124 



SILK MANUAL, AND 



From tlie Northampton Courier, 

 EIiEGA^'T CHINESE PAINTINGS. 



A geiuletnan who has long been engaged in the 

 Canton trade, often visited that eity, and had op- 

 |)ortunities to become acquainted with the man- 

 ners and habits of Cliincse, has lately visited 

 Northampton to become acquainted vvitli the state 

 of the silk cidture here, from whose scrutinizing 

 observations made in China, much valuable in- 

 formation has been obtained. The same gentle- 

 man loaned the subscriber a volume of splendid 

 Chinese Paintings, which confirms our practice 

 and culture of tlie Chinese mulberry as correct and 

 proper. These paintings represent the men, wo- 

 men and children in their national costume, at 

 work — commencing with gathering the mulber- 

 ry seed, cleaning the same, and then preparing 

 the ground, — sowing the seed, transplanting the 

 young seedlings, gathering the foliage, feeding- tbe 

 worms, heading or cutting down the plants to 2 

 or 4 inches above the ground, as ive do, and ev- 

 ery process of their manaD;ement, to making up 

 of the silk into skeins, as we import it, and the 

 further process of winding the silk upon spools. 



There are 28 plates, illustrating the different 

 processes. The out door men laborers are dress- 

 ed in plain loose frocks and trowsers, descending 

 to the knees; some of the men with bare feet and 

 legs ; others with sandals and wooden shoes, adap- 

 ted to their respective work of getting the plants 

 in forwardness for feeding the worms. The wo- 

 men, boys and girls are employed in gathering 

 leaves, feeding the worms, reeling the silk, &c. 

 Some of the ladies have elegant loose dresses, of 

 various brilliant colors, ornamented with wideem- 

 broidery around the neck and sleeves. The up- 

 per dress is loose, of iray colors, the sleeves large, 

 and extend a little above the elbow ; and all the 

 females are dressed in pantalettes of various col- 

 ors, each in contact with the upper dress — the 

 countenance fair, delicate and intelligent, eyes 

 downcast; most of the females have small feet 

 and gay sandals; the hair neatly dressed, orna- 

 mented, and all wear bracelets abore the wrists. 

 As the original plates can be seen only by a i'aw, 

 it may be desirable to hear some description of 

 each print, for the gratification of those who take 

 some interest in the culture of silk. 



The plates make it evident, that although the 

 Chinese sow the mulberry seed broad cast as we 

 do small grain, yet they do not let it long grow 

 in that state, nor do they cut it off (as we do 

 grass) for feeding worms, but they transplant it 

 into settings or hills, like our Indian corn, and 

 that Jt does not grow more than three or four feet 

 in height, and is cut down every year to keep it 

 in a shrubby state. Ex[)erience has convinced us 

 that this procedure of taking off the tops to 2 to 

 4 or even 6 inches above the root, every autumn, 



and covering the stump with earth, is the best 

 way to secure the Chinese mulberry against the 

 severity of winter, and is also a sure method to 

 nmltiply the number of trees, and increas;^ the 

 quantity of foliage. 



Some people have thought that the Chinese 

 mulberry seed grew on trees of some height, like 

 white mulberry (and on this account have been 

 desirous of procuring large trees ;) so far as we 

 have had experienc; this is not the fact with the 

 Canton n)ull)erry, although it may be true of ftla- 

 nilla and other varieties. 



The first plate represents the seed growing very 

 near the ground, like the Cantori mulberry, from 

 the seed of which I iniported and sowed in 1834. 

 In 1835, one of theseedling trees being laid down, 

 the layer sprouts produced full size mulberries, 

 too late, however, for ripeni-ng. The same root 

 this year, 1836, grew l)ranches which were a^'uin 

 laid down, and the layer sprouts, when 4 or 5 in- 

 ches high, again hiid mulberries formed, which 

 ripened in season for sowing, Irom which seed I 

 have two small trees carefully preserved, to ascer- 

 tain its character. After the seed had been gath- 

 ered, the same layer sprouts again, with others, 

 had plump mulberries formed, but were destroyed 

 by birds or fowls. Both crops were formed only 

 a little above the root or foot of the layer tree, and 

 some of them rested on the ground. I have nei- 

 ther seen or heard of any other of the Canton 

 plants producing seed ; but what has already oc- 

 curred here, in the formation and product of the 

 seed, together with the representation and the 

 gathering of the seed and the description of the 

 leaf in the Chinese paintings, confirms the opinion 

 that the Canton Mulberry, so called here, is the 

 same as used in China for feeding worms. Ex- 

 periments have been made this year, in feeding 

 worms vvitli Black, White, Manilla, and the Can- 

 ton Multicaulis, and the worms evidently prefer- 

 red the Canton to either of the others. If any 

 one is possessed of the evidence that the Manilla 

 Multicaulis is ever used in China for feeding 

 worms, he is requested to make it known, 'i he 

 first notice we have of it is, that it was cultivated 

 at Manilla as a tree of ornament. After being in 

 troduced into France, it was found that the silk 

 worm would feed upon the Manilla, as they had 

 done upon the white or black mulberry, in Eu- 

 rope or America. Last yoar a Manilla multicau- 

 lis of 6 or 7 feet in height produced a few seed, 

 which grew several feet from the ground. The 

 seed was planted and two or three of them vege- 

 tated and were pieserved through the winter, and 

 .set out in the spring of 1836, and grew about 

 2 1-2 feet. The leaves were in shape and size very 

 different from the original tree, and the leaves not 

 more than one quarter as large as the leaves of 

 the parent stock. It may be noted, that a number 



