NEW ENGLAND FARMER.. 



OL. V. 



Piiblislied by Jony U. Russell at .No. '<> Noitli Mnrkot St 



rcet, (oppositn Faniieil Hall) — Thomas G. Fessendkw, Editor 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, MAIU H 1671827 



No. 31. 



► lilGlNAL PAPERS. 



tracts for purchases are made miiiiy months bolbre 

 the delivery con tnlie place, u|)on th-.' 'lo eiidance 

 of roceiviiitj the accustomed (piility without fear 

 of disappointminit, so ali\e are they to the neces- 



rOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



iSILK. 

 R Fesse.vden — The inanufactiue of that no- 

 nrticle, silk, which has engaged lately the at- 

 ion of Government, is one of tlie greatest ini- 



ance ; that produce alone will make a nation 't is worthy of remark that as you descend south 

 Ilhy. Italy, though frequently laid waste by into Italy, the.'jnhabitanls are found to be mor 

 , has He'edcd but few years' respite, to repair i bi;.otted and ignorant, and in the same propor- 

 osscs and rank again among the rich ; owing |-''"n 'he qnality of the silk becouies more inferior, 

 fly to the quantity of silk made there. No ""t'l that of tSc kingdom of Na])Ies and Sicily, 

 .-r nation consumes so greaf an amount of for- j compared to the silks of Piedmont, looks almust 

 1 woollen and cotton goods and hardwares, in M'ke pack thread. The effect of the climate is not 

 portion to. its pop'.ilation, for which they pay I ^'^^^ remarkable ; the northern silk is the stipng- 

 gethcr with their silks and oil, but chiefly witii'Pst and the most elastic ; that of the poutli the 

 silks. most porous, soft and brilliant. The silk of Pied- 



mont has the best staple, and there, what is rais- 

 ed on the high hills, where the air is lively, is 

 much superior to that of the plain. The nature of 

 the waters has also a great influence on the quali- 

 ty of the silk ; limpid, soft, quick waters are very 

 favorable. 



other central situ.ition, with plantaTui.s of mulber- 

 ry trees, and a filnture under the most approved 

 system ; they will then want amnn to superintend- 

 th" whole, an ' that man should be the best 



he Italians hold the silk trade as a noble and 

 ileged employment, on that account their no- 

 families engage in it, who would be looked 

 n as degraded if they were concerned in mer- 

 tile affairs of any other denomination. Thus 

 ia;mense capital has been engaged in the fila- 

 os, and developea that branch of industry to a 



sanlry and carried tor sale to the open market 

 other articles- of produce. There they are 

 ght up by those individuals who keep filatures, 

 ere the cocoons are wound into raw silk, and 

 importa ice of the filature is known by the 



nber of boilers which they keep at work 



Tie of those establishments are of great magni 



sity of keeping unblemished the reputation of j formed and the most intelligent which could be 

 tlfeir filatures. 1 he difference of value between found in the tilatures of Piedmont And his fcel- 

 the finest & the coarsest organzme is about thirty i„gs, permanency and ambition, should be made 

 per^ccnt. ^^ ^* ^ ^^ ^ ^ | to concentrate by bringing him over the Atlantic 



on a golden bridge ; If the wliolo expense of such 

 undertaking should be c.nc million of dollars, ii 

 would he after a while but a trifling percentage 

 upon the^'hi^py results all over the union. Such 

 establishmeiit would become a model for erectin-f 

 other filatures, and the head quarters for informa'- 

 tion for all the minulie belonging to the business 

 of roaring and nviking silk. 



In Italy it is the custom to get the moth to de- 

 posit her seed on sinall pieces of scarlet cloth, and 

 when the appointed time comes, the .vomen' place 

 these pieces of cloth within their bosom. The 

 genial warmth after a certain regular number of 

 days briiigs the seed into life. If the mulberr3 

 leaves, happen not to be developed yet, they make 

 I lise of young lettuce, but that food will not sui; 

 Ihe manufacture of silk has been attempted at | the worms long. It is apt to give them a relax 



reat e.xtent. The cocoons are raised by theJ ^'^'■'°"s periods in Switzerland, and to this day 



ome very excellent is made in the canton of Zu 

 rich. Some sixty years ago the thing was at- 

 tempted at Geneva, and very good silk made, but 

 the industry of the country running in a full^stream 

 upon the watch manufactory, and printing 'of cali- 

 coes, the new undertaking was hut faintly pursued 

 and the mulberry trees left at last to encumber 



e and will turn out yearly several hiindretl, ..Vh? ground. Some idea of the immense, wealth 



e» of raw silk. The fineness of. the silk is 

 awn by the number of cocoons wound into one 

 ead. The finest silk is made by winding to 

 ther the threads oC four cocoons, and is made 

 Piedmont and in the State of Genoa. The 

 arsest is made in Calabria and Sicily, it will 

 Ike the threads of 20 to 60 cocoons. Two 

 reads of raw silk being thrown together make a 

 irp, and if by the machinery each thread re 

 ivcs a separate twist, beside the twist which 

 ifes them together, it is denominated an organ- 

 ne or thrown silk. ' 



achinery which works silk into organ- 

 nes is complex, and very expensive, it works by 

 ater. The most perfect Organzino Mills are to 

 ? found in Piedmont ; in 181)0 there'were one 

 jndred and eleven great Organ: ine Mills in 

 iedmont owned by fifty-one companies, and they 

 anufactured in common years 4ti(i2 bales of Or 

 an;,ines of 100 lbs. each. Besides those were 

 any small mills, which together might turn out 

 nhualiy several hundred bales. There arc also a 

 umber of mills in Lombardy, and in the Venetian 

 tales, at Bergamo and Brescia,but the organ^ines 

 ley make are much inferior to those of Piedmont. 

 'he fineness of a Piedmont organ;ine is deteru.in- 

 d by the weight of a certain number of yards, 

 nd it is denominated by the number of grains 

 hich they weigh. The finest organzine which is 

 lade, is 18 to 20 grains, and goes by that name ; 

 le coarsest seldom exceeds 40 to 45 grains ; the 

 recision with which business is conducted, is 

 ich, that the produce of each mill is of the same 

 neness and qtiaHty from year to year, and con- 



•«»1;ich It?.ly receives by her silks may be formed 

 from nine months' importation into London, in the 

 year 1799, from the ports of that country, which 

 was no less than 837202 lbs. of orsanzines, and 

 9773.5 lbs. of raw silk: at the present tin'o there is 



which destroys their life. 



The best soil to raise the White Mulberry is a . 

 deep loam, not too dry, and if it is now land, or if 

 old, well manured,lhe growth will be the quicker. 

 The mo,st easy way of making a plantation is, af. 

 ter laying out such piece of soil, and preparing i; 

 properly, to open shallow drills at ten feet dis- 

 tance from each other, then cutting some pieces 

 of rope of the same length as the drills, and after 

 filling the hard with some ripe fruit to rub it over' 

 the rope.'Hf/^tfi^^hp fruit and seeds should stick 

 round it. Then place such a piece of r.pi>e into 

 each drill, crn-er it over, and close the ground wei; 

 either with a hand roller, or with the hoe. Thfi 



no doubt but the English market requires a much best kind of rope to use should be one made of 

 less quantity of Italian silk, because their filatures 

 in Bengal have been so vastly i.iiprovcd as to sat- 

 isfy their wants almost completely. About sixty 

 years ago the Bengal silks were very coarse and 

 inferior.; they were reeled in skeins of an enor- 

 mous length, which required extra machinery to 

 wind them. 



The East India Company being desirous to in- 

 troduce the Italian system in their filatures, they 

 took into their employ a Mr Baiimgartner of 

 Geneva, who had been superintendent of n large 

 filature in Piedmont, he went to IncHa, and being 

 a man of great activity and intelligence he made 

 considerable progress in effecting the views oi 

 the Company. However the climate did not sur 

 his constitution, and he was under the necessity 

 to return, and was succeeded by his friend and 

 townsman Mr Wiss. These two men laid the 

 foundation of that surprising progress which the 

 company's filatures have made, and furnish them 

 now with silks equal to any of European growth. 

 They both retired to London, each with a life an- 

 nuity of eight hundred pounds. 



When the government of the United States get 

 to be in full earnest about introducing with us the 

 growth of silk, they will, no doubt; find it to be 

 the quickest and most effectual way to form a na- 

 tional silk establishment at Washington, or semerth 



loose yarn, and if the plantation should happen to 

 be made in spring, the dry seed could be mixed 

 with some gelatinous matter, such as thin paste 

 made of wheat flour or rye meal. When the 

 young plants came up they should be thinned to a 

 proper distance, preserving those which appear 

 most vigorous. They should be kept free A-om 

 weeds, and hoed frequently. Potatoes or other 

 vegfetablos might be cultivated between the rows. 

 The second or third year the plantation might be 

 ready for moderate use, and the sickle lised to 

 gather young shoots as they are wanted. 



After the plants are cropped now shoots will 

 soon come up, and by proportioning the plantation 

 to. the number of worms intended to be kept, the 

 first row might be ready for a second crop by the 

 time that the sickle had gone over the piece — 

 These matters experience will determine, and 

 they will vary according to the soil and the cli 

 mate of the spot where the filature is to be estab 

 lished. This mode of planting is most suitable 

 because it saves the tedious and slow operation of 

 picking leaves from the trees, and using of lad 

 der.s and basketsu 



These notes I offer you, sir, with some diffi- 

 dence, because they are the recollection of infor 

 mation obtained many years ago, but slight as 



ey are, the business with us being new, the*' 



