No. 124.J 275 



I have fed early. As far as my knowledge extends late feeding in 

 this region has not been successful. 



We have from the commencement wrought all our cocoons into 

 sewing silk ; a few of the first years on a common wheel, since then 

 on a machine I had of John T. Truman, Esq., of Cornish, N.H., and 

 We make a good article, and fair profit. 



I have never used the multicaulis, as I have always supposed it 

 would not answer in our latitude, but hope I may yet be mistaken. 

 If it can be made to endure our winters, and come forward in season 

 to carry through a crop of worms by the middle of August, it will 

 do : I doubt whether here we shall find it profitable feeding much af- 

 ter that time. 



I hope that in the promised report the compilers will be careful 

 to designate the place or latitude in which any experiment has been 

 made, when that will be likely to have any influence, that silk cultur- 

 ists in different parts of the country may have an opportunity to judge 

 whether it would be likely to succeed in their particular location. 



Harvey Loomis, Otisco, N. Y. — I have this year fed a few worms, 

 the hatching of what I procured from two-thirds of an ounce of eggs, 

 laid on paper, and taken from an ice-house the 20th of June. About 

 one-third of them were of the sulphur colored cocoon, the remainder 

 were of Nankin peanut (grey worm). My eggs all hatched the first 

 week of July, the peanut about three days first. I fed them on the 

 Italian and multicaulis together, without cutting the leaves, for about 

 three weeks. I fed mostly wet leaves when I fed multicaulis, as 

 my trees were small and the leaves would get dirty by the beating 

 of the rains, so that I washed them before feeding. After that time 

 I fed from the Italian trees, by cutting the twigs and sprouts and lay- 

 ing them on for about two weeks, and then fed mostly the multicau- 

 lis until they wound. 



My place of feeding was a ball-room in a public house, and on ta- 

 bles covered with papers. The windows were provided with blinds, 

 so that I could shut the blinds and open the windows at pleasure. 



When they indicated a desire to ^vind, I provided them with bushes 

 of various kinds ; I used cedar, chesnut, oak, walnut, beech, maple, 

 and bass wood, and I think the bass wood the best of the whole — the 

 leaves are large and do not curl much, and by setting them up close, the 

 worms will crawl in between the leaves and deposit their cocoons fre- 

 quently four or five on a leaf, so that it is very easy gathering them. 

 The floss comes off very clean, and there being plenty of room, very 

 few double ones. 



The earlier the worms are fed after the leaves start, I think the bet- 

 ter. It has proved invariably the case, the latest fed worms in this vi- 

 cinity have been nearly or quite a failure. I intend to reel my silk, and 

 have provided myself with the Piedmont reel for the purpose. 



