AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



^ 



PURLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NOLITH MARKET STREET, (Aohioulturai Wai..moo...)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 10, 1843. 



E. FARMER, 



From the Worcester Falludium. 



SILK BUSINESS. 

 Mr Editor — It is with the greatest pleasure that 

 send you the following letter, received a few 

 ys since. Mr Gill, the auihor, is a gentleiniin of 

 e highest character as a man, and as a business 

 in. The document is, in my opinion, more im- 

 rtant than any thing that has appeared in re'a- 

 )n to the silk culture in this country. The let- 

 • was Hritien in answer to one written hy me, 

 iting some facts and reasonings in favor of open 

 ;ding, and inquiring in regard to his experience 

 the same subject. 



Yours, truly, I. R. BARBOUR. 



Oxford, .ipril IS, 1SJ3. 



Mou.NT Pleasant 

 Jefferson Co., Ohio, Apnl 17, J843 



:.} 



T. R. Barbour, F,m\. — Dear Sir — Your views 

 ativc to thorough ventilation are in accordance 

 ih my own experience — having been engaged 

 the past five years in all the dcparments, both 

 iwing and manufacturing. It gives ine great 

 asnre to announce to you, that I shall continue 

 prosecute my labors as heretofore. During the 

 •t year, I have much enlarged my operations, 

 h feeding and manufacturing, and have furnish- 

 employment to about fifty hands on an avenige, 

 year round ; and have manufactured upwards 

 I'lOOOO worth of silk goods the past year, con- 

 ing of all the varieties of staple silk in demand, 

 .al to any imported, and sold them readily as 

 de, at a reasonable advance on their cost of pro- 

 ;tion and manufacture. In fact, my efforts have 

 •n crowned with complete success, and I am 

 idly and permanently enlarging my operations 

 ill the various departments. 

 n the past five years of my feeding operations, 

 live frequently met with partial failures, and oc- 

 I ionally entire loss of lots of worms from cx- 

 l nely warm, close, and confined weather — but 

 er from cold. I have tried all tlie plans of 

 ding and ventilating cocooneries used or known 

 he United States. I found tlioy were very de- 

 ent in accomplishing the objects desired, viz: 

 ■apness and simplicity of construction, proper 

 itilation, cleanliness and economy in feeding. 

 esc objects are essential to the success of the 

 liness. 



^fter testing all tlie various methods and recom- 

 ndations for feeding, and studying the nature, 

 lits, and wants of the worms thoroughly, I finally 

 died out and adoped the following plan, which 

 sts all these important objects. I have sent a 

 del and description to the Patent Office, ande,x- 

 :t a patent therefor in a few days. I shall feed 

 enaively on this plan the coming season. I fully 

 ieve my invention will work as complete a rovo- 

 ion in the growing of silk, as the discovery of 

 gin did in that of cotton. I have named it 

 I's Patent Feeding Tent and Silk Worm Ven- 

 iting Cradle. 



Description : — The Tents and Cradlesi may be 

 constructed of any sij;e and of any materials suita- 

 ble, keeping in view the principles of construction. 

 I adopt, as a convenient size, a tent I.'j feet wide, 

 50 feet long, side posts 4 feet apart, drove in the 

 ground, and stand above ground G feet high each 

 side, for centre posts 8 feel apart, drove in the 

 ground, and stand 8 feet above ground — ridge and 

 eave polos to be fastened along the top of each of 

 those thrive ranges of posts or stakes — the tent 

 cloth to be of linen or any other fabric suitable 

 It may, or otherwise, be impregnated with paint, 

 tar, or other substance as desired to give protection 

 from the weather, and to e.xtend from the bottom 

 on one side over the top and do<vn to the bollnm on 

 theothor side, with weight poles or rollers at the 

 bottom on each side, so that the tent cloth jnay be 

 rolled up to the square, or let down at pleasure, to 

 give Ugq circulation of air, or exclude the same, 

 rain and sunshine at pleasure; the canvass is most 

 convenient in strips 10 feet wide, and side rollers 

 same length ; these when down to rest against a 

 plank fastened along the two outsides of upright 

 posts. The rollers of cloth when down, should 

 reach within G inches of the ground, and n drain 

 under thcni to carry off the water. I use the 

 ground for the floor. 



Tlie feeding-ventilating-cradles are constructed 

 to embrace the following principles, and of sizes 

 to suit the breadth of tent.', leaving an aisle along 

 one side, and between each cradle. To furnish a 

 tent 15 feet wide, the cradle should have three 

 rockers 4 feet long, made of plank, 15 to 18 inches 

 broad and about 1 1-2 inch thick; a trough (rest- 

 ing across their centres, let in by a notch in the 

 rockers,) V2 feet long, 1 foot wide, and one end 

 closed — from the points of the rockers, attach up- 

 right posts, 30 inches long, inclined out and a cap 

 attached to their tops on each side, and parallel 

 with the trough — to this cap and side of the trough, 

 fallen lath 1-8 of an inch apart, whole length of 

 trough on both sides, forming when done a rack 

 about 2 1-2 feet deep and 5 feet wide at the top. 

 Across the trough fasten slats about 1 foot apart, 

 on which to. lay mulberry branches; on these 

 branches put the worms after their second moulting, 

 or when about half grown, and feed them until they 

 spin, with branches cut about one foot long, with 

 their leaves on — suspended over each cradle, have 

 aytinniadeof bonnet boards or any other thing 

 suitable, with a pendulum coming down from the 

 shaft which is across the tent, in two of the upright 

 posts ; this the feeder can put in motion in passing, 

 as also rocking the cradles, thereby removing all 

 impure air about the worms and among the branches 

 and shaking down all dry leaves, litter and excre- 

 ments into the trough, into which occasionally pour 

 a bucket of water at the upper end, and all is 

 washed out at open end, leaving it pure and clean. 

 The motion of the cradle is agreeable to the silk 

 worm, approximating to the waving of the branches 

 when they feed on the tree in a state of nature. 

 Another important advantage is, that no worms 

 can fall through to the ground, and those that hap- 

 pen to fall down in the brush, crawl to the lath 



sides and mount to the top immediately ; also, the 

 worms readily spin among the clean bare bru.sh, 

 making but little floss, and seldom over double co. 

 coons. On the rockers I fix a fender, made of tin 

 or any other material suitable, that entirely pre- 

 vents mice, (the enemy to silk worms,) also, antM 

 and other insects from ascending to the worms. 

 This system throughout, ia simple, cheap, and 

 easy of constructing, and meets all the wants of 

 the worm and greatly facililalcs the feeding. It 

 curtails expenses about one-half, and more than 

 doubles the ([uantity and quality of cocTcms raised 

 from a given quantity of e>^gf, over the most suc- 

 cessful results of the most iinprcived method of 

 feeding heretofore practiced. With this tent and 

 cradle, and Dr. Thomas White's potent Reel and 

 Twister, which Mr Harris, my machinist, has 

 made perfect, every farmer may raise, reel, and 

 twist silk, with a certainly of a much more profita- 

 ble return for his labor a'nd investments than in 

 any other of his present pursuits. I authorize you 

 to adopt this system, in your own feeding opera- 

 tions, without charge, to show to the feeders in 

 your region what it is. I will sell individual rights 

 at ten dullars each, and county and State rights 

 low in proportion, or I am willing that any feeder 

 should adopt my patent system, and he give nic 

 one-third of the surplus cocoons he raises over tlie 

 same quantity he can raise from the saipe amount 

 of eggs hatched and fed in the old ways, or I will 

 give individual rights for three bushels of mer- 

 chantable cocoons, or two lbs. reeled silk. Will 

 you take an agency for the sale of rights in your 

 State, and on what conditions .' 



I continue to purchase the best merchantable 

 cocoons at $4 per bushel — inferior in proportion. 

 El-en reeled silk of 8 to JO, or 10 to 12 fibres, $5 

 per lb. — payable half in domestic silks, half in 

 cash, if desired. 



Respectfully, yours, 



JOHN W. GILL. 



Remarks. — 1. Mr Gill's statements aa to matters 

 of fact, are entitled to implicit credit. As a large 

 grower of silk, and a large manufacturer, he has 

 the greatest possible interest in adopting himself, 

 and in establishing throughout the country, the 

 best mode of feeding. Besides, his high character 

 puts all skepticism as to his statements out of the 

 question. 



2. For two years I have been collecting and 

 publishing facts, all going to establish the great 

 principle on which Mr Gill's plan is based, viz: 

 open feeding, giving your worms heaven's pure air, 

 and all of it. TViis is nature. 



3. Six years' experience and quite an extended 

 correspondence, has fully satisfied me that we have 

 much more to dread from heat than from cold. Hot 

 sultry weather, with no air stirring, is always bad, 

 and in enclosed buildings, with large lots of worms 

 nearly ready to spin, is almost certainly fatal. 

 Hence the advantages of an open shed or tenl, and 

 the still further benefit of a local circulation of air, 

 as secured by Mr Gill's simple contrivance — the 

 cradle and fan. 



