S74 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Heeling and reels. — The reelins of silk is 

 •not a ditficult but a very nice operation. The 

 objection to American silk has been in the imper- 

 lection or faults of the reeling. The pcrlection ol 

 reeled silk consists mainly in the evenness of the 

 fibre. To effect this reijuires not only care but 

 judgment. The worm in forming his cocoon, 

 pou°rs out the viscid matter from which the silk is 

 made from his nose, and this becomes hardened in 

 the air. At its first coming out it is in its largest 

 form, and becomes gradually more attenuated as 

 the worm becomes exhausted. The filament or 

 thread from a cocoon is from 750 to 1150 feet long. 

 Whatever number of cocoons are taken, to form 

 a thread, it will be larger at first than it would be 

 afterwards, unless care and judgment are used in 

 uniting additional cocoons as the original fibre 

 diminishes in size, in order to keep tap the even- 

 ness and equality of the thread throughout. In 

 doing this as it should be done, and in carefully 

 uniting the filaments when by any accident they 

 becanie broken, or are run off, consists the perfec- 

 tion of the art of reeling. 



Various reels have been invented for the pur- 

 pose of executing this work. I have seen three 

 only in operation. The Piedmontese reel is 

 universally admitted to combine simplicity of form 

 with excellence of execution. Adam Brooks, of 

 Scituate, Mass., has invented an ingenious reel 

 by which the reeling and spinning are performed 

 by one operation. It has much merit ; but is 

 liable to the objections, which usually apply to 

 machines which attempt too much. In perform- 

 ii;g two operations it does neither of them so well, 

 aslf only one were undertaken at once. The third 

 reel to which I refer, is one made by .James 

 Deane, M. D., of Greenfield, of which 1 have al- 

 ready spoken. It is beautiful from its simplicity 

 and the perlect manner in which it executes its 

 work; and it is likewise recommended by the 

 Rmallness of its cost. We must not, however, 

 expect to find any machine so complete as not to 

 require a viorilant and intelligent superintendence. 

 Even the human hand, that most perlect of all 

 machines, can very poorly discharge its office 

 %viihout the light of the eye and the guidance of 

 the judgment. 



Domestic industry. — Mrs. Brooks, who claims 

 nome share in the Scituate reel, to which I have 

 referred, has distinguished herself for her zeal and 

 Buccess in the culture of silk, in which for ten 

 years she has been more or less engaged. She 

 merits most justly a part of that brilliant eulogium, 

 which the author olthe Book of Proverbs has pro- 

 nounced upon a good woman. I do not say that 

 she has not just claims to the whole ; but it is not 

 within my province to adjust that account. "She 

 layeth her hands to the spindle ; her hands hold 

 the distaff. She maketh herself covering of tapest- 

 ry ; and her clothing is silkand purple."* Mrs. 

 Brooks has produced and completed irom the egg 

 three full grown pattern? of silk ; and considerable 

 quantities of sewings. She surprised me by say- 

 ing, that if her silk cloth could be sold lor one dol- 

 lar per yard, taking in the whole affair of produc- 

 li m and manufacture, she could get one dollar per 

 day for her labor. My surprise, minirlcd with 

 pome incredulity, has not wholly ceased. Her 



Prov. xxxi. vs. 19,22. 



veracity is beyond question ; but something must 

 be allowed for the enthusiasm with which success 

 has inspired her; and if there be no error, yet I 

 fear there may be a little poetry in the calculation. 

 It is almost universal since the introduction and 

 extraordinary improvements of manufacturing ma- 

 chinery, to mourn over the decline of household in- 

 dustry properly so called ; to speak of it as we 

 are accustomed to speak of the existence oi' some 

 ancient cities, as a thing that was, but which has 

 now become purely matter of history ; what our 

 grandmothers perlbrmed with their own hands, as 

 only suited to point the moral of some story in a 

 winter evening ; to consider it now not the pro- 

 vince of women to make the clothes but to wear 

 the clothes ; and like other beauiilul flowers, re- 

 lerred to in the sacred book, with which nature 

 is adorned, though they may array themselves in 

 the gorgeousness of regal magnificence to regard 

 them as no longer doomed " to toil and to spin." 

 The eminent industry of Mrs. Brooks and Miss 

 Rapp will do somethmg towards redeeming the 

 character of our own country-women from a re- 

 proach but too often cast upon them by those who 

 seek to find an apology lor their own indolence, 

 extravagance, and want of enterprise in the ima- 

 gined and magnified deficiencies and liiults of 

 others. 



Manufacture of silk. — It does not properly be- 

 long to my report to say much of the manulacture 

 of silk, excepting so far as it is a household con- 

 cern ; and as a manufacturing establishment would 

 afford to the farmers a market lor their cocoons. 

 In some places, this would be a great advantage. 

 Several establishments Jbr the manufacture of silk 

 hare been erected in Massachusetts and New 

 England. Many manulacturing establishments 

 ill New England, some silk among others, have 

 been undertaken upon too large a scale, and too 

 far in anticipation of the actual wants or capacities 

 of the community. Some of them being thus top- 

 heavy have lallen by their own weight ; and 

 others have renaained like the leaning tower of 

 Pise, the wonder of spectators, how they sustain- 

 ed their position. The extraordinary caprices of 

 public affairs, and the embarrassments and ffuctu- 

 ations of the currency, and the explosions of many 

 of the banks, which like the bursting of pieces of 

 cannon, prove often most destructive to those who 

 have the handling of them, and scatter their bleed- 

 ing fragments in the air, have operated great- 

 ly against many manufacturing establishments 

 among us. 



The policy of the government has not been fa- 

 vorable to the production of silk, if an impost is to 

 be considered as favorable. The removal of all 

 duty upon silks, other than sewings, excepting a 

 merely nominal duty of ten per cent, upon those 

 from beyon.i the Cape of Good Hope, favors the 

 cheap, ill-led and unrequited labor of Europe and 

 Asia ; but it destroys all competition on our part. 

 The imposition of the enormous duty of forty per 

 cent, on eevvings, which it was thought irom its 

 magnitude would amount to a virtual prohibition, 

 in its large amount defeated its very object ; lor 

 in an article embracing so large a value in so small 

 a bulk, and so easy ol being smuggled, il amount- 

 ed, virtually, to a premium on its illicit introduction. 

 1 had however the pleasure of visiting a ma- 

 nufactory of silk at Nantucket, on a small scale, 

 but well conducted ; and which it is thought will 



