leaving his factor to settle the questions with respect 

 to who that should he, or whether he should find for it 

 a foreign or domestic market, 



MAUKKT FOR THE SILK. 



The disposal of the silk after it shall have been raised, 

 being an object of the first importance, it seems oppor- 

 tune that we should say a word or two with respect to 

 Ifee markets. By a letter of Judge Ambrose Spencer, 

 H is stated, that the import of silk amounts to the 

 value of $10,000,000, <mnu<i%, and as he very justly 

 remarks, this will increase with our wealth and popu- 

 lation. Thus we have a domestic market, to this enor- 

 mous amount, inviting theAmerican husbandman to sup- 

 ply it. And already various manufactories in the states 

 of New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massa- 

 chusetts, have been established, to convert the raw silk 

 into stuffs of various descriptions, and so confident are 

 th calculating people of that intelligent and enterpris- 

 ing portion of our country, of the entire and triumphant 

 success of the silk busine-s, that companies and indi- 

 viduals are in every direction of it, entering with spirit 

 into the culture and manufacture of silk. Indeed, so 

 rapid have been the multiplication of establishments 

 for its manufacture, that the demand for the raw mate- 

 rial, greatly exceeds the supply, and at the present mo- 

 ment almost any quantity of cocoons or raw silk, would find 

 a really and profitable market, in any of the principal 

 eastern cities. The price of raw silk, we have seen 

 quoted at $4 per pound, and that of cocoons at 3 a 

 bushel. We have never counted the number of cocoons 

 contained in a bushel ; but from haying measured and 

 counted a quart, we should think that from 4,000 to 

 5,000, according to their size and perfection, would 

 make a bushel of cocoons. The only thing like a cal- 

 culation upon this part of the subject, that we have 

 been able to lay our hands upon, we found in the very 

 interesting letter of William B. Buchanan, Esquire, in 

 which he speaks of 1,500 worms making ah ant three 

 pecks of cocoons. If kis measure be the correct one, then, 

 two thousand would make a bushel, but we incline to 

 think that an average, of any considerable quantity, would 

 take fully the number assumed by us. 



Besides the domestic market just spoken of, France 

 imports annually between $5,000,000 and $6,000,000 

 worth of raw silk, and this, too, notwithstanding she is 

 a silk growing country. And England, owing to the 

 humidity of her climate, being unable to raise in 

 worms lo advantage, has to draw all the raw material 

 for her numerous silk manufactories, from distant coun- 

 tries, and we have seen the annual average amount 

 consumed by them from 182 1 to 1828, a period of 7 

 years, stated at $17,255,368. Thus then, in our home 

 market, and in the markets of France and England, we 

 find a demand for raw silk, annually, of about $33,000,- 

 000, which, as those countries respectfully expand ir 

 population and wealth, must increase in a corresponded 

 ratio ; and no one will pretend to affirm, that, if we sup- 

 ply the article upon as good terms as other nations, w 

 will not have an equal chance with them in so doing 

 And here we would ask, what can prevent us, will 

 our advantages of locality, of climate, extensive do 

 mains, and soil, from at once becoming successful rival 

 in every market where the raw silk material is demand 

 ed ? There is nothing within the range of probability 

 that can operate unfavorably to our competition, un 

 less, indeed, it be our own supineness our culpable ii 

 difference our criminal neglect to add toourproduc 

 tions, a staple commodity, which will, if prosecute 

 with vigor and intelligence for ten years, equal, if it doe 

 not exceed, our exportation of cotton, without interfei 

 ing in the least with its consumption. As it has been for 

 cibly observed by Judge Spencer, our import uf silk stu/ 

 already exceed our entire export of breadstuff's. This is a 

 important fact, because, with the facilities of manufac- 

 turing already established and being established, we 



ave at our own doors, a market greatly exceeding in. 

 tmmd any supply which for several years the country 

 'ill be able to furnish, and at prices loo, which offer 

 r ie most generous rewards to the labor of the agricul- 

 urist. 



If it be said that these markets are to the eashoard, 

 mote from the great Mulberry regions of the middle 

 nd southern stales, we affirm that agencies for the pur- 

 hase of raw silk, will rise up in every district and city 

 f those regions, so soon as the article shall be grown 

 herein in sufficient quantities to make it an object. 

 Therefore, no farmer or planter should permit such a 

 bought to enter his mind, as there is nothing more cer- 

 ain than that markets and capital will spring up, and be 



mployed wherever and whenever profit is to be made, 



nterest and emolument, being; with merchants, as 

 vith every body else, the great ruling motives by 

 vhich their actions are governed in matters of trade. 



DISBANDING OF SILK FROM THE REEL. 



The Treasury Manual has the following, and as 

 ive see it copied by the Silk Culturist, published at 

 Hartford, Connecticut, by the Hartford county Silk So- 

 :iety, in the midst of the silk culture country, we take 

 t for granted that it is the approved method. 



" The single fibres of which the thread is composed, 

 are liable to suffer very different degrees of stretching- 

 as they are wound from the cocoons. If the cocoons are 

 not well sorted, this different degree of extension will be 

 he greater ; and even when they are sorted, they 

 must still be subject to the same, because some are a lit- 

 .le longer in the water than others, and, therefore give 

 heir silk easier ; and also, the weak latter ends of 

 ome cocoons wind off with the strong first part of 

 others. The fibres being thus strelched unequally, will 

 occasion when the skein is taken from the reel too sud- 

 denly, those fibres which are most stretched to contract 

 more than the others, by which their union will be in 

 some measure destroyed, and the thread composed of 

 .hem rendered less compact and firm, the fibres appear- 

 ng in several places disjoined from, one another. To 

 emedy this, the skein should remain there six or eight 

 lours, until the unequal exlerision which it suffered in 

 winding is, by the stretch which it undergoes on the 

 reel, brought nearer to an equality ; and, until the- 

 thread, by being well dried, has its fibres firmly united. 

 When the skein is quite dry, proceed to disband it 

 from the reel. First, squeeze it together all around, to 

 loosen it upon the bars ; then, with a thread made of 

 the refuse silk, tie it on that place where it bore on 

 the bars of the reel : then slide it off the reel, and 

 make another tie on the part opposite to the one first 

 made ; after which, double it, and tie it near each ex- 

 tremity, and then lay it by for use or sale, in a dry 

 place. When the skein is finished, there should be a 

 mark tied to the end of the thread, otherwise it may be 

 difficult to find it, if it mixes with the thiead of the 

 skein. 



CLEANSING AND UNGUMMING SILK. 



" The operation consists of depriving silk of the prin- 

 ciples which affect its whiteness. 



Make up the silk into hunks, that is to say, run a 

 thread around each hank, which consists of a certain 

 quantity of skeins tied together. After that, the hanks 

 are to be united, and several of them to be bound to- 

 gether, to make up a bundle, the sizes and names 

 whereof vary according to the nature of the article 

 manufactured. 



After this operation, soap is to be dissolved in water, 

 heated in a kettle in trie proportion of 15 Ibs. of sap 

 to 100 Ibs. of silk. Cut the soap into small slices to 

 promote its solution. After the soap has been dissolved, 

 the kettle is to be filled with fresh water, which should 

 be pure, free from calcareous impregnation, but not in 

 unnecessary quantities, in order to avoid increasing the 



