 
 do no more before their adjournment than order six thou- 
 sand copies of the report, with my letter to the commit- 
 tee, and the ' Essays on American Silk, ' to be print- 
 ed. The Senate, to whom a copy of that work had been 
 also presented, referred it to their Committee on Agricul- 
 ture, and manufactures, with whom I had some corres- 
 pondence, which, however, produced no result, as the 
 subject had been so fully taken up by the House of Rep- 
 resentatives. 
 
 Under these circumstances, sir, I thought myself in hon- 
 or, if not in duty, bound to justify the confidence placed in 
 me by retaining Mr D'Homergue in this country, at least 
 until another session of Congress. At the same time, I 
 determined to prove to Congress, and to the nation, by the 
 evidence of facts, the great importance of the cont(;mpla- 
 ted measure, so that it might be popular by the time it 
 should come again before the iVational Legislature. I 
 went with Mr D'Homergue to Connecticut, to see how 
 the people there managed the silk culture, and their so 
 much spoken of domestic manufacture of sewing silk. 
 My object in going thither was iilso to purchase cocoons, 
 of which, however, I could obtaiu but a small quantity, 
 as the people thought that they might employ them other- 
 wise to more advantage. We, therefore, supplied our- 
 selves, in that and the succeeding year, from other sour- 
 ces. On my return to Philadelphia, 1 erected an experi- 
 mental filature under the diiection of Mr D'Homergue, 
 in which American wouien were instructed in the art of 
 preparing raw silk for exportation. As there was not 
 time before the then next session of Cono;ress to obtain 
 
95 
 
 information from Europe of the results of these experi- 
 ments, I prevailed on Mr D'Homergue, although with- 
 out much of the requisite machinery, to manufacture, 
 himself, in various forms, a part of the silk prepared at 
 the filature. It was not until the end of the last session 
 of Congress that we obtained proofs from abroad, that 
 our raw silk was esteemed in foreign countries, and might 
 becom* a valuable article in our commerce with other 
 nations. The details of these experiments, and their re- 
 sults at home and abroad, have been made known to the 
 House in former communications. 
 
 The last session was short, and a great part of it was ta- 
 ken up by a State trial in the Senate, at which the members 
 of the House attended. The House, however, showed its 
 favorable disposition towards the bill, by fixing a day for 
 its discussion ; but, more pressing business intervening, 
 that discussion did not take place, and Congress adjourn- 
 ed, of necessity, on the day appointed by the constitution. 
 
 At that time, sir, Mr D'Homergue had received tempt- 
 ing offers from a foreign minister, then at Washington, 
 and was hesitating whether or not he would accept them. 
 The fact was known to many members of the late Con- 
 gress, who considered it of the highest importance that 
 Mr D'Homergue should stay in this country, at least, to 
 wait the result of the present session. To obtain that end, 
 a paper was signed on the very day of the adjournment 
 of the late Congress, by eighty-nine members of the House 
 of Representatives, in which, without presuming to pre- 
 dict what might be done by a future Congress, they did 
 not hesitate to give it as their decided opinion, that, if the 
 bill had been considered at that session," it would have 
 met with the approbation of the House of Representa- 
 tives." That paper was brought to Philadelphia, and de- 
 livered to me by the Hon. Ambrose Spencer. 
 
 Under such circumstances, what could I do ? However 
 inconvenient it might be to me to continue the efforts I 
 had begun, that was not now an object for my considera- 
 tion. A market had been established at Philadelphia for 
 
96 
 
 cocoons, and they were bringing in for sale from various 
 parts of tlie country. To have discontinued that market 
 at once, would have discouraged the farmers, and check- 
 ed the impulse which Congress had been giving to the silk 
 culture since the year 1826; and, what would have been 
 worse, Mr D'Homergue might have accepted some of the 
 offers made him, and left this country. I therefore de- 
 termined to persevere ; the cocoons were purchased, the 
 women hired, and the filature again set to work, not as a 
 business or with a view to any profit, but as a continua- 
 tion of former experiments. Mr D'Homergue was per- 
 suaded to remain in the United States, and to reject the 
 offers made to him by the foreign minister to whom I have 
 alluded, and by another, then in Philadelphia, who made 
 overtures to him in my presence. 
 
 The period having arrivedfor the opening of the present 
 session of Congress, I had the honor of addressing a let- 
 ter to you, requesting that you would place the subject 
 before the eyes of your honorable House. I had the 
 satisfaction to see that my letter was promptly referred to 
 the Committee on Agriculture. Encouraged by this favor- 
 able token, and determined that no effort should be want- 
 ing, on my part, to promote so important a measure, I 
 resolved to accompany Mr D'Homergue to this city, that 
 he and I might be on the spot to give to the members all 
 the explanations that they might require. We attended, 
 together the Committee on Agriculture, who brought in 
 the former bill with a report not less favorable to it than 
 that of their predecessors. The order of the House, 
 which soon after followed, to place that bill among the 
 special orders of the day, convinced me of the high im- 
 portance which they attach to the subject ; and I should 
 not think it necessary to trouble them or you with this 
 letter, if the session were not so far advanced, and the 
 prospect of the bill being taken into consideration du- 
 ring its continuance diminishing every day. At any 
 rate, the part I have taken in this business, in consequence 
 of the facts I have stated, and which I have continued to 
 
97 
 
 take as long as my means would permit, until prudence 
 warns me to desist, if the House should postpone its 
 decision to another session, will, I hope, be accepted as 
 an apology for what otherwise might be considered as an 
 officious unwarranted intrusion. 
 
 I beg to be permitted to take this opportunity to say, 
 from my own observation, and the information of others, 
 and particularly of editors of newspapers, who, by ex- 
 changing their journals, have the best means of knowing 
 the feelings of the people at large, the measure contem- 
 plated by this bill is highly popular among all classes of 
 men, but particularly the agriculturalists throughout the 
 whole Union ; and I am satisfied that, if passed into a 
 law, it will give general satisfaction. I am further convinc- 
 ed of this, and that the postponement of the bill will cause 
 great disappointment among the farmers who have turn- 
 ed their thoughts to the silk culture, by the letters which 
 I receive from all parts of the United States, which gener- 
 ally end with the query, whether there will be a market for 
 cocoons this year at Philadelphia? which question I am 
 unable to answer. This inquiry has lately been made 
 by the inhabitants of the silk district in Connecticut, 
 who, two years ago, were unwilling to sell their cocoons, 
 because they thought they could manufacture them to 
 better advantage, but now appear to entertain a different 
 opinion. From the soutliern States, similar inquiries are 
 made ; and, since 1 have been in this city, I have been 
 informed that cocoons had been sent for sale to Philadel- 
 phia from North and South Carolina, but could find no 
 purchaser, as it would be idle in me to purchase that 
 produce, to throw away afterwards, if the silk bill shall not 
 pass. I ought to add that several State Legislatures have 
 made laws to encourage the culture of the mulberry tree, 
 and the breeding of silk worms, in contemplation of the 
 passing of that bill. I fear that if a check be given to 
 this strong impulse by the discontinuing of a market for 
 cocoons, it will be difficult hereafter to revive it; and, 
 without the silk bill, I do not see how that market can be 
 continued. 
 
98 
 
 As I was going to conclude this letter, T received, from 
 Philadelphia, extracts from a series of public documents 
 lately presented to the American Philosophical Society, 
 by Don J. M. Tornel, late minister from Mexico to the 
 United States. Among those documents, are official re- 
 ports, in which it is stated that the wantof the knowledcre 
 of the art of reeling is the only thing that prevents the 
 culture of silk from flourishing in that Republic ; and I 
 ought to add, that it is known to me that overtures have 
 been made to Mr Homergue, on the part of that Gov- 
 ernment, to induce him to enter into their service. 
 
 Thus, sir, three foreign Governments have endeavored 
 to obtain the aid of Mr D'Homergue to introduce or per- 
 fect the art of reeling silk among them. This shows that 
 it is not so easy, as some have imagined, to obtain per- 
 sons thus qualified from other countries : and that this 
 nation is possessed of an opportunity, which, if it should 
 suffer to escape, it may long, very long, have cause to re- 
 gret hereafter. 
 
 The only object of this letter is to endeavor toconvince 
 your honorable House of the high importance of this bill, 
 in the confident expectation that it will be finally acted 
 upon by Congress at the present session. In doing so, I 
 conceive I am performing a duty, which, if I were to 
 neglect, I would have cause to reproach myself for it for- 
 ever after. 
 
 I have the honor to be, with the highest respect, sir, 
 Your most obedient and very humble servant, 
 
 PETER S. DU PONCEAU. 
 
 Note. It h well known that M- Du Ponceau's lii!! w.is rejected 
 in tlie House of Representatives, by a niiijority of seventeen votes. 
 What the piinci|)al objections to it were, I do not know. But as 
 the popular voice calls loudly for legislative encouratjemont, it is 
 nol imp:obable that some future Congress may enact suitable pro- 
 visions on the subject. 
 
n I 
 
 V 
 
 ^7 
 
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