SHUCK. 



SILK CULTURE. 



same root several sets or stems. The most 

 hardy, indigenous shrubs are the box and ivy, 

 which resist the severest winters. Next, in 

 point of hardiness, are the holly, juniper, and 

 furze; but there are besides numerous orna- 

 mental shrubs, well calculated to diversify 

 park's and lawns. 



SHUCK. A husk or shell. In husbandry, 

 it also signifies a shock or stouk of 12 sheaves 

 of corn set up together in the harvest field. 

 See REAPING. 



SHY. In norsemanship, the starting sud- 

 denly aside of a horse. 



SICKLE (Sax. r icol; Dutch sickel; from Lat. 

 secale). A hook with which corn is reaped. See 

 REAPIXO-HOOK, SCYTHE, &c. 



SILICA. The chemical name of the earth 

 which forms almost the entire mass of flint, 

 quartz, rock-crystal, and other well-known 

 mineral substances. It is composed of a pe- 

 culiar substance, having somewhat of a me- 

 tallic nature, called silicon, united with oxygen, 

 in the proportion, according to Dr. Thomson, 

 of silicon 54-66, oxygen 45-34. Silica enters 

 into the composition of plants, and is invaria- 

 bly found in some proportion or other in all 

 cultivated soils. See EARTHS, their Uses to Vege- 

 tation. 



SILK CULTURE. The United States being, 

 like China, situated on the eastern side of a 

 great continent, offer peculiar advantages for 

 the production of silk. From the general pre- 

 dominance of westerly winds in extra-tropical 

 regions, the eastern sides of continents in these 

 possess a dry and warm summer climate, pe- 

 culiarly adapted to the prosperity of the silk- 

 worm. In Europe, the region of the silk-culture 

 is confined to the southern portions, and com- 

 mences at a distance from the sea, on the east- 

 ern side of the mountain ridge of the Cevennes. 

 These mountains offer a barrier to the moisture 

 borne far inland by the prevailing westerly 

 winds sweeping from the Atlantic. In the 

 United States the prevalence of the same 

 winds keeps off a large amount of the moisture 

 from the sea, and leads to a comparatively dry 

 atmosphere. So far as this characteristic of 

 climate is concerned, the culture of silk may 

 be extended to the very shores of the Atlantic. 

 At various times attempts have been made to 

 introduce it into the United States, but it is 

 only within a very few years past that the 

 subject has received the attention which it 

 merits as an important and most valuable 

 agricultural resource. Among other obstacles 

 which have tended to prevent the developement 

 of the silk culture, the comparatively tardy 

 growth of the ordinary kinds of mulberry trees 

 cultivated for feeding the silk-worm has been 

 not the least, since where immediate sources of 

 profit exist in other products of the soil, few 

 will engage in enterprises, the profits of which 

 have to be so long anticipated. The introduc- 

 tion of a new kind of mulberry, the Morus Mul- 

 ticaulis,atree of rapid developement, having in 

 a great measure removed the obstacle referred 

 to, the silk culture has, to a greater or less de- 

 gree, been introduced from one end of the 

 country to the other. Strange as it may seem, 

 the Eastern States, with a comparatively rigor- 

 994 



ous climate, have heretofore been almost the 

 sole producers of domestic silk as an object of 

 profit. In some of the townships of Connecti- 

 cut and Massachusetts, silk has for many years 

 been an object of domestic culture ; but this was 

 carried on to great disadvantage, the cocoons 

 having been usually wound off upon common 

 wheels, and spun into sewing silk. No such 

 thing as a regular filature for converting co- 

 coons into reeled silk, and thus preparing it for 

 being woven into different fabrics, existed in 

 the Eastern States ; so that, instead of using 

 only the refuse cocoons in making sewings, the 

 very best were thus appropriated. The intro- 

 duction of suitable reels for winding off silk 

 and placing it. in the best form for mercantile 

 purposes, has been comparatively slow, owing 

 in a great degree to the introduction of many 

 contrivances intended to curtail labour by wind- 

 ing immediately from the cocoons and twisting 

 by the same process into sewing silk. Most 

 or all such contrivances have proved very 

 unprofitable, and have yielded, or may be ex- 

 pected to yield, to the simple but effective ope- 

 ration of the PicthnontcM red, the most perfect 

 of all devices for taking silk from the cocoons, 

 and placing it in the best forms for market. 

 Many very skilful reelers have been made in 

 various filatures in the United States. Although 

 in every part of the Union the mulberry can 

 be reared, and the silk-worm successfully 

 fed, still it cannot be doubted that the southern 

 portions of the Middle, and all the Southern 

 States, afford peculiar advantages to the silk 

 culture. An agricultural resource, which in 

 France and other countries is so highly appre- 

 ciated and fostered with so much zeal by the 

 government, by the establishment of model fila- 

 tures, and the zealous, attentions of men of 

 skill and science, should be regarded as well 

 worthy the protection of the general and state 

 governments of the Union. Many states already 

 allow liberal premiums for cocoons and raw 

 silk produced within their borders, and these 

 inducements to individuals should be continued 

 until the silk culture becomes fairly establish- 

 ed as a regular branch of rural labour; after 

 which it will, like most other branches of in- 

 dustry once fairly set on foot, take care of itself. 

 Large crops of cocoons were last year pro- 

 duced in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Ten- 

 nessee, and Indiana. The comparatively small 

 cost of conveying to market an article so highly 

 valuable as silk, should encourage its culture 

 in districts from which the heavy and bulky 

 products of agriculture cannot be transported 

 so as to leave a fair profit to the producer. In 

 Ohio many thousand yards of silk stuffs 

 were woven in 1842, the manufacturers pay- 

 ing for the cocoons about $4 per bushel. The 

 culturists find their advantage in having the 

 silk reeled from the cocoons into organzine, 

 instead of the formerly unprofitable mode of 

 turning the most valuable silk into sewings. 

 American raw silk, when properly reeled, is 

 superior to that generally produced in Europe. 

 A person who had been many years engaged 

 in weaving silk in different establishments in 

 London, having had (as he says) for 15 years 

 from 250 to 300 Ibs. of the raw material, of 



