NEW ENGIiAND FARMER. 



Published by John B. Russell, at JVo. 52 .Vortk Mnr/ivt Street, (over the Agiicullural Warehouse). — Tkomao (1. Fessenden, Editor. 



VOL. VI. 



BOSTOrs, FRIDAY, MAY 30, 1828. 



No. 45. 



AGRICULTURE 



FOB THE NEW ENGLAND FARM>;R. 



SII.K. 



Mr Fesse.nden — The measures adopted by the 

 Federal govcrmnont, to encourage tlie introduc- 

 tion of tlie culture of silk in the United States, 

 have excited universal atlpntion and interest, es- 

 peci.'illy amona; the well informed and most intel- 

 litrc.nl part of the community, from a well founded 

 hope of the ullirnate success which may be expected 

 in the iindertakincr. It is probable therefore that 

 the exhibition of a few skeins of the most esteem- 

 ed si! - of Italy, would prove genernlly agreeable 

 -it tlie present time, to our fellow citi en«, and 

 that ocular denionslralinn, being thus added, to 

 tlio description often iiiven in the public prints, of 

 of the richness and beauty of this article, it would 

 have a useful iind encouraging tendency. Allow 

 me, then, to transmit you herev\ith. for the pur- 

 pose above mentioned, skein samples of the fol- 

 lowing silks. 



Jvo. 1. a white Novi raw Silk of 4 4 cocoons. 

 2. a FossoDibrone do. Sublima. 

 '■i. a do. do. of second sort. 



4. a Pesnro do superfine. 



5. a Bologna do. of first sort. 



G. a do. do. of second sort. 



7. a Friuli do. of first sort. 



8. a do do. of second sort. 



9. a Rimini do. 



10. a Milan do. superfine. 



11. a do. do. of 5-0 cocoons 



\-2. a Bengnl raw Silk of the Knglish East 

 India Company, of the filature of Cos- 

 sembuzar, quality B. 



13. a do. as above, filature of CommercoUy, 



quality B. 



14. a do. filature of Gonnateen, quality B. 



15. an Organi-ine of Piedmont, filature of 



Cerie, fineness of '24d. 



I'i. ado. filntureof Racconis, fitieneasof 27-28 



K. a do. filature of Sacerdoti, fineness of 30d. 



18. a do. filature of Fero, fineni'ss of 34-3(5. 

 ^ 19. an Organzine of Bergam, of the home fila- 

 I ture of Antonio &. Fratelli Sozzi. 



t 20. a do of the home filature of Gio : Batta : 

 Mafieis. 



21. an Or^'anzine of Bergam of first sort. 



2"-J. » do. of second sort. 



23. an Organzine of Milan, of the quality of 



2tj-28d. 



24. a do. do. 34 36d. 

 25 a do. of Bresica, superfine. 



20. a do. ef Milan, of second sort. 

 The raw nilks are guch, as are wound frorti the 

 cocoons immediately after the worms have done 

 spinning. In the filatures, they wind from 4 to 

 14 cocoens in!'« one thread more or less accord 

 ing to the quaiify of the silk they wish to make : 

 the natural gum of the silk makes the threads unite 

 and adheie so conjpletely. as they come out of the 

 hot water wherein they are immersed atthe time of 

 winding, that they become one single thread, and 

 are not to be again sep irated. The excellence of 

 a raw silk, depends not only upon its fineness, but 

 also upon its being perfectly even and clean. If 



an additional or more oiicoong are introduced oc- 

 casioniily in the process of winding, the silk is 

 thereby rendered uneven ; if care is not t:iken, 

 whilst wi[idin;;, to keep the thread clear and free 

 ol the burr and of the floss of the cocoon, the silk 

 is thereby rendered foul ; those imperfections will 

 reduce considerably the value of tl'e article. 



In Piedmont the great perfection of their raw 

 silks renders them so eminently adapted for or 

 ganzines, that they seldom, if ever, export tnem to 

 foreign markets they work them into organ7ines, 

 and thereby increase the original value of the silk 

 from thirty to fifty per cent. 



An oraanziiie, which is also denominated thrown 

 silk, is made by twistinij two threads of raw silk 

 toi^Pther, at the same time that each thread re 

 reives a separate twis' by itself; this is perform- 

 ed by machinery of ingenious complex, and costlv 

 construction, set in motion by wa'er po \pt. The 

 beauty of the organzine consists in being made of 

 silk prime in its kind, and in havin? its twist per- 

 formed in a perfect stile of evenness ; the inanii 

 tactiire of certain goods requires a harder tvvis' 

 than others, and much depends also upon the hab- 

 its and ideas of the manufacturers. Generally 

 spealiing, the manufacturers of Lyons require or- 

 ganzmes of a much harder twist than those of 

 Lomiin, and in both countries, the rihhon manu- 

 factory requires the hardest twist of any- 



The fineness of an organzine is determined bv 

 weighing a certain number of yards, the weight is 

 tl's denomination of its quality ; there are ma 

 Cjiines so constructed, that after placing the or 

 ga'Vizine of a winder, the machine will wind the 

 fixed number of yards and stop. I transmit you 

 herewith a list of the filatures of Piedmont in 'he 

 year 1783, with the names of the proprietors, and 

 the number of bales which they manufactured 

 yearly ; it cannot be a matter of general interest, 

 but may be, perhaps, an object of curiosity 

 with some of your readers, and might be deposit- 

 ed with the samples for their inspection. In ali 

 the districts of Italy where the raw silks, and the 

 organzines, are made with care, they bear precise 

 and determined appellations: thus the raw silks 

 are styled, according to the number of cocoons 

 wound toijether ; viz. 4 4 cocoons, which mean a 

 thread wound all the time with four cocoons ; or 

 5-6 cocoons, that is, varying occasionally one co 

 conn, when the natural unevenness of thf- thread 

 makes it needful to introduce into play one addi- 

 tional cocoon to preserve the evenness of the silk ; 

 this requires great nicety, practice and judgement 

 on the part of the winders, who are always women 

 These correct denominations are altogether in 

 practice in Piedmont. Further south in Italy, the 

 people are less intelligent, less careful, and their 

 denominations are vague ; thus they use to distin- 

 guish their various qualities by the appellations of 

 superfine, fine, first and second sorts, which have 

 no precise meaning ; in the same bale one skein 

 varies from another, and in the same skein the 

 thread runs uneven, sometimes to an extreme. — 

 Such silks, which coristitute a considerable por 

 tion of the produce of Ital", ar« unfit for the man 

 ufacture of the best piece gi^ods. 



Having thus endeavored to explain, in some 

 measure, the nature of the Raw Silks and organ- 



zines, I shall now make some reference to the 

 sample skeins, which are under our consideration ; 

 anil first, I wish to point out skein No. 1, being e 

 white raw silk of Novi. of the extreuie fineness of 

 4 cocoons ; there is but a small quantity of such 

 silk made, it is beautiful ami perfect, is generally 

 white, and is not to ho surpassed, nor even eijual- 

 led, i believe, by any other, either in Italy or else- 

 wlipre ; the worms are apt to spin pnimiscuously 

 while and yellow cocoons, although the much 

 greater number are yellow, but a constant atten- 

 tion to select white cocoons for seed, will after a 

 time, procure a majority ot that colour, which is 

 valued for certain gooils, which require a very 

 clear and perfect colour. The sipiu next in fine- 

 ness is N-7. 2. Fosaombrone sublima, these are 

 very fine and beautiful silks, but not to be compur- 

 ed for perfection, evenni-ss, cleanness, &c. to the 

 Novi ; when the Novi sold in the Lonilon market 

 for 33 shillings sterling per pound of si.steen 

 ounces, the best Fossombrniie was not worth more 

 than 3(5 for the pounil of twenty lour ounces Tlic 

 Pesarn No. 4, is made in a neighboting village to 

 Fossombrone, but their silks are always fifteen 

 per cent, at least inferioi. The Friuli Nos. 7 and 

 8, deserve to be pointed out as silks of peculiar 

 elasticity and firmness ; they are made in the 

 mountainous pnris of the state of Venice, and have 

 been always much esteemed for the gauze manu- 

 factory. 



The Bologna silks, Nos. 5 and 6, are of mucL 

 merit and superior to the Milan Nos. 10& II, and 

 Rimini No. 9. in point of evenness and cleanness. 

 The organzine Nu. 1-5, being of the filature of 

 Cerie, and of the title of 24d. is about as fine as 

 any generally made in Piedmont, or any other 

 country, altho' a few bales are made occasionally 

 as fine' as 2l) and 22d. The title of 27 28d. fila- 

 ture of Raconis, No. 16, is a fineness much used, 

 and it IS seldom that any manufacture requires 

 finer ; the evenness of thread and of twist of the 

 Piedmont organzines. No. 15 to 18, and the clean- 

 ness of their thread may bear critical observation; 

 next to the Piedmont organzines, those of Bergam, 

 upon our sample cards, deserve attention, and first' 

 and best is IMo. 19, filature of Sozzi; next that No. 

 2" of Maffeis ; both of them are of their Filanda 

 di Casa. home filatures ; these wealthy silk makers 

 are generally the owners of several filatures j 

 those at a distance are entrusted to the superin- 

 tendence of agents, but the home filature receives 

 the personal attendance of th« owners, who attach 

 a considerable pride to their perfection. 



I wish to call your particular attention to the 

 three samples Nos 12, 13. 14 ; they are raw silks 

 from the filatures of the English East India Com- 

 pany in Bengal, raised in the open air upon the 

 Mulberry trees, where the worms are set to feed, 

 and left until they have made their cocoovis ; the 

 quality of the silk raised in this easy way. is por- 

 ous, and weak, inferior in beauty of colour and 

 brilliancy, by 50 per cent, to the value of the silke 

 of Italy These sample skeins I procured from 

 London through the means of my respected cor- 

 respondent, Timothy Wiggin, Esq. formerly of 

 Boston, and to whom I sent a note of the sortE 

 and qualities I deemed to be most fit to answer 

 the purpose, I received them by return of the 



