140 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



ON THE NECESSITY FOR PROPER INSTRUC- 

 TION IN THE ART OF REELING SILK. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Philadelphia, Feb. 26th, 1840. 



Dear Sir— I am exceedingly obliged to you 

 for the valuable present you have been pleased to 

 make to me of a series of the Farmers' Register, 

 for 1839, and January No. of the present year : I 

 beg you will accept for it my grateful thanks. Al- 

 though I do not profess to be an agriculturist, yet 

 I have always felt the liveliest interest in the pro- 

 gress of agriculture, considering it as the nurse of 

 mankind, of which commerce and manufactures 

 are but the handmaids. 



I am happy to find that you pay considerable 

 attention to the culture of silk, an article to which 

 this country will one day be indebted lor immense 

 riches. The great question at present is, how to 

 make it profitable'? I observe in the last number, 

 for January, that it is not doubted but that a great 

 quantity of cocoons will be produced in the course 

 of the present year ; and there can be no doubt of 

 it when we consider the large bounties given by 

 some of the stales for their production. But, it is 

 asked, what shall we do with theml To this 

 question your correspondent answers, by recom- 

 mending to the larmers to reel their silk from their 

 cocoons ; but he does not say how that reeled silk 

 is to be employed. I presume that he believes 

 that it will be immediately manufactured. Your 

 correspondent is very sanguine on the subject ; he 

 Bays that he has seen silk reeled by an American 

 farmer who had never been taught the art, which 

 was mistaken by a connoisseur for Italian silk. I 

 should be very happy if this should prove to be 

 the case ; I have, however, strong doubts upon the 

 subject. I believe the art of reeling silk from the 

 cocoons requires teaching and experience, and that 

 it is not to be learned by intuition. Whether I am 

 right or wrong, this is an important question, 

 which lias produced in this country many different 

 opinions, and which ought at last to be set at rest. 

 1 am happy to liave it in my power as a first op- 

 portunity now offers to decide it definitively. 



[n our large cities, and in several country 

 places, from Boston to Philadelphia inclusive, there 

 are manufactories of sewing silk, with competent 

 machineries, directed by skilful throwsters, chiefly 

 emigrants from England. These factories, going 

 on under the protection of a duty of forty per cent, 

 on foreign sewing silk, are in great want of the 

 raw material, and are obliged to import it in large 

 quantities from China and Bengal. This foreign 

 article, which is by no means of the first quality, 

 sells in our market for ^5 a pound. Now, sir, it is 

 very plain that there will be no market this year 

 for the purchase of cocoons, as there is no filature 

 established any where that 1 know of; but there 

 will be an abundance of markets for the purchase 

 of reeled or raw silk ; and if that reeled by our 

 farmers is equal to the Italian, it will readily sell 

 for ^7 a pound, which is the price of Italian raw 

 silk in England ; and if inferior, it will at least 

 produce the same price with China silk, which is 

 S5. There cannot be a fairer opportunity to test 

 this long controverted question, and ascertain the 

 real value of American raw silk. It is only by 

 such facts that the correctness of the discordant 

 opinions can be finally decided upon. 



I beg you will excuse my employing another 



hand to write this letter ; the weakness of my sight 

 obliges me to have recourse to this method. Again 

 accept my thanks for your very valuable present, 

 and believe me to be, very respectfully, dear sir, 

 your most ob't servant, 



Peter S. Dv Ponceau. 



[In the circumstances in which the venerable 

 writer of the foregoing letter has been placed by 

 age and infirmity, its dictation was a task which 

 we did not expect from, nor desire to have imposed 

 upon him. Being so freely performed, however, 

 it is so much the more gratifying, and valued, as 

 a testimonial of the writer's kind approval of our 

 labors, and of his still unwearied zeal for the esta- 

 blishment of the public benefit by silk-culture, 

 which is the subject of his remarks, and to pro- 

 mote which, he has been one of the earliest, most 

 zealous, and certainly among the most disinterest- 

 ed of laborers. 



Mr. Du Ponceau maintains, as heretofore, the 

 difficulty of the art of reeling silk, and the neces- 

 sity for its being regularly taught. In this he is 

 opposed by the much more general belief of the 

 great facility with which the art may be acquired. 

 Being totally without practical knowledge on this 

 controverted point, we offer no opinion of our own, 

 but wish to present fairly the opposite opinions of 

 others. But whether the difficulty may be too 

 much magnified by the one opinion, or too much 

 underrated by the other, there can be no doubt of 

 the immense advantage of a skilful and expe- 

 rienced reeler commencing the operation in a re- 

 gion where silk-culture is but just begun. Many 

 places in the middle and southern states will this 

 year oflier profitable and sufficient business for a 

 single capable reeler, though it might not be safe 

 to establish a regular and extensive filature in ad- 

 vance of the large and regular business of feeding 

 worms, which we trust will proceed with regular 

 increase from the trials of this year. In all the prin- 

 cipal townsof Virginia, Richmond, Norfolk, Peters- 

 burg, and Fredericksburg, good reelers would this 

 year find extensive employment in the crops of co- 

 coons that will be made in the environs, and would 

 make for ihemsel ves good profits, both by their work 

 and by instructions of others, as well as render 

 most important public service. For the latter ob- 

 ject, as well as for individual benefit, in the in- 

 struction afforded, each considerable ieeder of 

 silk-worms in the vicinity might well afford to pay 

 his share of a large pecuniary premium to induce 

 the establishment of a reeler, in addition to the 

 payments for particular services rendered. This 

 ought to be an object especially attended to by 

 societies formed for aiding the promotion of silk- 

 culture.— Ed. F. R.] 



