488 



family, and the silk beautifully reeled by his daughter, whose smallest 

 daily product was one and one quarter pounds of superb silk of the pea- 

 nut variety. This fact may forever settle the question of reeling, con- 

 cerning the difficulties of which so much has been said by those who 

 know nothing of the art. Miss Barton is a young lady of intelligence, 

 energy, and ingenuity, and will reel without difficulty in a perfect man- 

 ner, two pounds of silk of twenty fibres in a day. 



Partly at my suggestion, the details of this experiment were accur- 

 ately noticed. The weight of eggs hatched was, 2^ oz. The worms 

 spun in 28 and 29 days. The amount of leaves consumed was 2500 

 lbs. The weight of cocoons was 248 lbs. The weight of reeled silk 

 was 20 lbs., and the amount of labor was one month, that is, the first 

 half was greatly less than that, and the last days something more. The 

 building used, was the vacant corn-house, which, of course, should not 

 enter into the list of expenditures, and the fixtures were merely tempo- 

 rary shelves of rough boards, and a £ew hurdles to contain the larvse, 

 during their three first ages. Neither should there be any charge for 

 e^gs, as a great quantity was produced for future use. The expenses 

 therefore stand as follows : 



Labor, one month, $12 00 ; board do. $6, 

 2500 lbs. mulberry leaves, 50 cents per 100 lbs 

 Gathering cocoons, camphor for curing do. 

 Reeling 20 lbs. silk at 75 cts. 

 Interest on reel and fixtures. 



And the income, 

 20 lbs. silk for which Mr. B. has refused$ 5 per lb. , 

 The state bounty of 15 cents on 248 lbs. cocoons, 

 " «' 50 " 25 " reeled silk, 



Deduct, 



Profit, including bounty, 

 " excluding " 



$49 00 



