PRACTICAL FARMER. 



127 



RAXSIPTG COCOONS. 



The people in many parts of New England^ in 

 fact of many of tlie otiier States, are turning tiieif 

 attention to this hicrative business. The North- 

 am j;ton Courier is zealous in the cause, and re- 

 cornmentls that the Silk business be prosecuted in 

 this country, by having it systematized as in France 

 and Italy. Raising the cocoons is one branch, 

 and not an expensive, but rather a simple process. 

 Mulberry trees can be had at a trifling cost, and 

 when two or three years old, will furnish abun- 

 dant food for worms. They need occupy no 

 ground which could be approj riated to other uses. 

 They can be planted by the sides offences in rows 

 all about a farmer's homestead. Even planted so 

 close as to form an impervious and beautiful hedge 

 — a vahiable substitute for wooden fences. 



When the worms are hatched from the eggs, a 

 portion of the barn or wood-house can be appro- 

 priated to feeding them. About six weeks only 

 are occupied in the process, and the leaves can be 

 plucked, and all needed attentions given the worms, 

 by young boys or girls, with very little experience. 

 After the feeding is over, and they begin to wind 

 their cocoons, they require no farther attention. 

 The work is infinitely more agreeable, as well as 

 lucj-ative, than the sedentary employment of cov- 

 ering buttons, or even working palm leaf hats or 

 straw braiding. 



When the cocoons are wound, they can find a 

 ready cash market. The large establishments 

 which are coming into existence in this countrj', 

 both for raising worms and for winding and weav- 

 ing the silk, will consume more than can be had 

 for twenty years. In France and Italy, the leaves 

 are furnished by one class of persons, another buys 

 them and feeds the worms, while others purchase 

 the cocoons and wind them for a fourth class, 

 who manufacture the silk. 



Cocoons are sold as other commodities are, 

 carried into market by the peasantry every morn- 

 ing, where purchasers are ever ready to secure a 

 good article. We earnestly urge upon every far- 

 mer to plant mulberry trees and furnish a healthy 

 and lucrative employment to his little ones. — Ban- 

 gor Mechanic and Farmer. 



Providence silk manufactdring company. — 

 This Company, which was late the " Valentine 

 Silk Company," was incorporated at the recent 

 session of our Legislature, with a capital of $100,- 

 000. Their factory is situated upon Eddy street, 

 the next building to the old glass house. The 

 machinery, with which it is nearly filled, is pro- 

 pelled by a six horse power steam engine. The 

 steam is generated with the siftings of anthracite 

 coal, at an expense of 33 cents per day. This 

 (till recently) useless and refuse portion of the 

 «o«l, is ignited and rendered aboMt as yalual^ie gg 



any other, by the aid of Reynold's patent blowing 

 a[)paratus. While preparing their machinery and 

 instructing their operatives in the art, they have 

 manufactured from 16 to 1800 yards of rich, heavy 

 goods. The number of hands has recently b'^en 

 very much increased, and with the additional 

 power looms about to be put in, the company 

 contem])lat8 making from 300 to 400 yards of 

 goods per week. Of course, as there is no do- 

 mestic su['ply, they are compelled to manufacture 

 foreign silk. Another year, however, they will 

 probably derive a considerable aniount of raw 

 material fr6m their own plantation. This planta- 

 tion is on the western border of the city, and con- 

 sists of thirtysix acres of land particularly well 

 adapted to the growth of the mulberry tree, and 

 is a'ready .in a high state of cultivation. Upon it 

 there is a larg& well finished two story house, and 

 a barn and granary — a cocoonery 150 feet long, 

 built last spring, and about 16,000 mulberry trees 

 of very vigorous growth, most of which are five 

 years old, and the remainder four. From these 

 trees it is estimated that an average amount of at 

 least 2000 pounds of wound silk may be produced 

 per year, for the next five years, or two ounces to 

 a tree — and for succeeding five years double the 

 amount. This is a moderate estimate, compared 

 with the one made by the Boston Comjjany, and, 

 indeed, compared with the results of experience, 

 of those who have been engaged in • growing silk 

 in Connecticut for many years. The company 

 are about putting out 40,000 more trees, of 3 

 years' growth, in hedges, after the Italian mode. 

 These, it is estimated, will yield an average rate 

 of one ounce of wound silk to a tree per year, 

 for the next five years, or 2500 pwmds per year. 

 The total product of the farm in silk, according to 

 this estimate, would be worth, at four dollars per 

 pound, $18,000. One half of this amount is 

 allowed for attendance upon the cocoonery and 

 winding the silk into a marketable state, leaving a 

 nett profit of $9,000. In addition to this, ought 

 to be reckoned the value of the crops of corn and 

 potatoes, which the best condition of the trees will 

 require should be planted among them. With a 

 liberal application of fish, which abound, as a man- 

 ure, within less than a mile of the farm, it may 

 beyond doubt be rendered much more productive 

 than in the above calculations is anticipated, and 

 by planting in hedge rows 100,000 more trees, 

 which it is competent to sustain, it would, of 

 course, yield a manifold increase of silk. On one 

 side of the farm is a beautiful pond, from which 

 the trees may be watered, by the aid of a force 

 pump, in any period of drought. — Providence 

 Journal. 



Ripe Tomatoes sliced up, and fried in butter, 

 ir& to many quite delicious. 



