175 



"Thus nothing is Ibst of the precious material 

 produced by the silk-worm. I mean by those who 

 understand the art of employing it. Otherwise, all 

 experiments by those who are unskilled in the bu- 

 siness, cannot but be attended with consi derable 

 loss. 



" There are then, six different kinds of silk, ex- 

 tracted from the cocoons by processes of various 

 kinds, or which vary more or less from each other in 

 the manner of using them, and all which require not 

 only skill and dexterity, but knowledge acquired by 

 long practice. I shall recapitulate them in their or- 

 der, according to their degrees of fineness. 



1. Silk of the first quality, or singles. 



2. Silk of the second quality, or organzine. 



3. SiH of the third quality, or tram silk. 



4. Sewing silk of the first and second quality. 



5. Cordonnet, or twist of ditto. 



6. Filoselle, or floss silk.'* 



The utmost economy must be practised in reeling 

 silk, if the culturist would reap the full profit of the 

 business. No particle of silk, however small, should 

 be thrown away, but on the contrary all should be 

 saved, and added to the mass of refuse silk. As the 

 culturist who does not reel his silk, but sells the co- 

 coons loses a great part of the profits, so he who 

 reels and does not save all the particles of waste 

 silk, loses in like manner much of the profit*. 



