286 fSENATB 



J, R. Barbour, Oxford, Mass. — It is fifteen years since I b?gan to 

 examine the silk business as a permanent brancli of American labor, 

 and seven or eight that I have been engaged in it, more or less. The 

 whole result is, an unshaken confidence in all the great principles on 

 which the business is based. 



My business has not been large. I have grown cocoons enough to 

 make from 3 to 37 lbs. of reeled silk in a year. 



The results of my own labors are decidt^d in favor of early feeding. 

 Out of all the crops that I have carried through by the middle of Au- 

 gu-it, I have never lost, by disease, five per cent in any case. Not so 

 with later crops generally, although this year uiy later crops were heal- 

 thy, and made first rate cocoons. 



As to buildings, I have fed in a large open garret, in a corn-house, 

 and a carpenter's shop. In 3840 built a regular cocoonery, 30 by 

 20 feet, two stories high, with ten windows in each story. In 1842, 

 led a lot also in an open shed, and this year in a tent with cradles, on 

 Mr. Gill's plan. The result of the whole is, in rny judgment, the 

 more air the better ; only guarding against sudden gusts of wind, 

 that will disturb your leaves or bushes. 



As to ordinary turns of cold weather, in our summer montlis, their 

 effect is to render the worms torpid. Of course they will not, in 

 this state, cat ami grow, and there is a loss of time in getting them 

 through ; and this is the only loss to be apprehended. Upon return- 

 ing warmth they revive and go on with their wondrous labors, appa- 

 rently uninjured by their temporary interruption — like the honey-bee, 

 the house-iiy, and other insects subject to torpidity in a low tempera- 

 ture. 



But, as I have given my views to the public in full on this whole 

 subject, in a very valuable collection of Silk Documents, just pub- 

 lished by Messrs. G'-eely & McElralh, New York, I pass to another 

 topic, on which your correspondents have said little, and on which 

 my experience has been quite full and quite disastrous — I mean, in 

 tlie management of trees. I do this because the design of the Insti- 

 tute is to collectjTactj", as they have occiirred in the experience of 

 individuals, for purposes of instruction to others, as the only way in 

 which this or any new business ever became successfully established. 

 To this end it is essential that we give the whole, blunders ami all. 

 Some of our mistakes and blunders are chargeable upon the mis-state- 

 ments of interested dealer in trees, seed, &,c., and some to our own 

 want of experience and due consideration. 



My first movement (1837) was wrong. Bought a lot of mulberry 

 seed as " Genuine Chinese Mulberry Seed," which proved to be an 

 inferior variety of the White — lost two seasons in getting started, 

 and some paticm e withal. In 1839 planted $100 worth Alpine cut- 

 tings. According to the " books^^ I was not to lose 1 in 50 — in the 

 result did not get 1 in 50 — should almost as soon recommend the pro- 

 pagation of oak bushes, by cuttings, as the Alpine, or other hardy 

 varieties of the mulberry. Same year planted Canton and multicau- 

 lis. They vegetated very well, but had a small growth — I had been 

 taught to believe that the mulberry tree will flourish finely where 



