262 [Senate 



the tops close in the spring, mellow the ground with a corn drag or cul- 

 tivator, not. destroying the roots. In this way you will get a number 

 of shoots, and more than twice the amount of leaves than to let the 

 tops remain on. 



6th. From my experience, and those of my acquaintance in the silk 

 business, I should decide in favor of early feeding, if not too early. 



7tli. In some cases of had success in the business, there has been too 

 much experiment in feeding : in some too cold and wet, or too late in 

 the .season. In many cases I am not able to account for bad success, 

 except it be owing to the improper manner in which we keep our eggs. 



8th and 9th. Not able to answer. 



U)lh. The greatest trouble with us is in keeping eggs ; they either 

 hatch too early, or if kept back by being put into an ice-house, they 

 are most always lost, or what is worse, hatch only to be sickly and 

 amount to nothing. If we could keep our eggs good from hatching, we 

 could do the fair thing in western New- York. The silk business is a 

 good business, rightly conducted. 



P. S. As this is the first time that I ever attempted to write upon this 

 subject, you must take the facts and fill out as you shall judge best. 

 [No need of that, friend Freeman, all right as it is. J. R. B.] 



Oliver Mitchell, South Britain, Ct. — I have been doing a 

 hitle at silk for four years. Have raised four or five bushels per year, 

 of cocoons and sold them. I have been increasing my trees, intending 

 to make it a business, but my worms have often died. My building is 

 not suflnciently ventilated. I am desirous next season of trying the 

 plan of open shed feeding. What constitutes an open shed? Is sim- 

 ply a roof over the worms, all that is wanted? 



[We refer Mr. M. to Mr. Gill's description. J. R. B.] 



Abial S. Smart, Springfield, Vermont. — I will inform you as 

 near as I can the situation of our silk business in this place. There 

 are quite a number in this place that are trying to do something at the 

 silk l)usiness, but not all with very good success. I think that we have 

 not got upon the right way of feeding. I have seen some notice of 

 Mr. Gill's method of feeding. 1 should like to get a plan of it, or some 

 information on this subject. We want a market for cocoons — have 

 somewhere from fifty to seventy-five bushels in this vicinity, in a num- 

 ber of hands. There are more within five or six miles of this place, 

 but I cannot say whether they will sell them or reel them. There is 

 one man that has raised five hundred pounds. 



John Marsh, Snuthhridge, Mass. — In the spring of 1840, I 

 planted about one-quarter of an acre of nmlberry trees, principally mul- 

 ticaulis, and have averaged from Uiem about three pounds of reeled 



