1840.] SENATE— No 36. 241 



and it required 225 to weigh a pound. The amount of leaves fed out 

 was 3,970 pounds, which gives II pounds of leaves to a pound of co- 

 coons, and 9 pounds of cocoons being required to produce a pound of 

 silk, it will be seen that by this system of feeding, 99 pounds of leaves 

 only are necessary for one pound of silk." 



"In the natural system, 40,000 worms consumed 2,576 pounds of 

 leaves ; in the artificial system, 1,985 lbs. These worms produced 130 

 pounds of cocoons in the natural system, and 178 lbs. in the artificial. 

 The cocoons weighed at the rate of 300 to the pound in the natural 

 system, and 225 to the pound in the artificial. It required 10 lb. 5 oz. 

 of cocoons produced by the natural system to make a pound of silk ; 

 and 9 pounds of those by the artificial. The 40,000 worms fed on the 

 natural system made 12 pounds of raw silk ; the same number fed on 

 the artificial system, made 19| lbs. The natural system required an 

 average of fully one week more time to produce the cocoons than the 

 artificial system occupied." 



V. 



MANAGEMENT OF JOSEPH FIELD. 



I have the pleasure of subjoining the account given by Mr. Field, of 

 Charleniont, Franklin county, Mass., of his silk culture. His is one 

 of the clerical examples to which I refer in the passage to which this 

 note belongs ; and his intelligence and excellence of character entitle 

 his statements to entire respect. 



Letter I. 



Mr. Colman : 



Sir, — I will, by your suggestion, submit a few hints, as the result 

 of six or seven years experience in the production of silk, in the town 

 of Charlemont, Franklin county, Mass. One who has tested the art 

 of managing the silk worm, only by experimenting upon a thousand or 

 two at a time, has no high claim to be looked to for instruction, where 

 large establishments are in operation. In small parcels none of the 

 principal difficulties present themselves, which are to be encountered 

 by the cultivator who, in one season, rears his hundreds of thousands 

 in a single laboratory. My experience has been within the range of 

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