52 



SILK MANUAL, AND 



The Silk Cocoonery of Mr Samuel Whitmarsh 

 of this town is now in full operation. It is two 

 hundred feet in length and two stories in height. 

 It is filled with ranges of sliding draws of twine 

 lattice work, upon which the worms feed, and 

 these are intersected by alleys, so that the build- 

 ing has fresh air and light. It is capable of feed- 

 ing four or five millions of worms. At the pres- 

 ent time he has but about eight hundred thous- 

 and. He has them in all the various stages, from 

 just out of the egg, to the winding the cocoons. 



It is curious enough to see the almost invisible 

 little worms just from an egg, less than half the 

 size of a pin head. To notice their expansion 

 each successive day, more than doubling them- 

 selves in size and increasing in a few weeks from 

 the mej-e mite to the dimensions of a three inch 

 corpulent caterpillar. Then to notice their habits 

 and instinct and way of taking their food, eating 

 in a continued half circle upon the leaf until it is 

 all devoured. Again the preparation of winding 

 itself up in the cocoon, attaching its two extrem- 

 ities to some object and then throwing out its 

 threads in every direction until it secludes itself 

 within its bosom. 



Mr Whitmarsh does not feed his worms at pres- 

 ent upon the Chinese mulberry. The plant is yet 

 rare and the growers are anxious to multiply them 

 by laying down all the shoots. From the great 

 number under cultivation by various gentlemen 

 in this town »nd the care taken to increase them, 

 there is reason to believe the supply will be ade- 

 quate to all demands next spring. Mr Whit- 

 marsh has some trees three or four feet in height, 

 which withstood the severity of last winter im- 

 harmed. On some of these trees, the berry is 

 now found and great care will be taken to pre- 

 serve the seed, so that the precise character of the 

 plant propagated from them may be accurately 

 known. — Lancaster Journal. 



(From the Essex Register.] 



CUIiTURE OP SILK. 



Messrs Editors — I rejoice to observe that 

 tlie interest taken in the growth and manufacture 

 of Silk, continues to increase with unabated ar- 

 dor. The recent improvements our countrymen 

 have introduced in the machinery for its manufac- 

 ture, promise to produce almost as much of a rev- 

 olution in the art, as did the noble invention of 

 the Cotton Gin in the production of the great 

 staple of the South. It appears to be admittted 

 now, by every one who has paid any attention to 

 the subject, that the soil and climate of the United 

 States arc as genial to the growth and culture of 

 the Silk Worm, as any county in England. I 

 might here introduce the fact, that a gentleman 

 from England, formerly engaged in the cultivation 



of Hops in that country, recently declared, that 

 from his own experience he had found the soil 

 and climate of Massachusetts better calcidated for 

 the production of that important article than his 

 native country. Thus we see, Messrs Editors, 

 that the natural resources of our own New Eng- 

 land are every day being fully developed, and un- 

 der such circumstances too, as leave a conviction 

 that the knowledge of her capabilities is yet but in 

 embryo. 



Many of our citizens, who have given but 

 little attention to the subject of the culture of silk 

 are not aware of the fact, that more attention was 

 paid to this subject before the Revolutionary war, 

 in this quarter, than has been since. In this town 

 in 1764, more than 60 years ago, silk was grown 

 and reeled for a profit ; and the foundation 

 of the trees which afforded the leaves that 

 nourished the " insect artizan" — the white mul- 

 berry — are now standing and thia very year 

 yielded healthy scions. I cannot be mistaken 

 about this, as I have it from an aged lady now 

 living who gathered the leaves with her own 

 hands. Since that period the silk worm has been 

 now and then raised among us for mere novelty, 

 in private families ; and vvithin the last few years 

 several small quantities have been thrown. 



In looking around for a favorable place for lo- 

 cating an establishment for the growth and manu- 

 facture of Silk, I was recently struck with the 

 beauty of a small farm of 80 acres near the Col- 

 lege Plain, at the junction of the bounds of Mar- 

 blehead, Salem and Lynn, and commonly known 

 by the Leggs Hill Farm. It has a good soil, on 

 every variety of hill and dale ; an abundant sup- 

 ply of fresh water, a beautiful fish pond ; and is 

 even reached by the tide-water of Forest River. 

 I understand this whole establishment includ- 

 ing a gooddwelling-house, barn and orchard, with 

 • all the improvements can be bought for about 

 $50 an acre. I have no other interest in this 

 concern than that which is common to the publkc ; 

 and although there are many places in our vicin- 

 ity of great attraction for the prosecution of this 

 business, I will venture to assert that, taken togeth- 

 er, this has no superior. And then too there is 

 something pleasing its location, standing as it does 

 on the soil of what may be called three of the 

 shire towns of old Essex, and so well calculated, 

 as such an establishment would be, to continue 

 and strengthen the already strong bonds which 

 bind these towns in mutual frieneship and frater- 

 nal regard. 



Upon the whole, Messrs Editors, as there have 

 been strong suggestions of getting up a Mulberry 

 Plantation and Silk establishment, I shall be 

 heartily glad to see the example of some of our 

 sister counties followed, and a good and efficient 

 company established— and that, too, whether its 



