236 APPENDIX. [March, 



ed to experience no injury whatever from the thunder. The d.nmp wet 

 weather undoubtedly retarded them in their operations. At such times 

 they were not so vigorous and active, but every crop was perfectly 

 healtiiy ; few, if any, were lost the whole season by disease. At one 

 time my shelves were more crowded than they should have been, and 

 worms would frequently full to the floor. These seldom wound after 

 they were returned to the shelves; in this way I may have lost nearly 

 or quite the amount of one lb. of reeled silk. 



In order to be prepared for cold wet weather, I fitted up a furnace 

 in my cellar, with flues leading up and around my upper room. I did 

 not use artificial heat, however, more than a few times when the morn- 

 ings were a little cool. 



'j'he whole number of worms fed on my quarter of an acre was 

 about 4D,000. The weight of leaves which they consumed was 2,576 

 lbs. The amount of cocoons prodiiccd was 130 lbs., weighed just as 

 taken from the shelves, without sorting or flossing. After they were 

 sorted and flossed, there was 1 lb. of floss and 4 lbs. defective cocoons, 

 leaving J'26 lbs. of cocoons. These produced 12 lbs. of merchantable 

 reeled silk, IG ounces to the lb., and 1 lb. wastage, ends, &.c. The 

 silk was reeled on the Piedmontese reel; the water heated in kettles, set 

 in a furnace ; one kettle was used as a heater, and the other to reel 

 from. 



From the above statement it will be seen, that it required between 

 19 and 20 lbs. of leaves to make 1 lb. of cocoons. Of these cocoons, 

 without flossing or sorting, it required 10 lbs. and 10 ozs. to make 1 

 lb. of reeled silk. After they were flossed and sorted, it required 10 

 lbs. and 5 ozs., or about 214 to 215 lbs. of leaves to make 1 lb. of 

 reeled silk. This shows a greater amount of leaves necessary to make 

 1 lb. of cocoons, and a greater weight of cocoons necessary to make 1 

 lb. of reeled silk, than the estimates published in various quarters, and 

 greater than experiments said to have been made actually required. I 

 was often obliged to feed lod leaves owing to the frequent long storms, 

 and the worms appeared to experience no injury whatever from this. 

 Still I did not consider it safe to feed leaves gathered in the storm, 

 and dripping wet ; and in our attempts to dry the leaves, some became 

 wilted and were thrown away. The worms also were always abundantly 

 fed, and a pattial waste of leaves frequently, no doubt, occurred in this 

 way. These things, together with the loss of perhaps the value of near 

 1 lb. of reeled silk, by worms falling from the shelves, would vary the 

 result a little, and might show that 190 lbs. of leaves would produce 1 

 lb. of reeled silk. 



