VOI-. XIV. NO. 15. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



117 



FACTS AKD OBSEUVATIONS REI^ATIVE TO 

 THE CULTUUE OP SII>K. 



Os Rkei.ing Silk. — "Tlio cocoons, or iiioduce 

 of the worms, as soon as completed, are either 

 reeled otT or sold to others to be reeled. The silk 

 as formed by the worm is so fine, that ifeacli ball 

 or cocoon was reeled separately, it would be (Mi- 

 tircly iiiitit for the purposes of the manufacturer. 

 Jn the reeling therefore, after the cocoons arc 

 cleared from the tloss, the ends of several are 

 joined and reeled together out of warm water, 

 which, softening their natural gum, makes them 

 stick together so as to form nue strong smooth 

 thread. As often as any single thread breaks or 

 comes to an end, its place is supplied by a new 

 one, -SO that by continually keeping up the same 

 nundier, the united thread may he wound to any 

 length. The single threads of the newly adde I 

 cocoons are not joined by any tie, but siniply laid 

 on the main thread, to which they adhere by their 

 gum ; and their ends are so fine as not to cause 

 the least perceptible unevenncss in the place where 

 they are laid on. Care should be tijken in the 

 operation that the silk when reeled oft" may con- 

 sist of a smooth threiid of equal thickness and 

 strength, not flat, but of a round form, having the 

 small threads of which it is conjposed as equally 

 stretched and firmly united as possible, and that 

 the several rounds as they lie on the reel should 

 not be glued together. When the skein is quite 

 dry it is taken off the reel, and a tie is made with 

 some of the refuse silk on that part of the skein 

 where it bore upon the bar of the reel, and an- 

 lOther tie on the ojjposite part of the skein, after 

 (which it is doubled into a hank, and usually tied 

 iround near the extremity, when it is laid by for 

 use or sale." — Loudon. 



Mr Kenrick, in his Silh Groicer's Guide, asserts 

 hat " the use of the reel requires dexterity and 

 iractice. The cocoons, after being cleared of 

 Boss, are thrown by handsfull into basins of ];ui-e 

 •oft water, placed over small furnaces of charcoal 

 ires. AVhen the water is almost at boiling point, 

 ink the cocoon with a whisk of broom corn un- 

 ier water for two or three minutes, to soften the 

 um and loosen the fibre. Then moving the 

 /hisk lightly, the filaments will adhere to it, and 

 ay be drawn off till the flossy silk is unwound, 

 d the fine silk comes oft". A sufficient number 

 ing collected, the reeling begins. If the i>ods 

 ap upwards, the reel must be slackened ; if the 

 Ik comes off in bars, you must turn faster ; if 

 le water is too hot, they furze in unwinding, and 

 le fine lustre of white silk is injur: d, and cold 

 ater must he added. It requires long practice 

 ixterously to attend to the splicing on the fibres, 

 keep up an even thread, as the silk grows con- 

 lually finer to the end of the cocoon." 



Mr Cobb, in giving the " Method of reeling 

 coons and manufacturing silk in Connecticut," 

 ites that " a large kettle set in a furnace, or in 

 I arch, is filled with water, and fire is kept under 

 |; and when it is about to boil a quart of cocoons 

 thrown into it," &c. ; and after describing other 

 sparatory measures, he says, " Keeling is then 

 nimenced on a conmion hand reel (such as in 

 mmon use in families jn New England for reel- 

 X yarn from the spinning wheel), and the silk 

 res run off about as fast and with as little diffi- 

 Ity as yarn from a spindle. Some of the 

 30ons run off before others, and when on this 

 !Oiint the thread becomes too small, ail the fibres 



arc broken oil', and what is reeled is tied by itself 

 on the reel, and another (piart is thi n thrown into 

 the kettle ; the ends are collected and reeled in the 

 same way as before, and each separate i)ii!ee is 

 tied by itself When the reel is full, the pieces 

 are all tied together, taken od', and immediately 

 dried." 



Temi'ehaturb of the Water in which Co- 

 coons ARE IMMEKSED FOR REELING. Tllis is a 



point of nuich importance. If the water is made 

 to boil, it will soon destroy the cocoons ; and if it 

 he not sufficiently heated, it will not dissolve the 

 glutiudus nuUter with which the silk of the cocoons 

 is combined. !u the Manual of Mr Rush it is 

 observed that, " Instead of using a common stove 

 or furnace to hcatwater for the cocoons, steam 

 has been proposed and used by Messrs Gensoul 

 and A'dini. Upon the jilan of the first, the steam 

 is admitted directly into the water containing the 

 cocoons intended to be reeled ; but the last adopts 

 another mode, which, upon a large scale, is cer- 

 tainly to he preferred. A copper boiler, covered, 

 and with a hollow bottom, has a vertical tube 

 adapted to the centre of the cover, with a cock, 

 by means of which the water intended to furnish 

 the steam is admitted. This boiler will hold four 

 liints (French),* and at the beginning of the pro- 

 cess it is to be filled to nearly two thirds. The 

 vertical cylinder has a tube with a cock, through 

 which the steam is introduced into a wooden tub, 

 placed ou its side, to the external surface of a vase 

 above it, and gives out steam at its extremity 

 through a series of small holes, turned toward 

 the bottom of the vase; the holes are to avoid the 

 inconvenience arising from the too rapid escape 

 of the steam. This vase is of copper, and con- 

 tains six pints of water. The stea;!i bo.x is tinned 

 on the bottom inside, and a little inclined to the 

 side of the boiler, with which it communicates by 

 a tube, with a cock, conveying back the condensed 

 steam to the bottom of the boiler. Thus the wa- 

 ter into which the cocoons are put, is regularly 

 and permanently heated, without the injurious 

 ebullition of the water which takes place when 

 steam is introduced directly into it, and which 

 causes the rajjid and irregular motion of the 

 cocoons in the basin." 



The Editor of this paper has invented an ap- 

 paratus for heating cocoons for reeling, of which 

 he hopes hereafter to give a definite description. 

 He will now merely state some of its objects, 

 principles and advantages. It is a boiler set in a 

 cylinder stove, and surmounted by a vessel for 

 heating by steam, inclosing another vessel holding 

 the water in which cocoons are inmiersed for 

 reeling. These vessels arc both ))lacgd perpendic- 

 ularly over the cylinder and boiler ; and the whole 

 apparatus occupies no move groxmd room, or space 

 on the floor on which it is placed, than a common 

 cylinder stove of a foot diameter. Its advantages 

 are tViat wood or any other fuel, including the 

 hardest anthracite, may be burnt, and the smoke 

 ov gas carried off instead of being difftiscd in the 

 room, and inhaled by the reeler, as is the case 

 when clay furnaces are used. It will diffuse a 

 pleasant and healthful warmth in the room while 

 heating the cocoons, and that without near so 

 much fuel as would be necessary to pro'duce the 

 same temperature by a common cylinder stove of 

 the same size not surmounted by the ajjparatus 

 for heatinjr cocoons. 



A French pint is a quart American measure 



The cocoons are placed in a situation tantamount 

 to what chemists call a water-balli, in which ihi' 

 water can never be made to boil, so as lo injure 

 or destroy the cocoons. 



The ap))aratus in which the cocoons arc heated 

 may ho made to answer for eva))i)rating decoc- 

 tions, to obtain extracts in a thick, gummy or dry 

 statt,', without the possibility orburning or injuring 

 the substances by boiling or by too much he:it ; 

 and the cocoon hearer may be easily removed, 

 and the boiler used for common culinary purposes. 



It h.'.s been thought by good judges (although 

 the ex])eriinent has never been tried) that this 

 a]>paralus, with or without some alterations, will 

 an.swcr a valuable jiurjiose for killing the chrysalis 

 or insect in the cocooiip, and drying them for use. 

 But of this more in our n«xt. — Silk Manual. 



Preserratlon of Strn^v. 



Ms Tucker.: — 'J he time for threshing grain 

 having arrived, I will give you a statement of my 

 manner of saving and feeding straw, agreeable to 

 your request in the 5th number of the current vol- 

 ume of the Farmer. Previous to commencing 

 threshing, I go to a hay stack, and twist a quanti- 

 ty of bands from 6 to 10 feet long, which arc 

 placed at the barn door, and when the straw is 

 raked to the door two men take a band and .'tretch 

 it over the bundle of straw, then run each a hand 

 under the straw, and turn it over endwise on to 

 the band, when one of tlicm fastens the band, and 

 the other preparesanother band ; and in that man- 

 ner two men wi'l bind as fast as the swiftest ma- 

 chine will thresh, and the straw is stacked as 

 securely as wheat, and in one-fourth the lime 

 required when not bound, and the foddering is 

 performed with much less labor ; and if cut, (as 

 it should be) that operation is much facilitated. 

 When my stock comes to the yard, I commence 

 foddering my straw, and do not allow them to 

 taste a lock of hay until the straw is entirely gone. 

 The cause of the failure of so many in feeding 

 straw, is their fears that the cattle will starve, and 

 they give them a good foddering of hay once a 

 day, which entirely prevents their eating straw ; 

 and as the hay is not sufficient to keep them in 

 heart, the cattle of course become poor, and it is 

 charged to the straw. I repeat they must not taste a 

 lock of hay, neither must they be compelled to eat 

 the straw clean, as a good bed is essential to their 

 good condition. I shall cut my straw the coming 

 season, and feed in mangers. Lambs and year- 

 ling sheep will not do well on straw uncut. — Cen- 

 eset Fanner. 



M;lk WEED ^inceour rumendirance the milk 



weed was considered as noxious as the thistle, and 

 its destruction sought after with the same avidity, 

 b\' every good farmer. Our mothers used some- 

 times to gather the contents of the [ ods for uphol- 

 stery purposes, but they were thought of little 

 value, and, as many supposed, deleterious to 

 health. Now the milk weed, or silk grass as 

 some call it, is considered one of the most valuable 

 of all our indigenous plants. It has long been 

 used in Canada for culinary purposes, as a substi- 

 tute for asparagus. It is easily cultivated, by 

 gathering the seeds in the fall and sowing them 

 earlv in the S]n-ing in drills, taking care that the 

 groiind be well maniired and pulverised, and that 

 they be covered about one inch deep. After two 

 years let them be put in a trench, 8 inches apart, 

 and 6 inches deep. The ue.xt spring use them. 



