No. 124.J 281 



cut every other row down, each year, within about 6 or 8 inches of 

 the ground. Early feeding has been with me the best. 



A decided and growing interest is felt in our State on this subject, 

 and particularly in our village. I have many friends and neighbors 

 who are looking to me to get information, desirous to know my suc- 

 cess. And one object I have in this communication is to solicit your 

 aid in procuring a suitable person, who may be relied on, to come to 

 this place and undertake the business. I would prefer a young man, 

 if such can be procured, who is acquainted with the process of reel- 

 ing as well as of feeding. Several hundred bushels of cocoons might, 

 and would be made, in this neighborhood, if they could be disposed 

 of. One family, within seven miles of this, has made 30 yards of 

 beautiful silk, and have made it up into ladies' dresses, and it is not 

 inferior to the best French or English in appearance. Many others 

 have made considerable sewing silk, which is said to be superior to 

 the imported article. All we lack is a person who understands reel- 

 ing. Send us a reel and a person who can use it, and we will suc- 

 ceed. 



I know great prejudices exist in the northern States against the 

 health of our southern States. But our village is healthy. We are 

 at the head of one of the branches of the Georgia railroad; our place 

 is destined soon to be a place of great business, and has for many 

 years been the resort of those seeking health, so that undoubted evi- 

 dence may be obtained of the health of the place. 



I would be pleased to receive a copy of your contemplated re- 

 port. 



Dr. Dyer Story, Windsor, Vt. — I send you a brief statement of 

 what two of the younger members of my family have done in the 

 silk business the present season. 



The eggs from which the worms were hatched were laid upon pa- 

 pers, which were folded up, and hung upon a beam in the cellar, un- 

 til the opening of the spring, when they were removed to a hole dug 

 in my cellar large enough to receive a box four feet square, made of 

 inch boards, and surrounded with spent bark from the tanneries, on 

 the sides and beneath, about six inches thick. The top of the box, 

 which is even with the bottom of the cellar, is furnished with folding 

 doors. Here they remained till about the 10th of July, when those 

 for the first crop were brought up and exposed, and in due time pro- 

 duced their worms, the process of incubation not having commenced 

 till thus exposed. And here I will take occasion to remark, that 

 what remained were taken out on the 25th Sept., and appeared in as 

 good condition as when put in. This crop was fed upon the leaves 

 of the white mulberry, were very healthy, and produced forty-one 

 and a half pounds of cocoons. A part of these worms were fed in 

 an out-building, 16 feet square, boarded with rough boards, and the 

 crevices battened with half inch stuff to render it somewhat warmer, 

 and to prevent the rays of the sun from falling upon them. This 



[Senate No. 124.] LI 



