104 EXPERIMENT IN RAISING SILK. 



MR. PERRY'S EXPERIMENT IN RAISING SILK. 



Bradford, Feb. 27, 1832. 



MOSES NEWELL, Esq. 



Dear Sir, 



It appears reasonable that while the Essex Coun- 

 ty Agricultural Society is offering its patronage to encourage the 

 cultivation of the mulberry tree, and the producing of silk, that 

 it should in return be furnished with the information which ex- 

 periments may afford those who have been benefitted by its 

 patronage. With this impression, I send you a few observations 

 relative to the raising of Silk, drawn from a small experiment 

 made by me the season past. 



Last year I raised several thousand worms of three kinds ; 

 one gray and two white. 



For the first crop, the eggs were put in rooms, without artifi- 

 cial heat and hatched the last week in May and the first in 

 June. 



The gray came to maturity in 35 days. 



1 of white " " 32 



2 of white " " 28 or 29 



Parcels of the eggs of each kind produced by miller, from 

 the worms, were kept in the same room for the purpose of 

 ascertaining whether they would hatch another time the same 

 season without artificial heat, or even greater heat than would 

 be found in any common apartment at that season. In about 

 eight days from the depositing of the egg of the second kind of 

 white, they all hatched in fine order to the amount of some 

 thousand, while the eggs of the other two remained the whole 

 summer in the same situation without being very sensibly affect- 

 ed with the heat, and in fact a part of them remain still in the 

 same place exposed without covering in a room without fire, 

 where I have let them remain to try the effect of cold. How it 

 will terminate with them I cannot say ; they appear now to be 

 in a sound and healthful state. The eggs of these last I procured 



