140 



SILK MANUAL, AND 



when the cocoon is completed, the laborer remain- 

 ing within, and changing to the chrysalis state. 



A fortnight afterwards, a little light gray moth 

 emerges from the cocoon, and without taking food 

 at all, for the space of thirty or forty hours, pro- 

 ceeds to lay its eggs, three or four hundred in num- 

 ber, arranged circularly, and closely adhering to 

 papers prepared for the purpose. The moth 

 exists but a few hours after having thus made 

 provision for a new, generation. 



There are numerous details, of course, con- 

 nected with the treatment of this wonderful and 

 interesting insect, which we have neither- time 

 nor space herein to specify. But we have pre- 

 sented a sufficiently general view of the subject, 

 to satisfy the reader that there is but very little 

 intricacy or difficulty in the matter. Those who 

 may determine, practically, to pursue the inquiry, 

 we will engage, shall be furnished with all neces- 

 sary information at a very trifling expense. Our 

 onl}'^ design in the present article, being to dispel 

 doubts touching the ease and facility of transform- 

 ing the mulberry leaf into silk, we have herein 

 abstained from entering into particulars respecting 

 the natural history of the worm, the appearance 

 and preparation of the cocoon, &c. &c. all, or 

 any of which, shall be cheerfully communicated 

 to those who may need them for experimental 

 purposes. — JVantucket Inquirer. 



[From the Northampton Courier.] 

 CHINESE MULBERRY. 



The following extract is from a practical culti- 

 vator of the common white mulberry, and a man- 

 ufacturer of silkj who is well acquainted with the 

 business. 7 he process by which he has come to 

 the result of his experiments, appears plausible, 

 and deserve high consideration. He must have 

 set his cuttings and roots of the Chinese mulberry 

 very com|)act, to give such a yield to the acre ; 

 probably only about tvvo feet apart. But the nu- 

 tritious quality of the Chinese leaf over the coni- 

 mon white mulberry, may, in some measure, 

 accoimt for the quantity of silk calculated for the 

 acre ; as one j)Ound of Chinese leaf is supposed 

 to furnish nearly as much nutriment as two 

 [loiinds of white mulberry. 



Some persons have said that 'forty pounds of 

 silk may be considered the product of an acre of 

 land ; others, that an acre will yield sixty pounds 

 of silk ; these different results probably arise from 

 the size or difference of the number of trees on 

 an acre. The accounts given are generally the 

 result of feeding with the white n)ulberry. But 

 the folowing extract is tiie resu't of feeding ex- 

 clusivtly on leaves of the Chinese mulberry (moms 

 multicaiUisJ. It will hs seen that the plants of 

 cuttings set out the last spring, have yielded over 

 Haifa pound of leaves to each tree, and the plants 



set out the last spring, having some roots to start 

 the branches, gave one and a half pounds of leaves 

 to each. 



It is calculated by some, that if silk worms are 

 fed on white mulberry leaves, it requires one hun- 

 dred pounds of leaves to make one pound of silk, 

 but by the following extract, it appears, that from 

 seventy to eighty pounds of Chinese mulberry 

 leaves are sufficient to make one pound of silk ; a 

 great saving in favor of the Chinese mulberry. 



Another fact in favor of feeding worms exclu- 

 sively on the morus multicaulis is, that by an ex- 

 periment recorded in the July number of the Silk 

 Ciilturist, 500 worms being fed on the white mul- 

 berry, and 500 worms fed on the Phiilippine mul- 

 berry (the Manilla multicaulis), and each parcel 

 of worms fed the same length of time, and with 

 the same quantity of leaves each, resulted as fol- 

 lows : — It required 420 cocoons of those fed ojj 

 the white mulberry, to weigh one pound, but only 

 334 of those fed on Chinese mulberry. Another 

 fact : — It is said that the fibre of the silk from 

 feeding on the Chinese, is stronger than that fed 

 on the white mulberry, and it is within the know- 

 ledge of the writer, that by comparison of each 

 kind in his possession, cocoons fed exclusively on 

 leaves of the Chinese mull)erry, have a more bril- 

 liant lustre than cocoons ^cA exclusively on white 

 mulberry leaves. These facts being admitted, 

 there is wanted but one «iore — to convince the 

 public that the morus nmlticaulis will successfully 

 resist our northern winters. In answer to wliich, 

 it might be said, " what has been inay be again." 

 Altliough unfavorable imjiressions have been rung 

 from Maine to Georgia, yet tlie opinion of good 

 and competent judges, in the valley of the Con- 

 necticut, and elsewhere, who have tested the 

 experiments, whose confidence is not to be par- 

 alysed by conjectures or surmises, have the audac- 

 ity to believe that it will succeed ; and from thu 

 fact, that even the'last severe winter proved no 

 more or even so destructive to the Chinese mul- 

 berry, as to the white mulberry, of the same age 

 and exposure. 



It is the opinion of cultivators of the Chinese 

 mulberry, that even should it be necessary to lay 

 down and cover the plant every winter, or to re- 

 move the plants to the cellar, and reset every year, 

 or should they be killed to the root, no essential 

 damage would ensue ; it would sprout again with 

 additional number of stalks. Cultivators here 

 think, that should the tree or plant be every year 

 headed down, the amount of foliage would be in- 

 creased, and worms from the eggs of the mam-- 

 moth kind^ so called (some of which are in town), 

 producing (with the same care and feed) cocoons 

 of nearly double the w ight of the common kind, 

 being fed on the morus multicaulis, favorable 

 results may be expected, and is there not 



