130 



SILK MANUAL, AND 



merely spun into sowing- silk, would amount, at 

 the present price of American sewing silk in Al- 

 bany, to three dollars per pound, sixty feet to the 

 skein, and one dollar and fifty cents per thirty 

 feet. 



"If the worms are housed instead of being 

 raised in the open air it is reckoned that a square 

 foot will contain, with ease, one hundred and ten 

 worms in their maturity ; accordingly a shelf 

 twenty feet long and three broad, will contain 

 6,600 worms, its surface being equal to sixty feet, 

 and a set of such shelves will accommodate the 

 40,000 worms, produced by a single ounce of seed. 

 These sets of shelves may be multipled in the 

 same room, observing only to leave three feet 

 opening between them, in order to enable the 

 attendants to nurse the worms. Besides such a 

 a room, in which several millions of worms may 

 be raised, it is sufficient to have an adjacent room 

 or hovel to put the worms into when they want 

 to make them ball and spin their silk ; so that 

 two rooms will be sufficient to spin an immense 

 quantity of silk. 



Q,UAIiITY OF MULBERRY LEAVES. 



The Abbe Rozier, a celebrated French writer in 

 a work entitled " Cours Complet d'Agriciilture," 

 in treating of the mulberry, &c., observes that 

 "The quality of the leaves of the mulberry is 

 affected by various circumstances. 1. The age of 

 the plants. Tbe leaves of a young- tree are more 

 watery, the juices less concentrated than in an 

 old one. 



The exposure has also great effect. Trees 

 planted in a northern exposure or aspect are always 

 below modiocrity, or inferior in quality ; the juices 

 are too watery, and the worms do not thrive so 

 well on them. Those raised on hill sides with 

 southern exposure are preferable to those grown 

 on plains. 



" The berries gathered for seed cannot be too 

 ripe. When they are just barely fit for eating, 

 not more than fourteen per cent, will vegetate. 

 When fully ripe and ready to fall more than half 

 the seed have usually grown ; if left till dry, 

 nearly all have succeeded. The mode of obtain- 

 ing the seed is to dry the berries, and when 

 wanted, to rub out the seed, and fan away the 

 dried pulp." 



As to the time of sowing : In the most southern 

 parts of France they sow as soon as the seed is 

 ripe, but the most usual course is to sow the fol- 

 lowing spring. In France, according to the climate 

 of different provinces, in February, March, and 

 April. In New England we cannot sow till April 

 or May. 



5. The manner of sowing. — They sometimes 

 gow in the spot where the young mulberry is to 



grow for the first three years; but they ])refer 

 sowing them in boxes about three feet long, and 

 nine inches deep. The reason assigned is, that 

 they are more easily watered and sheltered against 

 frost. They remove them from the boxes into 

 rows in a nursery, which is done without injury 

 to the roots, by taking off one of the sides of the 

 box. Rozier remarks upon the practice of rub- 

 bing the berries on a liair rope and then burying 

 it in the earth, that it is an useless complication 

 of labor. 



The French seem to be in the constant practice 

 of grafting their nmlherries. No satisfactory rea- 

 son seems to be assigned for this certainly ex[)en- 

 sive process ; but as they are very familiar with 

 the cultivation, no dovd»t experience must have 

 shown them an advantage, or the French, being 

 habitual economists, would not have adopted it. 



It was formerly the practice in France to |)lant 

 out the mulberry as standards, and to sutler them 

 to attain a considerable size, taking care, however, . 

 so to manage the pruning as to keep all the limbs 

 within the reach of gathering ladders. The prac- 

 tice is of iate tJiuch changed. It was observed, 

 says Rozier, that the young plants in nurseries 

 put forth their leaves much sooner than the stand- 

 ard trees, and the necessity of obtaining early 

 food for the young insects obliged the cultivators 

 to provide themselves with a certain 7iumber of 

 mulberries in the bush or shrubby state. 



From these first experiments arose the prevalent 

 jn-actice of raising dwarf mulberries extensively, 

 and also of surrounding their fields with mulberry 

 hedges. It is said that the produce of an acre 

 in dwarf mulberries is much greater than one in 

 large trees, the distance between the plants being 

 so much less, so that the number of dwarfs may 

 be eight times as great. This is adfuitted to be 

 true at first, but some cultivators deny that it con- 

 tinues to be so after the standard trees have 

 attained their full size. The benefits of the dwarf 

 cultivation are thus briefly stated : — 1st. Women 

 and children can gather the leaves without danger, 

 and much quicker than the most experienced 

 gatherers could on large trees. 2d. The proprie- 

 tor is much more speedily repaid his advances. 

 3d. The dwarf mulberries put forth their leaves 

 earlier, a valuable quality, as the more early the 

 worms arc produced the better. 4th. Dwarf trees 

 will succeed in situations in which standards will 

 not. 5th. T heir leaves are quite as good as those 

 of the others, but the leaves of young |)!aiits 

 should be given to newly hatched worms, and 

 those of the older to the more mature. 



INFLUENCE OF SILK CULTURE ON HEALTH. 



In urging ujion the community, and especially 

 farmers and their wives and daughters, to engage 



