188 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



DECEMBER 2fi, 1839. 



From the Ameritun Farmer. 

 EXPERIMENTS WITH CHIKESE SILKWORMS. 



Pliiladclphia, July 20, 1832. 

 Mr. Smith. — Sir, Having seen an abstract 

 published in the National Gazette, in the spring of 

 1858, of an experiment, by Professor Giovanni 

 Lavini, with Chinese Silkworms, tlie result of 

 which induced me to believe that they might be a 

 valuable acquisition to the Uuited States, I re- 

 solved to send for some of their eggs, that I might 

 put their merits to the test. The object of my 

 wislies having been stated to a mercantile friend, 

 he kindly sent my note to his correspondent in 

 Canton, who promptly attended to it, and in the 

 mouth of October, 1828, forwarded me several 

 sheets of the desired eggs variously jiut up, nearly 

 all of which arrived safely on the 4th of March, 

 1S29. The eggs were said to be of the silkworms 

 which produced the stuff" called Conglee Canton, 

 .'Vo. 1 Silk. They were batched for me by Messrs. 

 Terhevens, of Philadel|)liia county, experienced 

 silk culturists, with the utmost care, in a room 

 containing their own stock, and the temperature 

 of which was regulated by a thermometer day 

 and night, so as to secure their gradual and simul- 

 taneous maturation, a point by the way of great 

 importance, and one of which we can never be 

 certain of attaining, if we depend upon the heat of 

 the atmosphere which often varies 30 degrees in 

 the course of twenty-four hours. They were jiut 

 to hatch on the 20th of April, and they all came 

 out on the 27th and 2Sth of that month, just as 

 the white nudberry leaves were beginning to hurst. 

 On the 18th of 3Iny, Messrs. T. brought them to 

 the house I had prepared in the vicinity of Phil- 

 adelphia for their reception, and they were placed 

 on the shelves of the frames they were destined 

 to occupy. One of these frames was ten feet, 

 another fifteen feet long, and both four feet wide : 

 a third frame consisted of seven shells, each 

 three feet four inches square, imd when thfe worms 

 were full grown they filled the whole of both sets 

 of frames, the distance between the w(|rms not 

 being more tliau two inches. It mighll form a 

 problem to calculate their number. Wpen ftdl 

 grown they were about one inch, and (Jie inch 

 and a quarter long, and of the diameter of|a stout 

 quill. During eighteen days of the time «f their 

 feeding, the nights and mornings were sot-old as 

 to require the use of artificial heat, and during 

 the whole of two cold rainy days, a little f^e was 

 kept u]) in a sheet iron stove, to previit the 

 worms being chilled, the checking of their fetding, 

 and consequent useless increase of the duration of 

 their existence. The worms had thus every pos- 

 sible chance of success. They commenced the 

 formation of their cocoons on the 1st of June! and 

 by the 8th all who spun their silky tombslhad 

 finished them. The color of these was brimstone, 

 and their size so small that twelve hundred were 

 required to weigh a pound of twelve oui^es. 

 The worms gave mfinitely more trouble in attfflul- 

 ing them than the European species, for wlien 

 they had attained their full maturity, and shewed 

 by their transparent color that tliey had filled 

 their silk vessels with the material for tlie foitna 

 tion of that article, instead of mounting I the 

 branches carefully placed along the frames, vast 

 numbers laid dowu and evmced no dispositioD to 

 spin. Being determined to go through with the 

 experiments, I hired little boys to pick them up 

 and place them on the bushes, and thus induced 

 many thousands to form cocoons, which, like as 



many more, would otherwise have died. The size 

 of the cocoons was, moreover, very diminutive, 

 as may be judged, when it is known that instead 

 of 1200 being required to weigh a pound, 1.50, 

 208, 200, 340^ 267, 271, 195, 306, 490, to 600 

 cocoons of European and American fed worms 

 balanced that weight.* The Chinese cocoons 

 were further olyectionable in being very deficient 

 in compactness, and when an attempt to wind 

 them oft" was made, the fibres broke after evei^ 

 third or fourth turn of the reel, thus causing a 

 loss of time, much trouble and disappointment to 

 the operator, which are incompatible with either 

 profit or pleasure. The trifling wages paid to a 

 Chinese workman, if employed by the day, or 

 contentment on the part of the oi)erative with a 

 small reward for his labor, may compensate for 

 these defects, but it is clear, that even with the 

 low wages of an European workman, the Chinese 

 worms will never be substituted for the common 

 kinds. The price of free labor, or the value of 

 that of slaves in the United States, are totally in- 

 compatible with the culture of these worms. 



With the view of ascertaining the result of at 

 tention to the Chinese worms, by others, I sent 

 some thousands of the eggs to two experienced silk 

 culturists in the South, on whose attention and 

 accuracy I could depend ; and from them I learnt, 

 1st, that the worm weighed twelve grains and a 

 half when ready to spin, and 2d, the cocoon 

 nine grains when finished ; 3d, that tlu^y lived 

 twenty-eight days ; 4tli, that the moth or butterfly 

 came out in seven days ; 5th, that the worm was 

 hatched in seven days after; 6tli, that they pro- 

 duced three crops. The first hatching was on the 

 13th of April ; the second, on the 7th of June 

 the third, on the 17lli of July. 7tli, a quarter of u 

 pound of the cocoons (1720 grains) yielded three 

 hundred and two grains of silk. 



My own stock, put in the hands of the person 

 who bad charge of my worms, also i)roduceil 

 three crops of cocoons, and the moth from the 

 last laid eggs, which hatched, but the coM 

 weather (the man not using artificial heat) ])rc- 

 vented the worms from finishing their course. 

 The apparatus for feeding silkworms, makes all 

 the difference between a labor and an amusement, 

 and I therefore think it useful to state that two of 

 the long frames mentioned above, were filled in 

 with conunon house laths, or thin pine slats, 

 nailed on : one of them having longer legs than 

 the other, stood upon the frame of the latter. The 

 third apparatus was upon the plan (but larger) of 

 that described by Mr. Swayne in the 7th vol. of 

 the Trans. Society of Arts, London, and figured 

 in the 5th chapter of the Silk Manual. It answer- 

 ed admirably, but as I had mine very neatly nuide 

 and filled in by the tasteful basket-workers of 

 Philadelphia county, it was more expensive than 

 the others. It has, however, the merit of holding 

 a vast many worms, of facilitating attention to 

 them, and taking up little room, and will la.st a 

 life time. It cost nine dollars. 



The paper that led me to the experiment with 

 the Chinese worms, was the following : " Supe- 

 rioritij of Chinese Silkworms. By certain experi- 

 ments made by the Prof Giovanni Lavini, on one 

 hundred and fifty grains of the seed of silkworms, 

 of China, he found that ten thousand eggs weighed 

 one hundred and fifty grains ; 2d, that as well 

 when just come to life, as in the first and second 



* Silk Manual published by Congress, Chap. 13. 



stages, the worms refused the leaves of the tartaric 

 and papariferous nuilberry, and died from starvn 

 tion ; 3d, that notwhhstanding by these experi- 

 ments so great a quantity was lost, he obtained 

 rwenty-eight pounds of cocoons, xohite and com- 

 pact ; 4th, that two hundred and ten cocoons 

 formed a pound in Piedmontese weight of eleven 

 ounces to the pound, while of the cocoons of the 

 common silkworms there were not required more 

 than 96, 100, and 104. [! ! !] From the other one 

 lundred and fifty grains of seed in Turin, the 

 quantity obtained was ten pounds of cocoons, and 

 these spotted, incompact, but white ; it is thought, 

 it the absence of the master, the worms had been 

 flld with damp leaves. 



j " It results from these experiments, that not- 

 withstanding all disadvantages, the Chinese worms 

 ate a desirable object of cultivation ; that although 

 tieir cocoons do not reach half the weight of com- 

 mon silkworm cocoons, yet that their quantity and 

 v|lue are far su])erior : the care they require is 

 tne same, and the consumption of leaves nearly 

 eiual." I conclude by observing, that tlie skein 

 of silk reeled from the Chinese silkworms, reared 

 br my Southern friends, is superlatively fine, and 

 airacted the attention of an English silk manu- 

 fljcturcr, to whom I shewed h, along with another 

 skein from the cocoons of Genesee silkworms : but 

 it\\as reeled with great waste. 



,' Accept my respects, James Mease. 



From the American Farmer. 

 AMERICAN SIItK. 



' Wk are indebted to J. S. Skinner, Esq. for the 

 opportunity of examining some beaiuiful speci- 

 moSs of sewing silk, made in Wayne county, In- 

 iliana, and forwarded to Mr. S. by D. C. Wallace, 

 Esq. of Cincinnati. The specimens are a jiart of 

 the parcel of silk to which a premium was award- 

 ed by the Agricultural Society of Wayne county, 

 in October last, and are decidedly the best we 

 have seen of domestic manufacture. The reeling, 

 twisting, coloring and finish, are equal to the best 

 foreign production. Indeed, we seldom meet with 

 foreign silk, that will compare with these speci- 

 mens, as to evenness and strength ; and as to 

 coloring, they are not often excelled. 



Mr. Wallace remarks in his letter to Mr. Skin- 

 ner, tliat if filatures were established in the West- 

 ern country the raising of silk would soon become 

 one of the usual employments of the people. On 

 tills subject we have often expressed our views, 

 and the more we have reflected on it the more 

 firmly are we convinced of their correctness : be- 

 fore filatures can be erected there must be a suffi- 

 ciency of the raw material to operate on ; as soon 

 as there is a supply of cocoons, there will be fila- 

 Uires to work them up. It cannot surely, be ex- 

 pected that filatures will be erected before they 

 have any thing to work upon ! Who ever heard 

 of a manufactory being established before the 

 raw material was obtainable ? Let the people 

 of the AVest go to work and produce cocoons, and 

 they will very soon find filatures enough to work 

 them up. 



SPOILT 1VHEAT 



Many persons are aware of the deleterious eflfects 

 of damaged wheat upon the human constitution 

 when made into bread and eaten ; but it is not gen- 

 erally known we believe, that it is equally inju- 

 rious to horses. A gentleman of Putnam county 

 infonns us, that he lately lost four head of horses 



