I.V.— No. 41. 



i\KW ENGLAND FAIliMEU. 



328 



]oin llic litter, as you shall find it necessary, 

 jought to be done at least once in twcnty- 

 3urs after the bushes ate put up, and even 



ins for mounting'. But lliis practice is altriulcd 

 with no small dogroc of inconvenience and danjer, 

 because it is impossible to manage your worms in 

 f you can find time for it. The bvislies are such a manner, thtit the contents of a whole bas- 

 in such manner as to form with tlipir heads i ket shall all of them bo ready to mount at the 

 liflarches betwixt e.nch row of the branches, same instant. Tlie consequence tlicn is, that those 

 cing the bushes as above they stand erect which are ripe mount directly, and those which 

 m, because they press eqanlly upon the un- j are not ripe remain in the cabins, and must have 

 it as well as on the upper basket. [ food given to them till such time as they nvo ready 



;u the worms are mounted on the brush- to mount in their turns, durincr which time the 

 care must be taken not to sutler anybody litter must be changed frequently to prevent cor- 

 urb them by handling or touching the brush- rnption : but what is worst of all, the worms which 

 because when they begin to work, their arc mounted on the brush-wood, before beginning 

 aeration is to tlx so many threads of silk to to shut themselves up entirely in their cocoons, 

 nt parts of the branches, which threads are discharge a quantity of liquid matter, which falls 

 re to support and hold up their cocoons in upon the worms below in the cabins, and wets 

 roper poise. If any one of these silk threads and dirties them prodigiously ; and that glutinous 

 ie by handling the branchrs, the worm finds, liquor drying and hardening upon their skins, 

 he comes to work in the cocoon, that by prevents their perspiration, and deprives them of 

 ssof that thread the cocoon has lost its poise, that pliancy and agility which are so rcqtiisito to 

 ich means, as it does not remain steady, he enable them to mount, as well as to make their 

 t work with advantage, so as to finish his cocoons. Tiie consequence often is, tliat the 

 1 properly. Disappointed by this nJeans of worms thus wet witli that glutinous liquor con- 

 ning his work, he pierces the cocoon, quits tract diseases and die, at the very instant they 



gather, and throws out his silk at random 

 ver he goes, by which means his silk is 

 ' lost, as is the worm also, as he finds no 

 to lodge in with propriety, in order to pre- 

 3r his last change of state when he is to 

 out a butterfly. 



le of the threads of silk, which it has been 

 y said the worm attaches to the different 

 les, upon his first beginning to work, are 

 sc sometimes broke by another worm work- 



his neighbourhood, which is attended with 

 tal consequences above mentioned, though 



st is an accident which happens but very 



r,. 



h of your worms as you find loiter below, 



jt mounting, notwithstanding they are ripe, 



ust be careful from time to time to place 

 .lie brush-wood, which is ranged at the two 

 ind alo.ng the sides of the stage. There 

 ways some of th» worms which are la; y, or 

 not strength enough to mount on tha branch- 

 lich however are strong enough to make 

 cocoons when they are placed where they 



are ready to mount ; and as these diseases are 

 too often contagious, by the worms bursting, the 

 contagion is spread over the rest, which become 

 also infected, and so the whole which remained in 

 the cabins are often entirely lost. 



Some few people, who are more attentive, and 

 are sensible of the dangerous consequences of the 

 above method, follow a different practice. Thev 

 have the patience to pick out the worms, one by 

 one, from time to time, as they observe them to 

 be ripe, which they then place in the cabins, and 

 which never fail to amount immediately, when 

 they are properly chosen ; that is, when the per- 

 son wKo gathers them is a proper judge of their 

 real point of maturity, which discovers itself by 

 their bodies, but more particularly by their heads 

 being perfectly transparent, as before mentioned. 

 The other worms, which are not ripe, they leave 

 in the basket, and give them their food in the 

 usual manner, till they become ripe in their turns, 

 when they are constantly gathered up from time 

 to time, and put into the cabins as they come to 

 maturity. By this means you can change them 

 ake them, without the fatigue of mounting i with ease, and they are safe against being wet 

 rush-wood. Thoje which nre so unlucky as . with that glutinous liquor above mentioned, 

 ible from the brush-wood should also be which from repeated e.xperience has been found 

 J with the other weak worms, because the > to have such pernicious and destructive conse- 

 cnerally diminishes their strength greatly ; I quences. One may allege that this last practice 

 lose which you then plsce upon the brush- ' occasions an additional trouble, but the answer is 

 should be covered over with a piece of pa- i obvious, that by this method a great number of 

 o which they attach the threads of silk to | worms are preserved, which are utterly lost by 

 their cocoons steady. You may also place following the other practice of putting the worms 

 of the weak worms in papers, made up in I of a whole basket at once into the cabins; and 

 irm of a cone or sugar loaf, in which they i consequently the quantity of silk produced is con- 

 siderably increased, which does more than repay 

 that additinal trouble tenfold. 



In putting the ripe worms into the cabins, take 

 care to place them first of all in the middle of the 

 cabins, that the middle may be well furnished 

 with worms before you place any at the sides. — 

 Should you begin first with the sides, or outward 

 ends of the cabins, you will find it extremely 

 difficult to supply the middle of tlie cabins with 

 worms, without disturbing and even destroying 

 some of tliose which arc mounting on the sides, 

 in reaching in with your hand towards the mid- 

 dle. (To be continued.) 



nake tlieir cocoons extremely well. 



!at attention must also be paid to visit care- 



from time to time all the different cabins,\in 



to remove immediately all diseased and dead 

 s ; because the lost, if left, will presently 

 . and occasion a bad smell in the rooi«, which 

 1 particularly annoy the worms which are at 



in making their cocoons in the same cabin ; 

 he diseased ones would infect the others 

 :i are sound. 



'len it is observed that a great proportion of 

 ."orms of tli^ same basket are ripe, and that 

 are wandering about in quest of the brush- 

 !, the common practice has been to place the 

 e worms of that basket at once into the cab- 



It appears Savannah can be supplied with fresh 

 water through Aqueducts for §50,000. 



STRAW HON NETS. 

 " Straw bonnets, as they are made in New Eng- 

 land, are a most beautiful and valuable article oi 

 dress. They are faliricatod in large quantities foi 

 c.vportation to the Soullirru iiiul Middle States, by 

 the females of Rhode Island, and those parts ol 

 Connecticut and Massachusetts which adjoin it. 

 Formerly, the straw was split, flattened by u ho' 

 iron, and pasted upon cloth or paper. The plate, 

 thus formed, was cut into patterns, and made up 

 and trimmed with ribbons. This was not a very 

 durable fabric, and was therefore little esteemed. 

 The ladies are indebted to the acute observation 

 of a young gentleman of this town, who is now 

 no more, for their knowledge of the elegant and 

 durable manner in which the bonnets are now 

 made. 



" Some twenty years ago, this gentleman waf 

 in one of the Southern States, whither comraer 

 cittl enterprise had called him, and lodged in a 

 boarding house where wore two English females 

 who made and sold bonnets of the celebrated 

 Dunstable braid. They were very particular to 

 let no females into their working- room, for fear 

 of having their trade divulged. Of the Yankee 

 gentlemen, however, they had no distrust; and, 

 as he was a man of genteel address and figure, 

 and could, on occasion, enter into the agreeable 

 chil chat conversation in which femalss of all 

 ! ranks so much abound, he was frequently invited 

 by them into the sanctum sancloriim of the 

 • trade. He improved the opportunity thus afford- 

 I ed him, of gratifying his curiosity ; observed 

 I the whole process of the straw, from its crude 

 j and native state, till it w.-.s completely carried 

 I through its metamorphosss, and worthy of adorn- 

 I ing the heads of the Carolinian belles. On his 

 j return to his native soil, he imparted his discover- 

 I ies to his female friends, by whom a successful 

 j e.xperiment was made. Bonnets were fabricated 

 ' of American Straw Braid, were sent to the South- 

 ] em towns, and brought a price little inferior to 

 , that of the imported ones. Improvements were 

 gradually made in the elegance and strongth of 

 the braid, and the methods of bleaching. The art 

 was extensively difli"used from one to another till 

 at last the manufacture became an object of im- 

 portance in trade. The most considerable im- 

 provement, was the construction of the machine 

 by which a straw is regularly cut and smoothed. 

 " The business has, for several years, been an 

 extensive and lucrative one ; the process of cut- 

 ting and smoothing, bleaching, braiding, making 

 up and (liuiming, has each become a separate 

 trade. Those who employ a capital in the busi- 

 ness, buy the braid of young girls, who, to the 

 number of some hundreds, earn their clothes by 

 the neat employment of making it. The ends of 

 the straw are then cut off by others, and the braid 

 thus prepared is put into the hands of those who 

 are to sew it into patterns. We have heard of 

 some who employ capitals of from ten to fifteen 

 thousand dollars each in the business. It is a mod- 

 erate calculation to state tiie value of this branch 

 of mauulacture in Rhode Island, Massachusetts 

 and Connecticut, at .•J300,000 in 1817. A farmer 

 who has a crop of rye which it l.irge, and bright, 

 and fit for bonnets, can get twice as much for the 

 straw in the milk, as for the ripened grain." 



Man. Sf Farm. Journal. 



A militia soldier in Rhode Island being blamed 

 y his Captain for having no lock on his gun, tied 

 ^ padlock to it. 



