40 



SILK MANUAL, AND 



SILK. 



Lisbon, May 5th, 1835. 

 To the Editor of tlie Silk Culturist. 



Sir — I am much pleased, on perusing the first 

 two numbers of your valuable little " Manual ;" 

 with the manner in which you have stated the 

 probable advantages of the culture of silk to the 

 farmers of America ; and I wish to add a few 

 words in confirmation of your statements. 



1 have manufactured silk, at Spitalfields, in 

 London, twenty years ; and am perfectly acquain- 

 ted with the winding, warping, and weaving of 

 plain silks, such as Sarcenets, Satins, Gros-de- 

 Naples, Florentines, Plushes, and Velvets ; or fig- 

 ured silks, such as Florets, Tobines, Tissues, and 

 Damasks ; all of which works require very differ- 

 ent kinds of sjlk. In the last six months, I have 

 woven many pounds of silk, of American grotvth, 

 into silk stocks for Mr James Bottom ; and I assure 

 you, Sir, that I have seen many samples of Amer- 

 ican silk, far superior to the Bengal, China, and 

 French silks, and nearly equal to the best Italian. 



I am surprised that the farmers of America 

 have so long neglected the culture of silk ; it being 

 so very profitable, and the climate being so well 

 adapted to it. I have known Italian silk to be 

 sold for a dollar an ounce, in England before it 

 vi^as manufactured ; and the average price is about 

 seven dollars a pound. At the present time, the 

 most inferior kinds of manufactured silk, import- 

 ed from England, France, and China, are being 

 sold, in this country, for sixteen dollars a pound : 

 and as the cost and fair profit of manufacturing 

 cannot exceed seven dollars, it leaves the enor- 

 mous price of nine dollars a pound for the raw 

 silk, which price, the people of America are now 

 paying to the people of Italy and France. 



By reference to the statement of M. Carrier, in 

 the first number of the " Culturist," I find that 

 nearly all his silk, sold for nearly 6 dollars a 

 pound; and, that on an acre of land, he realized 

 two hundred and ninety dollars in a year. Now 

 when we take into consideration the disadvanta- 

 geous nature of the climate of France, compared 

 to that of America, it appears to our -view a mine 

 of wealth for the farmers of this country. 



In this letter, I have endeavored to show the 

 advantages of the silk trade in an individual point 

 of view ; should you deem this worth insertion, I 

 ■will, in my next letter, point out the advantages 

 of the silk trade, to the community at large. 



Yours, &c. William Carpenter. 



trees are upon a thin gravelly loam, and were not 

 protected in any way whatever. 



Chinese Mulberry. — In order to test the har- 

 diness of this species, we set out, last spring, six of 

 them. They were one year old, from layers, and 

 about two feet high. We set them in a cold clay- 

 ey loam, where we knew the frost would heave 

 very much, and without manure. They grew but 

 little last summer. In the fall we wound some 

 matting around one of them. One of them being 

 broken down accidentally, we threw some dirt over 

 it, the others we left as they were, to live or die. 

 -The result is the following. One of them we gave 

 away to a friend quite early in the spring, without 

 knowing whether it was dead or alive, and have 

 not heard whether it is living or not. Two of the 

 others were thrown almost entirely out of the 

 ground, of course the upper roots were frozen, but 

 the lower roots are alive yet, and may or may not 

 come. Another one is starting about four inches 

 above the ground, the one covered by a mat is 

 killed down to the ground, and the one that was 

 broken and covered by earth is putting out leaves 

 from the eyes next to the earth that is over them, 

 and which has not been removed. We think 

 on the whole, from this experiment, they are as 

 hardy and have done as well as the white 

 mulberry would have done in the same circum- 

 stances. 



A dandolo (Italian) mulberry, without protec- 

 tion one year old, was killed down to the 

 ground and has not yet started. — Maine Far- 

 mer. 



White Mulberry. — Our white mulberries 

 some of which were set out last spring, and some 

 the spring before, varying from two to four years 

 old, have been killed more than we have ever 

 known this kind of tree to be by any winter. T''® 



I was at old Fort-Hunter, on the Susquehan- 

 nah, above Harrisburgh, in 1828. The highly re- 

 spectable owner of this beautiful situation. Col. 

 M'Allister, a gentlemen of science and refined ob- 

 servation, treated my fellow travellers and myself 

 with great courtesy, and showed us some house- 

 hold conveniences worthy of imitation, and among 

 others, his Milk-house, Smoke-house and Clothes- 

 line. I thought much of these, and have in part 

 profited by my observation. That the readers of 

 the Cultivator may profit also by these improve- 

 ments, I will briefly detail them in part. 



The Milk-house was built in the northeast 

 side of a slope, near the well, and not far from 

 the mansion. It was composed of stout stone 

 walls, and the roof, which rose six or eight feet 

 above the surface of the ground, appeared to be 

 covered with earth or tile, and was deeply shroud- 

 ed with the scarlet trumpet creeper, (Bignonia 

 radicans) then in splendid bloom. The interior 

 of the house, principally under ground, was fitted 

 up with cisterns, in which water stood nearly to 

 the tops of the pans of milk, which were arrang- 

 ed in them. The house was entered by a flight 

 of step op the south, and there was a window on 



