Ivo. 124,1 209 



printed as for Amos P. Dodge. The quantity I shall have, cannot 

 yet tell, as it is not all reeled. My worms did very well. 



I think the friends of the cause have grreat reason to congratulate 

 themselves on the present aspects of the silk business. New-England 

 can grow silk. We can easily become, in a few years, exporters of 

 this rich and beautiful article. I am glad our people are beginning 

 to see that it is bad policy to send our money abroad for an aiticie 

 which we can just as well grow and manufacture ourselves. Another 

 thiiig, the Western Railroad now opens all the great markets of New- 

 England to the agricultural products of the rich and boundless west, 

 so that all our products are now low-, and likely to remain so. New 

 England larmers, therefore, must take up something new — something 

 U'ith which the market cannot be glutted. That silk is that thing, 

 there is not, in my mind, a question. 



Hon. Levi Woodbury, Portsmouth.^ K. H. — I am not a silk 

 grower, and therefore, am not able to answer the inquiries put by 

 you ; neither do I manufacture any, but I have taken some interest 

 in both, and have some mulberry trees grown, with a view, when 

 3eisure may permit, to attempt rearing the silk worm on a small scale, 

 requiring no great outlay of capital ; and employing the aged, in- 

 firm, and youth chiefly in the work. I have for some years believ- 

 •ed the b-usiness would prove profitable. 



My thanks for the specimen of sewing silk sent me, and your po- 

 lite invitation to attend the anniversary of the Institute, which pre- 

 v/ious engagements must prevent. 



D. B. Blakesley, Newaric, Wayne Co.^ Jf. Y.—l am a silk grow- 

 er, and feel a deep interest in the enterprise. I send you a brief 

 statement of my experience in the business. Answer to question 1st. 

 I have fed silk worms three years, the first year I failed for want of 

 sufficient ventilation : from tw^o ounces eggs well hatched (peanut 

 variety) 4^ bushels cocoons. Second year, summer of 1842, niy 

 success was triumphant; from four ounces eggs (common sulphur) 

 the product was 33 bushels superior cocoons. The third year, viz: 

 the past summer, I have failed almost entirely — from six ounces etrgs 

 (both peanut and sulphur,) the product was 15 1 bushels very poor 

 cocoons. Answer to question 2(1. My cocoonery is in an upper 

 room in a building 163 feet long and 40 feet widcj the lower part is 

 used for horses to stand under duriiig church service on Sunday- 

 Last spring, a hen-house^ (which I cnuld not prevent,) was built in 

 one end ol' the lower part of the building, and directly under my co- 

 coonery; the hen-house is 30 by 40 feet; hens to the amount of two 

 or three hundred have been kept there all summer, and I have conse- 

 quently not had a breath of pure air in my cocoonery during the sea- 



[Senate, No. 124. J Bb 



