No. 85.] 491 



common reel, wheel, and loom. Have been unsuccessful this season, 

 raising only 62 J lbs. cocoons from eight ounces of eggs. (These "so- 

 lid shelves" may have had something to do with this result. Mr. Lord 

 complains, that they have no market, as a reason for their resort 

 to the coarse machinery they now use. His is one of many cases 

 of the same kind. Much of our silk is nearly lost for want of filatures 

 and markets. A. C. V. E.) 



J. W. Chappell, Lima, Livingston county, JV. Y. — Has been en- 

 gaged in the business six years. Three acres of land employed — 

 200,000 trees — $600 capital invested. Amount of cocoons prior to 

 1844, 420 lbs. In 1844, 660 lbs.— cost of the same for 1844, $60. 

 — value of the same $300. 



A. L. Newton, Athens, Georgia. — One family of young ladies, 

 have manufactured for themselves three or four very handsome silk 

 dresses, which have been much admired, and at a short distance would 

 not be thought to be domestic manufacture. Several of our citizens 

 have succeeded well in the manufacture of sewings. I have the larg- 

 est, and perhaps the most extensive cocoonery in the State — it is 30 

 by 50 feet, two stories high, all filled with shelves, and stands in an 

 orchard of about eight acres of the morus multicaulis, well set. I have 

 not, however, as yet, done much at raising silk, but have the fullest 

 confidence in the business. Dr. M. A. Ward, of our town, has been 

 longer employed than any one else in this region. We have been 

 three years engaged, raising ten to twelve bushels annually ; also Dr. 

 Ward, Col. Craig, and one or two more, have produced annually 

 about the same amount, but we have no market here, and to export 

 the cocoons we find rather expensive : so some have become rather 

 discouraged; there are still some of us, however, desirous of going on 

 with the business, for we believe this country and climate precisely 

 calculated for the culture of silk. 



Miss Gertrude Rapp, Economy, Beaver county. Pa. 



Sir — In conformity to the request expressed in the circular of your 

 Institute, of July 1st, 1844, I send you for exhibition some of our 

 latest manufactured silk goods, as per invoice annexed and bill of 

 lading forwarded. They, with those from other sources, will serve 

 as facts by which all reasonable doubters may be conclusively con- 

 vinced that the production and manufacture of silk — this new and 

 most important branch of national industry, for the promotion of 

 which your Institute evinces such a praiseworthy zeal — is as possible, 

 and can be carried on as successfully in this country as in any other 

 on the globe. I have even the pleasure to be able to maintain, that 

 we can do here what probably has never been done in any of the old 

 silk growing countries ; namely, to go in regular succession through 

 the whole process of the silk business in one season, beginning with 

 the raising and gathering of the mulberry seed, and ending with the 

 manufacturing of the wove silk fabric. All of which I can prove by 

 the following facts: On the 30th and 31st of May of this year, we 

 gathered a quantity of mulberry seed from a number of choice trees 

 of the Canton variety, (which is the earliest of all kinds we are ac- 



