Vol. V No 4(1, 



NKW ENGLAiVD I AUi\il^ii 



368 



lefly in breedin-;, and one, if not two swarms to that which is boiled ; alleging that the first los- 1 the retu 



lost 



luffocation is performed when the scoson of 

 ers begins to decline, and generally in Octo- 

 Tlie smoke of paper, or linen rag soaked or 

 eared with molted sulphur, is introdiued to the 

 ■e by placing it on >i hoK? in the ground, where 

 en shreds of thoso articles are undergoing a 

 otheviiig combustion; or the full hive may bo 

 iced oil an empty one, inverted as in partial do- 

 ivation, and the sulphureous smoke introduced 

 fumigating bellows, itc. The bees will fail 

 m the upper to the lower hive in u tew minutes, 

 len they may be removed and buried, to prevent 

 u.-.citation. Such a death seems one of the 

 siest, both to the insects themsol^es and to hu- 

 tn feelings. Indeed, the mere deprivation of 

 c to animals not endowed with sentiment or ru- 

 ction, is reduced to the precise pain of the mo- 

 snt without reference to the past or the future ; 

 id as each pulsation of this pain increases in ef- 

 ct on the one hand, so on the other the susoep- 

 iity of feeling it diminishes. Civilized man i.< 

 e only animal to v. Iioin death has terrors. 

 Eslimaie of Ihe hum<initij of (he three modes. — 

 uch has been said about the cruelty of killing 

 es ; but if man is entitled to deprive thcra either 

 tally or partially of their food, he has an equal 

 ght (and in truth by that very act exercising it) 

 depriviotr them of their lives. For of the iivEs 



es less of its natural gum than lliut wliich is b 

 cd, and for that reason, that the tirst lak 

 ner of dyes better than the other. 



rn of silk must of course be less in pro- 

 oil- I portion, as it was utterly Impossible to pay the 

 es ail man- same just and t^ccunite uttontion to the culture of 



'-1 , . ■ ■, , , 1 '' ^'"■J' '*''?^ number, that can certainly be iriven 



i hough not in Its proper place, I must beg to i to a smaller (luantity. ' ^ 



take notice of llie following particular. As 1 could ' 



not, (luring the last of the years 1 resided ;it Mon- 



Ifore I^shall beg leave to add a few general re- 

 inarks. That it is computed in Franco, that ii 



tau.au, get myself provided in iny nrighbourhooi t^^kcs two hundred and twenlv cocoons, when to'- 



vuh a full quantity ol leaves I then wanted, 1 crably good, to weigh one pound, 



lonnd myself obliged to purchase the produce of That the numb..r of worms requisite to produce 



several trees which grew at the distance of above one quintal of cocoons, will require from •>■> to <>■• 



quire irom •l2lo ; 

 quintals of leaves for their food. 



One quintal of cocoons will yield only from 9 to 

 10 pounds of spun silk. 



'i'lie coQoon.5, one year with another, sell for Q'l 

 sols per poinul. 

 ., ,, , 1 '^''ic spun bilk, w.'ieu thoroughly cleaned and 



. . .^ - r :,"" ^."'°'? f^ons'^'e'-ably, as they ap- j prepared for tlic loom, will bo diminished in quau- 



a mile from my own house. The leaves wore galf 

 erod ai usual in small baskets, and then put into 

 sacks, in which last they were brought homo to me. 

 But as this necessarily required their lying for 

 some time in the sacks, I observed that in general 

 when they caine to hand, this had occasioned the 



peaied perfectly wet when turned out of the sacks, j tity nearly one fourth. 



Having an e.vcellent dry vault or cellar, which I 



set apart for keeping my leaves, I had them si)read 



upon the floor of this cellar, having first made it 



as thoroughly clean as possible. I then caused a 



servant to turn them upside down, and toss them 



about continually, by means of the wood-fork or 



grape before described, till they were perfectly 



dry ; but taking care at the same time that this 



should be done in the gentlest manner, so as not 



to bruise any of the leaves : and I attended myself 



upon this occasion to be certain that my orders 



liat have been partially or wholly deprived of! were punctually obeyed. The leaves were then 

 Jieir honey, it may be safely affirmed, that there } served up to the vi'orms as wanted ; nor did I ob- 

 not one in ten that does any good. If thejlive | serve that their having been sweated in this man- 

 Ill the succeeding spring they are commonly too: ner was attended with any bad effect; on the 



eak to collect food or to breed, and, being plun- 

 i«red by tUeir neighbors, dwindle away, till at 



St the hive is without inhabitants. A prompt 

 •eatli is surely profera.ble to one so protracted. — 

 iome judicious observatii ns on this will be found 

 1 Hiiish's book, extracted from the works of lia 

 Irenee, a French apiarian. — Loudon. 



ON THE CULTURE OF SILK. 

 Continued from page 355. 

 Such waste silk as you wish to have white, is 



\ pound of spun silk, one year with another, 

 sells in Prance for 25 livres. 



I shall close these observations, by beggin" 

 leave to suggest to the Society whether it mio-h't 

 not considerably promote the object they have in 

 view, to encourage the two following particulars : 

 the first, the forming plantations of the white mul- 

 berry tree, upon the soil v/hich has been found in 

 France to be the most proper for this purpose : 

 namely, upon gravel or sand which ought to be 

 thoroughly cultivated yearly, but without sutler - 

 ing any manure to bo put upon it. And the other 

 the raising the white mulberry tree annually from 

 seed, which is undoubtedly the quickest and most 

 e.xpeditious way of gettiug a proper supply of these 



them, and continued strong and healthy till they 

 mounted the brushwood, and yielded me a reasona- 

 ble quantity of excellent cocoons. Reflecting up- 

 on this accident, it appeared to me, that the prac- 

 tice of sweating the leaves might turn out to be 

 beneficial in a climate that was not so dry as the 

 south of Franco ; in England, for e.xaraple, which 

 was the object I always carried in viev/, as a great 

 deal of the gross moisture of the leaves might by 

 that means be discharged before they should be 

 reated in the following manner: you first put thelgiven to the worms; and, indeed, that seems to 

 icons into a kettle of cold water, in which you . be the more necessary in the present state of 

 ct them lie for twenty-four hours ; after which our mulberry plantations, the most of our trees, 

 ou take M quantity of water, such as you judge as far. as I have been able to learn, being planted 

 o he sufficient for boiling your cocoons, anJ for 

 ■ring them properly, v.liich you put into a cop- 

 Dcr kettle. In this water you dissolve some good 

 ■so.ip. giving at the rate of a quarter of a pound of 

 tp for every pound ot cocoons you intend to 

 'boil : and when ihe soap is thorougly dissolved, 

 you tie up your cocoons in a clean cloth, to pre- 

 vent the silk from running together, and so put 

 them in this manner into the kettle ; when you 

 boil them together till you see that the cocoons 

 are grown white, taking care during the time they 

 are upon the fire to keep tlie cocoons dnwn a- 

 mongst the w.i'.er 'lith a stick, that they f! ay all 

 be boiled equr.lly to-elher. When you find that 

 they are abundantly white, you take them out, 

 and c rry them to the river and wash them as 

 you did the other, till the water which comes 

 from them is per eclly clear ; after which you 

 spread them out, and dry them, as before directed, 

 in the sun. 



Though the prices of the waste silk, prepared 

 in the two different manners above mentioned, are 

 generally the same, yet the merchaat rather pre 



contrary, tho worms always fed heartily upon trees, and which will ha^-e this additional advan- 



in garden grounds highly inaniirod, which of course 

 renders the leaves too rich an.l succulent to form 

 in this natural state a proper food for the worms ; 

 nay, in France, as already observed, they are re- 

 garded as highly dangerous for that insect Would 

 it not therefore be proper, if the society should be 

 pleased to recommend this matter to bo fully e.x- 

 amined by experiments, to have the truth ascer- 

 tained, as it is certainly of importance, that the 

 most wholesome food should be provided for the 

 use of the worms. 



Wishing to know what was judged to be a reas- 

 onable return in silk, from an ounfe of eggs, I took 

 the opportunity of putting that question to a gen- 

 tleman of great practice in this culture. His an- 



tage, as by this means a continued succession of 

 tender young leaves will he obtained for the use 

 of the worms in their early state, as these are be- 

 yond a doulit the hc-st food for them till they havi- 

 got over their two first ages. 



It having been the general opinion in France, 

 that some great errors had crept in as to the man- 

 agement of the culture of silk, v/hich occasioned 

 a heavy loss to the kingdom, IMonsieur Marteloy 

 of Montpellier, thg gentleman already mentioued 

 more than once in the foregoing observations, 

 with a view to trace out the faults of that man- 

 agement, and to endeavor if possible to remove 

 them, carried on a course of experiments, during- 

 no less than eighteen years successively, before I 

 went into that country, by means of which he was 

 satisfied he had traced the evil to the bottom ; and 

 insisted that their want of success in that culture 

 was entirely owing to the causes foUowinn', name- 

 ly that proper attention was not paid to thai, 

 cleanliness which was absolutely requisite to keep 

 the worms in health and vigour : secondly, that 

 the practice waste crowd the worms most improp- 

 erly into too small bounds: and thirdly, that they 

 absolutely destroyed all hopes of success, by 

 keeping their worms too close, by e.xcluding all 

 external air, which had the effect to render the 

 air of the room perfectly noxious and destructive 

 to the worms ; which of course occasioned a great 



swer was, that he reckoned himself very well off; mortality of these insects. Upon this subject he 

 when he had at the rate of 5 pounds of silk to an prepared a memorial, to be laid before the French 

 ounce of eggs, though he said he had sometimes minister, of which he favored me with a perusal, 

 got ("I, 7, e, and even 9 pounds per ounce ; and he and from which I took notes, which enable me to 

 had known others get as much as 10 pounds per lay before the society the substance of that me- 

 ounce. But he repeated, that he thought a person morial. (To be continued.) 



had full reason to be satisfied with 5 lbs. of silk ^ 



per ounce, more especially if his quantity of worms ' At twenty years of age, the Will reigns: 



fers the silk cleaned by means of the cold water were larTO, as the larger tho quantity of worms, thirty, the Wit ; at forty, the Judgement. 



