SILK MAN UAL, AND 



of socoons should have them reeled in his own 

 house. This will be found by far the most profit- 

 able method, since the difference of price between 

 the cocoons and the reeled silk will much more 

 than pay for the reeling. This difference is so 

 considerable, that even when the farmer raises 

 only a few pounds of silk, the expenses of a reel 

 would every year be saved by having the reeling 

 done in his family. 



The chief business of the Silk Company at the 

 present time is the manufacture of Tuscan Straw 

 into fabrics for hats and bonnets ; and the Com- 

 mittee were particu'arly interested in some esti- 

 mates which the President of the Company had 

 made on this manufacture in a national point of 

 ■view. If we suppose there are three millions of 

 females in the United States, who ijurchase each a 

 Tuscan hat annually, at the price of two dollars, 

 then the cost cf this single article to the country 

 "will amount to 6 millions [)er year. Taking the 

 last three or fbtir years its examples, it is thought 

 that this estimate is not far from the truth, 

 for it is known that there are upwards of 6 millions 

 of females in ourcountry aod we think that com- 

 mon observation is sufficient to show that in the 

 Atlantic States at least, one half of them have 

 worn Tuscan hats within the last year or two, 

 and judging from the known contagious natnre of 

 female fashions, we may fairly conclude that a 

 similar estimate may be made with respect to the 

 interior States. But since it takes two or three 

 years for a fashion lo pass from one end of our 

 country to the other, it may be objected that our 

 estimate is too high, as not all the females who 

 wear Tuscan hats purchase them in the same year. 

 But it must be remembered that two dollars is 

 probably behind the average price of the article in 

 •Question, and that the more common price has 

 been from five to ten dollars. It must also be re- 

 membered that our estimate with respect to the 

 number of females who wear Tuscan hats is prob- 

 ably much below the truth, so that wc believe our 

 estimate cannot be far out of the way. 



Now taking for data certain facts presented 

 by the Silk Company, the committee are warrant- 

 ed in believing, that the three millions of dollars 

 expended for the article in qwestion, may all be 

 produced by the females in this country. 

 In behalf of the Committee, 



J. L. COMSTOCK. 



The depth of water in some of the great lakes 

 in the West, is represented by travellers as being 

 very great. There are ports of Lake Superior, as 

 well as Huron and Michigan, where the de[)th of 

 the water is 150 fathoms. The deepest water in 

 Lake Erie is about thirty five fathoms. In Lake 

 St Clair, the water is quite shoal, rarely exceeding 

 four fathoms. 



CHINESE niUIiBEKRY, 



The following judicious remarks on the Chinese 

 Mulberry, are from the Albany Silk Worm. 



Mr Bestor of Suffield, Connecticut, pro|jagated 

 last season from two yoimg trees of the Chinese 

 mulberry, by layers, that is bending down the 

 branches and covering them with earth, two hun- 

 dred and two young trees, fortyeight of which he 

 sold for twelve dollars: thus from two young trees 

 realizing twelve dollars and saving to himself one 

 hundred and fiftyfour trees, besides the two orig- 

 inal ones. What has been done can be done 

 again, any other person, with the same assiduity 

 would, probably, have the same success. But al- 

 lowing only one quarter of that increase, would 

 in three years produce 16,625 trees, which would 

 fifl over foirr acres, allowing 3,200 to the acre. 



Let us now compare the Chinese and white 

 mulberry, and see what advantage either gives over 

 the other. In Mansfield, Connecticut, where they 

 have made silk many years, and still make it from 

 standard trees of the white mulberry, as large as 

 apple trees, the produce of silk is calculated at 

 from forty to sixty pounds to the acre. These 

 trees require, at least, from ten to twenty years 

 growth to begin to produce that quantity. x\u 

 acre set out with cuttings or seedlings of the Chi- 

 nese mulberry containing as above stated 3,200 

 trees, will yield the first year 1600 poundscf leaves, 

 or half a pound to a tree. One hundred pounds^ 

 of white mulberry leaves, as a general calculation, 

 will produce one pound of silk ; but I am inform- 

 ed by a gentleman, extensively engaged m culti- 

 vating and feeding silkworms on the Chinese mul- 

 berry, that eighty pounds are equal to a hundred 

 pounds of the white mulberry leaves. Jn that 

 case the 1600 pounds of leaves will yield twenty 

 pounds of silk. The same trees which produced 

 half a pound of leaves the first year, will produce 

 a pound the second year, three pounds the thirti 

 year, and five pounds the fourth year. The pro- 

 duce of the acre will then be twenty pounds of 

 silk the first year, forty the second, sixty the third,, 

 and a hundred pounds the fourth year. 



I therefore earnestly repeat the advice to every 

 one who has any thoughts of engaging in the silk 

 business to commence cultivating the Chinese 

 mulberry, if it be on ever so small a scale. If it 

 is with but one stalk, comanence with that, and 

 multiply it as fast as possible. If they can get 

 more, do so. 



It may not l>e amiss, however, to endeavor to 

 explain what has caused the doubts resf)ecting the 

 hardiness of the Chinese mulberry and of the 

 prejudices which some people stilf retain against 

 it. 



It is well known to every scientific horticultu- 

 rist that jilant of almost any kind, carried fratn a 

 warm climate to a colder one, are not as able to 



