DIFFERENT DUALITIES OF COCOONS. 99 



der. They are known by a peculiar rattling noise when 

 shaken. The quality of the silk is equally excellent, 

 and the quantity even greater than that produced by the 

 healthy silk- worms. 



In reeling good cocoons, a thread composed of but five 

 or six fibres, is said by M. Benezech to be preferred to 

 one composed of eight. Good choquettes are seldom 

 woujid finer than from seven to eight cocoons at a time. 

 Dupions, for ordinary sewing silk, are wound fifteen to 

 twenty filaments to a single thread. Bad choquettes 

 are usually wound from fifteen to twenty filaments to 

 the thread. These, and other inferior cocoons, which 

 are wound forty or fifty fibres at once, form a thread for 

 the filling of coarse fabrics, or for sewing silk of coarser 

 quality. 



The water in which dupions and choquettes are 

 wound, must be changed four times a day. But it is 

 deemed sufficient that the water be renewed but twice 

 a day, when good cocoons are reeled. Yet if the water 

 is suffered to become foul, it injures the lustre and fine 

 gloss of the silk. 



In Cevennes, a district of France, famous for the ex- 

 cellence of its silk, the cocoons are not entirely wound 

 off; as the latter part of the cocoon being exceeding fine, 

 and abounding with knots, is liable to break. Therefore, 

 in reeling fine silk, when seven-eighths of the silk is wound 

 off, the cocoon is thrown aside and replaced by another. 



These pellicles are occasionally taken out with a la- 

 dle and opened, and the chrysalide separated and thrown 

 aside with that which was separated in the beginning, 

 as of inferior quality; for these partly finished cocoons 

 must on no account be permitted to remain in the ba- 

 sins, as they would thicken the water, arid injure the 

 color and the lustre of the silk, rendering it fit only for 

 receiving the dark colors. 



The high reputation of the silk of Piedmont is owing 

 to regulations long established by law. Commissioners 

 of the government who visit these establishments, impose 

 fines on those who infringe these regulations. These 



