108 



known. Mr. Dennis ascribes the superiority of his ma- 

 chine over all others of American invention, to the supe- 

 rior speed and perfection of its movements ; sewing silk 

 of the most perfect quality being formed suddenly, and 

 immediately from the cocoons, while the silk yet re- 

 mains perfectly moist and flexible, and before the fila- 

 ments become rigid and inflexible by dyeing, and there- 

 fore incapable from this cause of uniting so firmly and 

 compactly by reason of the hardening of the cement or 

 gum which they contain. Such are the statements of 

 Mr. Dennis. 



SECTION XXXVII. 



PRODUCE AND PROFITS OF THE SILK-WORM AND 

 OF SILK. 



THE profits of a crop of silk may generally be indi- 

 cated by the size and quality of the cocoons. If the 

 cocoons are very large, like the products of the well 

 cultivated and fertilized fields, it portends a profitable 

 and abundant harvest. In regard to the produce, I 

 would be always understood to speak only of good and 

 profitable crops. Cocoons raised by Mr. Benjamin, in 

 Bristol, Mass., in 1835, were so large that 160 weighed 

 a pound. Those raised in the early settlements of Geor- 

 gia, required but 200 to the pound avoirdupois ; and of 

 those raised by Mrs. Davenport, under the direction of 

 Mr. Cobb, 206 weighed a pound. Cocoons raised by 

 Mr. Stacy, in Burlington, Vt., 1835, required 214 to a 

 pound. The weight of all these is very large. Count 

 Dandolo found that 240 cocoons of his own raising, 

 weighed a pound ; but M. Bonafoux has averaged the 

 weight at 256 to the pound. I have put down the av- 

 erage of a good, crop at 250 to a pound, and Mayet has 

 allowed the same number. 



Cocoons are found to lose 7 per cent, in weight in 



