348 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MAY 3, H43 



For llie New England Farmer. 



SILK BUSINESS. 



Mr EniTOR — I have just received the N. B-. 

 Farmer for this week, and I thank you for your 

 kind doings and sayings in behalf of the silk cause. 

 I drop you this to say a word or two in regard to 

 the matter of a mnrhet for cocoons — a point on 

 which your mind seems to labor, as appears from 

 your editorial remarks in this week's paper, and 

 also, as I well remember, from some remarks you 

 made last September. I then wrote you a line on 

 the subj'ict, which seems lo have fallen out by the 

 way, as you say you have received no original 

 communications on the silk subject. 



But to the question. What shall I do with my 

 cocoons ? Can 1 sell thein ? To all which I i^ay : 



(I.) Cocoons are an unfavorable ariiclt of traffic. 

 They are bulky. They are liable to get indented, 

 and thereby injured, if transported any great dis- 

 tance. Each cocoon has a stifled worm in it, and 

 of course, where any quantity, even a bushel or 

 two, fresh made, (and this is the time when they 

 ought to be reeled,) arc put up in a box or barrel 

 to be sent off to market, they will heat and spoil 

 in one or two days, if n it opened and spread. 



But these considerations interpose no difficulty 

 in sending them a few miles, or 100, by railroad 

 conveyance. The great difficulty in buying and 

 selling silk in the cocoon, is found in the fact that 

 they are of such wiequal value. I have reeled for 

 others, by the day or by the pound, for two years 

 past, and you will be surprised to learn, that at the 

 present prices of reeled silk, cocoons are worth 

 all along from $0 up to .$,5 per bushel. I have 

 had cocoons sent in lo be reeled that vVould not 

 pay the wages of the reeler ; though in about all 

 these cases the cocoons were originally good, 

 some of them splendid — especially one lot of 10 to 

 12 bushels, grown upon the high hills of New 

 Hampshire. But they were all ruined by age, be- 

 ing one, two, and three years old. But they were 

 not all of this class. One lot of two bushels, 

 fresli made, reeled only 3 1-2 oz. to the bushel ; 

 whereas the best quality will reel 20 to 22 oz. 

 Cocoons are considered good and merchantable 

 that yield 10 oz. This very gieat inequality in 

 value, is owing somewhat to the kind of worm fed, 

 still more lo the manner in which the chrysalis is 

 Btifled, but most of all to the manner of feeding. 

 Diseased worms, worms half starved, or fed in a 

 filthy, confined room, will never do any thing, and 

 the sooner this fact is knoivn, and believed, the hee- 

 ler it will be for all concerned. 



(2.) From these facts, familiar to every one con- 

 versant with the business, it is perfectly apparent 

 that no purchaser of cocoons can give or adver- 

 tise a uniform price. He must make a distinct 

 trade for each lot brought to him. But he is sup- 

 posed to know more about the quality of the co- 

 coons brought than the inexperiencedgrowcr ; and 

 however anxious ho may be to give a fair price, 

 the door, you perceive, is open for suspicions and 

 evil surmises, especially if he happens to be the 

 only purchaser in the immediate vicinity. If he 

 undertakes to strike a general average, say from 

 $3 to $4 per bushel, and this is perhaps the best 

 thing that lie can do, yet this is making the care- 

 ful, thorough-going feeder pay a heavy tax for the 

 benefit of the careless, slovenly feeder. 



(3.) These considerations show that it is alto- 

 gether iiest, as a general thing, fur the i;rower to 

 reel his own silk. True, if a man grows a bushel 



or two, and never expects to grow more, or if mil 

 prepared to begin ihis part of the business, let him 

 sell his cocoons. But if he has taken up silk- 

 growing as a part of his regular business, beyond 

 all question, he should make arrangements to reel 

 his own silk, or hire a neighbor lo do it, and then 

 he gets what, and all that is fairly his own, and no 

 more. If he has done his duly to his faithful 

 worms, they will give him a rich return. If not, as 

 is meet, he alone must abide the consequences. 



It is understood by all this that reeled silk has a 

 marketable value, as much as cotton, or wool, or 

 corn. It is easily put up in boxes or bales, and 

 may bo sent, at a trifling expense, to any market 

 in the country, or world, most favorable for its sale. 

 1 repeat it, therefore, the grower should not think 

 his appropriate work done, nor let his silk pass out 

 of his hands, until it is reeled. This must be, and 

 will be the system. j\nd 



(4.) It is equally certain, as a general thing, 

 that the grower should stop after his silk is reeled, 

 as it is that he should not stop sliort of that point. 

 If h ■ goes into the manufacturing processes, ho 

 passes the line appropriately drawn for the divi- 

 sion of labor in this business. Any family can 

 easily grow and reel a few pounds of silk, 5, 10, or 

 .50, but no family can manufacture a few pounds 

 only, and make an article to compete in the mar- 

 ket with those whose exclusive business it is to 

 manufacture. Ilenco it is no object to get up ma- 

 chines for family manufactures, nor have I any de- 

 siro to see government bounties bestowed to en- 

 courage such manufactures. I may be entirely 

 mistaken, but it strikes me that all this is leading 

 the people off" upon a wrong track — that growing 

 and reeling belongs to one department in this 

 great business, and manufacturing to another. 



(.5.) The reeling of silk is very simple — as much 

 so as spinning wool or flax, and those conversant 

 with both, tell me it is more so. At any rale, I 

 should be ashamed to own a woman as my wife 

 or si.<tor, if she had not gumption enough to put 

 this thing right through, and make a good mer- 

 chantable article, upon three days' practice, and in 

 three weeks do a day's work. And when I hear 

 all the dolorous complaints, and see among our 

 fair countrywomen such a fearful shrinking back 

 from coming in contact with silk cocoons and silk 

 reels, I exclaim, "O mores ! O tempera !" — wliich 

 means quoad hoc. O for the return of rattling 

 quill wheels, and the buz of the spinning wheel, 

 and the steady thump, thump, thump, of the old 

 hand loom. Why, sir, your mother or mine would 

 laugh at any girl who should talk about tlie diffi- 

 culties of reeling silk. 



(6.) There is now a steady, and an increasing 

 cash demand for reeled silk. Under the new ta- 

 riff", silk manufacturing establishments are spring- 

 ing up, and will spring up, here and there over the 

 country as fast as our financial affairs will permit. 

 Existing establishments purchase all the American 

 silk, well reeled, they can gel, and pay from .50 

 els to .$1 more for it than for the foreign article. 

 And yet they do not get enough in this way lo 

 supply their mills one week in ten. I am now 

 speaking of our factories in New England. How 

 this matter may be at the West, I have not the 

 means of knowing. I say, then lo the farmers of 

 New England, that they cannot possibly meet the 

 demand for raw silk for many long years ; that the 

 manufacturing of silk is even now in advance of 

 the growing ; that raw silk has advanced in price 

 since the passage of the tariff ^bill, from 50 to 75 



cents on the pound ; and that this is, I believe, the 

 only agricultural product that has been thus afl'ect- 

 ed. As lo cocoons, they are purchased at most or 

 all the factories. I would also say lo any of your 

 readers near Boston, who may have them for sale, 

 that Mr Lincoln Jacobs, of Hingham, or Mr Jacob 

 Pratt, of Sherburne, will be glad to purchase them. 

 I hope also soon to be able lo say that a regular 

 market for reeled silk and cocoons is opened in 

 this town. Very truly, vonrs, 



i. R. BARfiOUR. 

 Orford, Mass., Jlpril 20, 1843. 



For the New England Farmer. 



POUDRETTE. 



Mr Editor — A communication under the name 

 of " Steady Habits," appeared in your paper of the 

 12th of April, in which the writer has seen fit to 

 make a libellous attack on the Poudrette made by 

 the Ludi Manufacturing Company, and has-pre- 

 tended to detail facts which are untrue, and there- 

 fore I take the liberty to deny his statement under 

 ray own name. 



The writer, I believe, is known to me. J may 

 be mistaken, but as he has not given his own name, 

 I have a rigiit to presume from certain circumstan- 

 ces well known to him, that lie has withheld his 

 name lest he should be discovered to be that man 

 of steady habits, who, under various false preten- 

 ces, obtained poudrette without paying for it, and 

 has taken the opportunity of rendering compensa- 

 tion in his own base coin. 



.^nd first — the writer " Jlgricola," has no inte- 

 rest, either general or particular, in the Lodi Man- 

 ufacturing Co. 



Second. The writer avers that he followed the 

 directions. This is untrue : there are no instruc- 

 tions given for its use on ruta baga, and I am per- 

 suaded from the uniform praise bestowed on pou- 

 drette from the thousands who have used it these 

 five years past, that his experiments, even if any 

 were made, were done in such a loose manner, and 

 probably by persons prejudiced against its use, 

 which often happens, that no true result has been, 

 or could be, ascertained. Let '^Steady Habits" 

 pay me for the six barrels which he ordered, under 

 the pretence which his own story now coiitradicls, 

 and then give me evidence detailed under oath by 

 himself and others who made the experiments, and 

 state the results, and if any unprejudiced judge 

 shall say the trial was fairly made, and the result 

 prove the failure of the poudrcue made by, and 

 which he procured from, the Lodi Manufacturing 

 Co., then he shall be repaid the amount he paid for 

 the poudrette, and the further sum of ten dollars, 

 for his services lo the public in exposing what he 

 says is an otleinpt lo impose on the community. 

 That is a fair oflfer, and if he is honest, he will ac- 

 cept it. 



The writer, imitating a slanderer from another 

 quarter, has also attempted to injure the character 

 of the poudrette, by insinuating what he knows is 

 false, namely : that the Lodi Co. make use of peat, 

 coal ashes, and a little night soil, to make a barrel 

 of poudrette. This the company, through their 

 agents, have heretofore denied. I now repeal, 

 that in making poudrette, the company do not make 

 use of "raw peat, turf, or meadow mud; nor have 

 they ever made use of street manure, nor moulding 

 sand from the founderies, nor the ashes from hard 

 coal, nor coal aiflings, nor earth of any description. 



