SUCCESSIVE CROPS OF SILK. 129 



Silk either constitutes the chief material, or enters 

 into the formation of almost every article of wearing 

 apparel, on account of its extraordinary strength. Its 

 uses are indeed almost infinite. 



Much silk is used in the habiliments and equipments 

 of armies; much is used in the splendid decorations 

 of our halls and especially of our churches. 



Well reeled silk, it is stated on good authority, brings 

 a higher price, even than the sewing silk of Connecti- 

 cut, and the waste of materials is comparatively nothing. 

 How important then that the silk should be well 

 reeled ; when even the bounty of fifty cents per pound 

 which is now offered by the Legislature of Massachu- 

 setts, for every pound of silk which may be reeled 

 within the Commonwealth, will soon be pay sufficient 

 to enable a woman to reel it well. Connecticut too has 

 offered a bounty. Other States also have, as I have 

 already stated, offered bounties for five years, of two 

 dollars a pound, for the raising and reeling, which it is 

 believed is a sum fully adequate to pay not only the ex- 

 pense of reeling well, but also of raising the silk. 



Silk is a hygrometric substance, as it will absorb as 

 much as ten per cent, of moisture. In case of suspicion 

 of fraud, the silk is enclosed in wire and exposed to a 

 gentle stove heat equal to 78 deg., and afterwards weighed, 

 till it loses not more than 2^ per cent, a day ; this is the 

 practice in France. Silk is of a nature imperishable in 

 a remarkable degree. It has been dug up from graves 

 and the subterraneous mansions of the dead, where it had 

 lain buried for years, and found entire and uninjured. 



SECTION XLII. 

 SUCCESSIVE CROPS OF SILK. 



FROM the present encouraging appearances, we are 

 induced to believe, that instead of one single and soli- 

 tary crop of silk in a year, we may yet be enabled, in 



