FESSENDEN'S 



SIL.R MANUAL. 



AND 



Devoted to the Culture of ISilk, Agriculture, aud Rural EconosMy. 



VOL. 1. 



BOSTON, JUNE, 1835. 



NO. 2- 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY 



GEORGE C. BARRETT, 



51 fy 52 JSToHh Market St., at the JV. E. Farmer Office. 



T. G. FESSENDEN— Editor. 



Fifty cents per year — twelve copies for five dollars 

 — alvrays in advance. 



[0= Postmasters and Agents allowed ,10 per cent on 

 all subscribers. 



BOSTON, JUNE, 1835. 

 CHANGE OF TITLE. 



Our readers will perceive that we have made a 

 slight alteration in the head of our paper, by trans- 

 posing the principal words in the title. We have 

 had a great accession of respectable names to our 

 subscription list, and four fifths take it for the 

 information which they anticipate receiving from 

 the paper relative to Silk Culture. We, therefore, 

 at the suggestion of some friends, and to meet the 

 views of much the largest class of our readers, have 

 concluded to publish this paper in future with the 

 appellation, Fessenden's Silk Manual, and Prac- 

 tical Farmer, &c., and under this name, we shall, 

 in future, fill our cheap compendium with as much 

 useful information as we can comprise within the 

 compass of its pages. 



Massachusetts Silk Company. — There has re- 

 cently been formed, a Company for the Manufacture 

 of Silk, with the above title. We understand it is 

 their intention to establish a large plantation of Mul- 

 berry Trees, and carry on the whole business from 

 the growing of the tree to the manufactured fabrics. 

 We hail this as a good beginning of a business, 



which it is our opinion, will eventually be equal in 

 importance to the country, to the culture and man- 

 ufacture of Cotton. 



FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS RELATIVE TO 

 THE CUIiTURE OF SILK. 



Varieties of Silkworms. — In our last we 

 made some remarks relative to the best and most 

 profitable food for Silk Worms. We, will now 

 speak of the varieties of these insects, a consider- 

 ation of scarcely less importance than that of the 

 provision necessary for their support. If the Far- 

 mer finds his atcount in rearing no animals which 

 are not of a good breed as well as good samples of 

 their kind, the Silk Culturist will no doubt, be well 

 rewarded by his attention to the diflferent varieties 

 and selection of the best races of the insects on 

 whose labors and qualities all his hopes of success 

 must be founded. 



The Hon. Richard Rush, while Secretary of 

 the Treasury, prepared and transmitted to the 

 Speaker'of the House of Representatives, a letter 

 on the growth and Manufacture of Silk, &c. 

 which is a very valuable, as well as able and elab- 

 orate document. In this the writer treats 



OF SMALL WORMS OF THREE CASTS, OB MOULT- 

 INGS. 



The eggs of these worms may be found in sev- 

 eral parts of Lombardy. The worms and co- 

 coons are two-fifths smaller than the common 

 sort. The worms consume, to form a pound of 

 cocoons, nearly as much leaves as the largo spe- 

 cies; and, although smaller, when they have 

 reached their full growth, they devoiu* more frag- 

 ments and shoots of leaves than the common sort. 

 Their cocoons are composed of finer and more 

 beautiful silk than the common cocoon ; they are 

 also better constructed, and to this is owing the 



