Book VII. SILKWORM, HONEY BEE. 1105 



silk : the principal part is afterwards sent to a mill to be thrown, that Is, to be twisted singly, or to have 

 two or more ends of it doubled and twisted together to form singles, tram, or organzine, in order to fit it 

 for the loom. There are, however, purposes for which a single untwisted thread is applied. We have 

 before stated that a single thread is generally composed of the filaments from four cocoons, and four of 

 these threads compose the organzine, or that used as the warp of fabrics ; each thread is first spun or 

 twisted, and then the four are thrown together into one. The weft or tram generally consists of four raw 

 threads simply twisted together. The reason of drawing so fine a silk on the reel as that composed of four 

 cocoons, is, that the fileuse, or attendant at the basin, cannot perfectly see more cocoons in one set, so as 

 to replace the ends when the cocoons are exhausted. If a thread of sixteen cocoons were to be reeled, the 

 fileuse could not ensure regularity. Sometimes she would have only eight or ten running, and at the next 

 moment possibly twenty; consequently a roost uneven silk would thus be produced : to prevent this evil, 

 four cocoons are only run at once, and combined as before described. The important invention of 

 Mr. Heathcoat, which we shall hereafter notice, applies to the object of drawing off sixteen or -more 

 cocoons at once on the reel, so as to form a thread as even as that produced by four cocoons, and thus 

 abridge the expense of the subsequent processes of throwing. We understand this invention is fully ap- 

 preciated by the reelers abroad, and by the manufacturers at home, and that it produces an astonishing 

 improvement in the quahty of the .silk, and a great reduction in its price. Mr. H. has obtained patents in 

 the silk countries no less than in England for this invention, which there is every reason to think will be 

 generally adopted. 



7600. Culture of the silkworm in England. It is well known to those who have considered the subject, 

 that the silkworm will breed and thrive very well in England, where the range and extremes of tertipera- 

 ture are within narrower limits than in France or Italy. The white mulberry flourishes equally lyell With 

 us as in those countries. It remains, however, to be proved whether the weight of leaves prdffiiced on a 

 given space of ground is equal to the average crop in warmer climates. This is evidently an important 

 consideration in the question, of whether England can compete with foreign countries in the production of 

 raw silk. The high value of land in a country 50 densely peopled as England, and the fact that the mul- 

 berry tree not only requires great space for its perfect growth, but also a clear ground beneath, renders the 

 prospect of profit from this branch of agriculture very questionable. A joint stock company, in the manage- 

 ment of which all the cabinet ministers were more or less concerned^ was established in 1825, by the name 

 of " The British, Irish, and Colonial Silk Company." They possessed a very large capital, and had 

 formed extensive plantations of trees i several parts of England and Ireland, particularly near Windsor 

 and Cork. Mr. John Heathcoat of Tiverton, in Devonshire, has also applied himself to the investigation 

 of this important subject with great ardour; and, previously to the formation of the company above allyded 

 to, had made considerable progress in the cultivation of the tree and the management of the worm. With 

 the true liberality of a man of science, he presented to the company several thousand Italian plants destined 

 for his own plantations, that they might commence their establishments without delay. It ought to , be 

 generally known, that to this gentleman we are indebted for the cheap production of that beautiful article 

 called bobbin-net lace, which has become so irnportant a branch of manufacture in England. It was in 

 the attempt to render silk sufficiently even for his use in lace, that he made the discovery in reeling which 

 we have before mentioned ; and it is from the result of his investigations that the attention of govern- 

 ment has so lately been directed to the subject. Admitting, as we have done, that no natural impedi- 

 ments exist against the successful culture of silk in England, it will naturally be asked why all attempts 

 hitherto made have been unsuccessful? This question embraces a variety of considerations, into which 

 our limits will not permit us to enter at large. We may, however, observe, that neither the mulberry tree 

 nor the silkworm are indigenous to Britain. Centuries elapsed before even the south of Europe began 

 their culture, which, commencing in the east of Asia, was propagated slowly and at distant periods west- 

 ward. It obtained firm root in France during the reign of Henry IV., after great resistance on the part 

 of the people, whose prejudices against the application of land to this purpose excited frequent rebellions. 

 The unsuccessful attempt of James I. to establish it in England is not accounted for; but the times which 

 succeeded were unfavourable to the introduction of new arts and inventions. The manufacture of silk 

 goods was introduced into this country in the fifteenth century, and received a great stimulus by the re- 

 vocation of the edict of Nantes in 16&^ By this intolerant and disgraceful measure Louis XIV. drove 

 thousands of his most industrious subjects to seek an asylum in foreign countries ; of whom it is supposed 

 not less than 50,000 emigrated to England. From this period the manufacture of silk goods became an 

 important branch of trade in England. The common and even still existing prejudice, that our climate is 

 unfitted for the growth of the tree, and the production of the worm, would probably be still more invete- 

 rate in former times. The acknowledged fact that England is much colder than the south of France or 

 Italy, would naturally induce the idea that it was unsuitable both to the tree and the worms. Individuals 

 among our countrymen have, however, constantly asserted the contrary, and numerous insulated experi- 

 ments have been brought forward in support of their opinion. Miss Croft of York, in 1792, sent to the 

 Society of Arts a specimen of silk produced by worms fed entirely upon lettuce leaves. We are not told, 

 however, whether proper trials were made by subsequent experim.ents to prove its quality ; and we have 

 already observed that such silk, for purposes of manufacture, is perfectly useless, even in Italy. Yet we 

 know it to be the opinion of men now perfectly conversant with the subject, that the various experiments 

 and trials that have been hitherto made would long ago have succeeded, had we been fully informed on 

 all the requisite points connected with the management of the tree, the worm, and its produce the cocoon. 

 Our experimentalists have all laboured under one difficulty,- they were ignorant of the reeling process ; 

 and this probably aroee from their experiments having been conducted on too small a scale to render it 

 necessary to import or require the skill of winding the silk from the cocoon. This difficulty has at length 

 been overcome by the exertions of Mr. Heathcoat, at whose establishment in Devonshire the improved 

 method of reeling is now carried on with complete success. 



7601. The recent attempt to establish the culture of the silkworm in Britain appears to have completely 

 failed for the present. After collecting a great quantity of mulberry trees, and establishing considerable 

 plantations in Devonshire and near Windsor in England, and in the vicinity of Cork in Ireland, the 

 company in 1828 gave up the whole, without, in our opinion, having given the attempt a fair trial. As 

 the mulberry will produce abundance of leaves as far north as Stockholm, and as the worms have to bQ 

 hatched and brought forth in artificial heat even in France, there cannot be a doubt as to the success of 

 this branch of culture in any part of the British islands. W hether it would pay is a different thing ; we 

 by no means think it would, even in Ireland. 



7602. This common honey bee{jt^\s mellifica Z-. ) inhabits Europe in hollow trees, but 

 is chiefly kept in hives, being domesticated every where. Perhaps more has been written 

 on the economy of this insect than on any other animal employed in agriculture,, and 

 certainly to very little purpose. After all that has been done in England, France, and 

 Italy, the bee is still more successfully cultivated, and finer honey produced, in Poland, 

 by persons who never saw a book on the subject, or heard of the mode of depriving bees of 

 their honey without taking their lives. Much as has been written in France and England 

 on this last part of the subject, it is still found tlie best mode to destroy the hive in taking 

 the honey. Unanswerable reasons for this practice ai-e given by La Gren^e, a French 

 apiarian, which are elsewhere quoted by us at length (Encyc. of Card, ari^ B/fes), and 



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