ON MULBERRY TREES AND SILK. 43 



men of raw silk, reeled on a silk-reel of my own 

 construction, on the principle of the Piedmontire 

 reel, differing in some measure from any I have seen 

 described, but it worked extremely well. No. 2, is 

 a few hanks of sewing silk, reeled as above and 

 twisted on a common high wheel. No. 3, is a spe- 

 cimen of stocking-yarn, spun direct from the perfo- 

 rated and coarse cocoons. The management of 

 these I conceive very important, as the perforated 

 cocoons, (such as the miller has been allowed to cut 

 through for the production of eggs,) have generally 

 been considered of little use, and even accounted as 

 waste. The cocoons, and floss with them, were put 

 into a bag and placed in a kettle with water, and 

 with one quart of soft soap to about six pounds of 

 cocoons, and boiled four hours, then taken out and 

 hung up until thoroughly drained, to eradicate the 

 water which becomes colored by the skins of the 

 chrysolite. They were then put again into the ket- 

 tle, with the same quantity of water and soap, and 

 boiled one hour, then well rinsed in clear water and 

 hung out to drain. After draining they were spread 

 to dry, but not wrung, as this would cause them to 

 mat together. They were then spun into yarn on a 

 common foot wheel, by holding the cocoon in the 

 right hand and spinning from the perforated end. 

 The yarn, or thread, was then wound into balls, 

 twisted on a high wheel, and boiled out. 



The worms which produced the silk herewith 

 presented, were hatched on the twenty third, 

 twenty fourth, and twenty-fifth of June last. The 

 parent stock from whence these proceeded, were 

 hatched on the 9th, 10th, and 11th of May, last 

 year, 1839. They were of the variety called ' Mam- 

 moth Sulphur,' raised by myself, and the eggs pre- 

 served on papers where they were deposited by the 

 miller, were folded up, put in a tin box, not made 

 air tight, and kept in an upper room until March 

 last, when they were placed in an ice cellar, in a 

 temperature of 45 to 50 degrees, Fahrenheit. Three 



