88 SEWING SILK AND TWIST. 



.fine, it will make more. It increases little or nothing 

 in weight when dyed. Silk is sold by the skein ; one 

 hundred of which will measure one third more than 

 half a pound of Italian or English silk of the same 

 sized threads. One woman can make from twelve to 

 fifteen pounds of raw silk, in a season of six weeks.** 



DYEING SILK. 



It will not bs expected that a treatise on the cul- 

 ture of silk will contain full directions and recipes for 

 dyeing the almost endless variety of colors of which 

 silk is susceptible of taking. A few, however, for 

 making the more common colors of silk and twist are 

 subjoined. They are taken from the manual prepar- 

 ed by order of Congress, in which full directions for 

 making most fancy colors, may be found, should the 

 culturist have occasion to make them. 



BLACK, 



"The silk being cleansed, is to be bleached by be- 

 ing sulphured, or rather to be steeped in water charged 

 with sulphurous acid, then washed, and passed 

 through water in which a small quantity of soap has 

 been dissolved ; then take three-fourths of the weight 

 of silk, of gall-nuts, make a strong decoction of them, 

 and boil the silk therein for a short time : let it re- 

 main in the vat for thirty-six hours, then w r ash and 

 wring it. The silk is so saturated with tannin, that 

 100 Ibs. of silk, thus galled, will weigh 125 Ibs. Put 

 in the bath copperas and gum, according to the quan- 

 tity to be dyed, heat it, dip the silk therein, and, when 

 deeply black, put it in a trough of cold water, in which 

 it is to be turned on q. cylinder ; then pass it through 



