FARMERS' R E G I S T £ H 



crease the hardness of soap unless (he salt be pre- 

 viously removed by boilint^ in water. 



Soap of lallow ia made in En^^land, and iarj»el_v 

 in the United Slates, and is the best in coiDnion 

 use ; when scented with oil of caraway seeds and 

 cast into a mould, it is used lor the toilette, and is 

 called Windsor soap. Oilier toilette soaps are 

 made wiih butier, lion's lard, or with almond, rml 

 or palm oil. Sonieiimes fish oil is used lor coarse 

 soaps, as well as linseed oil ; and rosin i3 oMen 

 added to give a yellow color and odor. The fol- 

 lowing proportions (by vvei<iht) have been given 

 lor a good yellow soap; tallow twenty-five, oil 

 lour and a half, rosin seven, barriila, (soda) eigh- 

 teen, settlings of waste ley, eva[)orated and calci- 

 ned, ten, and palm oil one- half part. 



Soaps are colored blue by indigo, yellow by tu- 

 meric, &c.; and marble or veined soaps are made 

 thus: — to the soap just separated from the spent 

 ley, new ley is added, and then copperas dissolved 

 in water;red oxide of iron (or colcother,) mixed 

 with water is stirred in it by manual dexterity, and 

 is so mixed as to produce the peculiar appearance. 



MR. G. G. GLEASOn's EXPERIMENT OF SltK 

 CULTURE. 



From the Journal of the American Silk Society. 

 To the Executive Committee of the Amr.rican Silk Society. 



Gentlemen — Feeling a deep interest lor the 

 wellijre, of my It'llowciiizens, and believing it the 

 duty of every individual to contribute his mite, 

 however small, for ameliorating the condition ol' 

 the human race, and thus rendering them more 

 comlbrtable and happy, whenever an opportunity 

 presents itself; and fuither, wishing to aid in set- 

 tling the dispute, which is now extant throughout 

 the country, whether the growth of silk in the 

 i'nited States will be beneficial to our country, as 

 well as profiiable to the grower. 



Believing that through the medium ofthe growth 

 of silk, a new epoch in the prosperity of our coun- 

 try has dawned upon us, by giving to us a new 

 staple, v;hich will supersede the immense impor- 

 tation of a liibric, of foreign growth and manuliic- 

 ture ; thus saving twenty millions of specie annu- 

 ally in the country, lor the use and benefit of its 

 inhabitants, iriving labor to a great number of in- 

 digent and destiiute females, to the decrepit and 

 youngof the opposite sex ; and having tested by 

 my experiment the past season, the lucrative re- 

 ward which every «:ilk grower may expect, in 

 exchange for his investment and labor, I transmit 

 to you the following facts, relating to silk growing 

 as ascertained by me, as an encouragenient to 

 those who have already, and to those who shall, 

 espouse this worthy cause. 



On the 25th of April last, I planted one-fourth 

 of an acre of ground Vi^ith morns mullicaulis cut- 

 tings, from layers ofthe previous season's growth, 

 in r jws, the rows being nearly three feet apart 

 and the cuttings one fl)0t in the row, it requiring 

 thirty-six hundred cuttings, which 1 designed to 

 appropriate lo an experiment, lo test the profiis 

 which a silk (grower might expect to realize frotn 

 an -.icre, planied with morus nnilticanlis. 



The ground was laid ofi^in a parallelogram form 

 thirty-five by three hundred and eleven feet. The 

 soil being of a sandy loam, of no more than ordina- 



ry quality ; the trees, on the eighteenth of June- 

 had not attained more than the average height of 

 twenty- inchesj but at digging time the average of 

 lour feet, being thirty-seven hundred in number. 



I then exposed about forty thousand eggs, 

 which I had [jurchased in Hartford, to hatch ; but 

 the eggs proving bad, there were but very few of 

 them hatched, and they died immediately. 



On the 29ih of June 1 again exposed about ten 

 thousand eggs, which I had purchased of JVlr. 

 McLean, of which al)out eight thousand hatched, 

 of which lour thousand were mammoth white, two 

 thousand sulphur, and two thousand two-crop; 

 they were perfectly healthy, the white having 

 completed their labours in twenty-six days, the 

 sid[)hur and two-crop, in twenty-nine days, pro- 

 duced twenty-eight pounds of cocoons, or if flossed 

 two and one-half bushels; it requiring eleven 

 pounds, or twenty-eight hundred of the white and 

 sulphur, and forty-four hundred of the two-crop, 

 to the bushel. 



I selected twenty-five pounds of the best co- 

 coons for eggs, which produced twenty ounces ol 

 pure eggs ; by counting 1 found that one ounce 

 contained thirty six-thousand eggs. 



The remaining three pounds oi cocoons I reeled, 

 they being of an inlerior quality produced but lour 

 ounces of silk, it requiring at that rate, twelve 

 pounds of cocoons for one pound of silk. 



The worms having required five hundred and 

 seventy -one pounds of leaves, the waste and dry 

 leaves being included, according to my best 

 knowledge, it requiring at the rate, twenty and 

 one-half pounds of leaves, to produce one pound 

 of cocoons, or two hundred and eighteen pounds 

 of leaves to produce one pound of reeled silk ; it 

 requiring ten pounds ten ounces of cocoons to 

 make one pound of silk, as I ascertained by reeling 

 my next crop of cocoons. 



1 exposed on the 5ih of August eighty-five 

 thousand eggs, of which, about seventy-five thou- 

 sand hatched ; they were likewise perfectly heal- 

 thy, and on the filth of September a i'ew thousand 

 commenced windinij; on the sixth several thousand 

 having wound. The remainder were unlbrtu- 

 nately destroyed, in the following manner : my 

 leaves were kept in a cellar which was also used 

 for other purposes, a quantity of salt fish were 

 taken from a barrel and hung to the beam, which 

 dripped on the leaves, and when the worms were 

 fed for the last time in the evening, it being dark, 

 nothing was detected, when next morning almost 

 the whole crop was dead, the fish brine having 

 evidently destroyed them, thus deranging in part 

 my experiment. 



Being belore sceptical as it regarded the profits' 

 to be realized by growing silk, I found to my 

 great astonishment, that the trees from which ( 

 had picked and weighed the leaves had produced 

 near three-fourths of a pound of leaves per tree ; 

 believing that if I had picked all the leaves from 

 those trees, the aggregate would have been 

 seven-eights ofa pound per tree. 



I reeled and manufactured the cocoons produced 

 by my last crop of worms, into sewing silk. It 

 having been examined by competent judses in the 

 city of New York, is pronounced equal in lustre, 

 and surpassing in strength, the very best of Italian; 

 a part of which I present lor premium in reference 

 to best sewing silk. 



If the products of one-fourth of an acre, are two 



