No. 12. 



The Silk Culture. 



375 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 The Silk Culture. 



At length we have something novel in 

 the way of silk culture. A Mr. Gill, of Ohio, 

 has patented a process and apparatus, that 

 appear likely to render much more secure, 

 if not certain, the labours of the cocoonery 

 during the last stages of operation; the fail- 

 ures attendant upon which, have been found 

 so ruinous heretofore. His plan is, to feed 

 the worms after their second moulting, in 

 tents ; to fan them when the weather is 

 unhealthy, and to rock them in cradles. The 

 account published by Mr. Gill is so curious, 

 and withal so natural, that I am desirous to 

 see it preserved in the pages of the Cabinet. 

 He says ; — " My operations in feeding and 

 manufacturing during the last year, have 

 furnished employment for about fifty hands 

 on an average ; and I have manufactured in 

 that time, upwards of $9,000 worth of silk 

 goods, consisting of all the varieties of staple 

 silk in demand, equal to any imported; and 

 sold them readily at a reasonable advance 

 on their cost of production and manufacture; 

 and my efforts have been crowned with com- 

 plete success. In the past five years of my 

 operations, I have frequently met with fail- 

 ures, and occasionally entire loss of worms 

 from extremely warm, close and confined 

 weather, hut never from cold. I have tried 

 all the plans of feeding and ventilating used 

 or known in the United States, but found 

 them all deficient in accomplishing the ob- 

 ject desired ; but by studying the subject — 

 the nature, habits and wants of the worms, 

 I have been enabled to adopt a plan which 

 meets every important object. I shall feed 

 very extensively on it the coming season, 

 and fully believe that my invention will 

 work as complete a revolution in the grow- 

 ing of silk, as the discovery of the gin has 

 in that of cotton. I have named my inven- 

 tion, 'Gill's Patent Feeding Tent, and Silk- 

 worm Ventilating Cradle.' 



" These tents and cradles may be con- 

 structed of any size, and of any materials 

 suitable, keeping in view the principles of 

 construction. I adopt, as a convenient size, 

 a tent 15 feet wide, and 50 feet long; side 

 posts, four feet apart, driven into the ground, 

 and standing six feet above it, each side: 

 for centre posts, eight feet apart, driven into 

 the ground, and standing eight feet above it, 

 which gives two feet pitch to the roof. The 

 rid^e and eaves-poles to be fastened along 

 the tops of each of these three ranges of posts. 

 The tent cloth to be of linen, or any other 

 fabric suitable, and impregnated with paint, 

 tar, &c, if desired. The linen covering is 

 most convenient in breadths of 10 feet; to 



extend from the bottom on one side, over 

 the top or ridge of the building, and down 

 to the bottom on the other side, with weight- 

 poles or rollers, at the bottom on each side, 

 so that the tent cloth may be rolled up to 

 any height, to give free circulation of air, 

 or exclude it, with rain or sunshine, at plea- 

 sure. The rollers of cloth should, when 

 down, reach to within six inches of the 

 ground, with a drain under them, to carry 

 off the water: the ground forming the floor. 

 " The feeding ventilating cradles are con- 

 structed to embrace the following principles, 

 and of sizes to suit the breadth of the tents, 

 leaving an aisle along the centre of the 

 room, and between each cradle. To furnish 

 a tent 15 feet wide, the cradles should be 

 12 feet long, and have three rockers four 

 feet long, made of plank 15 to 18 inches 

 broad, and about one and a half inch thick; 

 with a trough resting across their centres, 

 let in by a notch in the rockers, 12 feet long, 

 one foot wide, and one end closed. From 

 the points of the rockers attach upright 

 posts, 30 inches long, inclining outwards, 

 and a cap attached to their tops on each 

 side, parallel with the trough. To this cap 

 and side of the trough, attach laths one- 

 eighth of an inch apart, the whole length of 

 the trough, on both sides, so as to form when 

 finished, a rack about two and a half feet 

 deep and five feet wide at the top ; and 

 across the trough fasten slats about one foot 

 apart, on which to lay the mulberry branch- 

 es, and on these branches put the worms, 

 after their second moulting, or when about 

 half grown, and feed them until they spin, 

 with branches with their leaves on, cut 

 about one foot long. Suspended over each 

 cradle, is a fan made of bonnet-boards, or 

 any other thing suitable, with a pendulum, 

 coming down from the shaft which is ticross 

 the tent in two of the upright posts; this 

 pendulum, the person who attends the feed- 

 ing, can put in motion, which also rocks the 

 cradle ; thereby removing all impure air 

 about the worms, and shaking down the dry 

 leaves, litter and excrements into the trough, 

 into which a bucket of water is occasionally 

 poured at the upper end, and all is washed 

 out at the lower or 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 while feeding 

 on the trees in a state of nature. Another 

 important advantnge is, that no worms can 

 fall through to the ground, and those that 

 happen to fall down in the brush, crawl to 

 the lath sides, and mount easily to the top. 

 They also readily spin among the clean, 

 bare brush, making but little floss, and sel- 

 dom double cocoons. A lender made of tin, 



