50 



wnich he nas received from an eminent silk merchant 

 in Paris, in which he tells him that the hest French raw 

 silks of 1 5 to 20 fibres, lose only by waste 1 to 2 per 

 cent ; those of Asiatic Turkey, from 6 to 8 ; those of 

 Calabria, 8 to 12 ; those of Valencia in Spain, 6 to 8; 

 those of Syria, 15 to 20 ; and those of Salonikt 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 1828, 

 states the average waste in different silks to be as follows : 

 French silks, 4 to 1 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 better 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 



