No. 124.J 227 



Wm. a. Flippir, Cumberland County^ Va. [Addressed to J. A. 

 B,] — As you have requested that all silk growers should inform you 

 of their success on the plan of open feeding, and you would embody 

 the same in pamphlet form and send one to each of those who should 

 try the experiment, I thought I would inform you of the success I 

 had with a small lot of worms, fed in an open shed, the last spring. 

 I had commenced the experiment before I saw your views on the 

 subject of open feeding, believing it to be the only successful mode, 

 if they could be protected from birds, insects, &c. My worms were 

 very healthy, although there were several frosts during the time ef 

 feeding. I have no doubt they would have made a first rate crop of 

 silk had they not been destroyed by the wasps^ Had they been fixed 

 on Mr. John W. Gill's plan, with cradles and fans, I think that 

 would have been a suflicient protection; the fans, no doubt, would 

 be first rate to drive off the wasps. I should have been more par- 

 ticular with the crop, had I seen your proposals sooner. I fed three 

 ounces of eggs in a house that I built for the purpose two years ago. 

 They made about twenty-one bushels of good cocoons. If it is con- 

 venient, I would be glad to receive one of your pamphlets, and if 

 open feeding proves to be the most successful, I shall adopt that plan 

 the next year, and enlarge my operations. 



Cyrus Thompson, Highgate Spa., Franklin Co., Vt. — I have fed 

 silk-worms in a small way for the last six years, and am satisfied 

 from my own experience, that with proper management it may be 

 made a profitable branch of business, even as far north as here. I 

 have about three acres of mulberry trees, two of white Italian and 

 one of morus multicaulis. My whites are in hedges, tAvelve feet 

 apart, and my multicaulis four feet. I never lost many trees by our 

 cold winters, although the morus multicaulis kills near the ground. 

 I have always 'fed two crops of worms in a season, and have always 

 lost some in the last crop, and always succeeded well with the first. 

 I have come to the conclusion that I will feed but one crop, and 

 hatch them about the first of July. 



I have a building on purpose to feed in, well ventilated, and no 

 floor to it. This year I hatched one-third my eggs about the 1st of 

 July, and made eighty pounds of cocoons of the first quality, and 

 from the remaining two-thirds, with the same treatment, I got but 

 sixty-three pounds, and those were not so good. I used no fires in 

 the cocoonery this season, but last season I kept a fire night and day. 

 My worms, however, did not do well, and had it not been for the 

 State bounty, I should have lost on the last crops. Each year's last 

 crops hatched 1st of August. 



I should be highly pleased could I attend the convention, which I 

 think will be very beneficial to the silk cause, by diffusing useful 

 knowledge in the report of the various experiments and results in 

 different parts of our country. Proper information on this subject 

 distributed and brought within reach of all who are enquiring, must 



