366 



N E V/ ENGLAND FARMER 



MAT c, 1S40. 



our horses and oxen pnrforniinij these labors of men 

 in our agricult re, enable us to cultivate those 

 lands far cheaper than by any other moile. 



I liail the progress of every improvement, wheth- 

 er in our own country or in whatever country found. 

 First of all we shall inquire what has been done, 

 and what now is doing in those countries w! ere 

 silk has long been cultivated, or from time imme- 

 morial ; — those countries of Europe and of Asia 

 especially, from whence so lately we derived all 

 our knowledge of the precious insect and of the 

 plant on which it feeds. We must visit those na- 

 tions in all their improvements, as they have visit- 

 ed ours. At the e.\-perimental silk farm which was 

 established near Paris about ten years since by tlie 

 government of France, and under the superinten- 

 dence of M. Camille Beauvais, a new sysUmi of 

 managing the silkworms has been established, the 

 results of which aie alike sure, infallible and ex- 

 traordinary. '1 hese results have very lately been 

 published in that country by authority, and by the 

 direction of the French Minister of Commerce and 

 Agriculture. By this system, all the wants of the 

 silkworm having been made known by new discov- 

 eries, and being now for the first time fully under- 

 stood, losses from disease are no longer known : 

 they complete their course quickly, or in from '2'i to 

 25 days, witli great economy of time, of labor, of 

 food, and of all things else, and with augmented 

 production. Already and previoA to tlie year 

 18.35, by his extraordinary management, had M. 

 Beauvais succeeded in producing thirteen pounds 

 of silk from the same number of silkW'orms, which 

 in F'rancc usually produce but five pounds, and in 

 Italy seven and a half pounds, and in India twenty 

 pounds, and even in that cold climate he then ex- 

 pected S'oon to be able to produce an equal number 

 of pounds. In the year 1837 was he enabled to 

 produce 185 pounds of cocoons from- '2000 pounds 

 of leaves, and from that same number of silkworms 

 or 40,000, which, being of a size so superior, must 

 liave been more than sufficient for the production 

 of 20 pounds of reeled silk. 



In their native condition, the siikv.-orms are ex- 

 posed to dangers continually, either from furious 

 storms or from devouring foes. When worms suf- 

 fer from cold, they consume their food but slowly ; 

 or if fed only at long intervals, or only by day and 

 never during the night, ajarge portion of their food 

 becoming dry, is couseciuently wasted : — the worms 

 suffer not only by hunger, but also by tormenting 

 thirst; they suffer also doubly after fasting during 

 a long night, from the voracity with which they 

 devour their food in the morning. 



When silkworms thus sufVer, Uioir labor.- are pro- 

 longed to a very late period cf time, or from eight 

 to eleven weeks, the cocoons thus produced, being 

 of inferior siise, the thread slender and feeble, lia- 

 ble to break in reeling, and consequently causing 

 both trouble and waste; and it is agreed that those 

 worms which thus linger, forming small coconns, 

 consume full as much food as tlio.-ie which form co- 

 coons of large size. Even when forming their 

 cocoons, if the silkworms sufter by cold, they sus- 

 pend their labors, thu silk in their stomachs becom- 

 ing congealed. If neglected at this critical period, 

 they enter at once the chrysalis state, leaving in- 

 complete their cocoon or silken tomb. 



'i he silkworm is a cold-bloo<l insect, its tempe- 

 rature ihatof the atmosphere in which it breathes; 

 its vital energies are wonderfully accelerated by 

 heat and retarded by cold: 77° as now discovered, 

 is its proper element, or that wherein it flourishes 



to perfection, but a little more elevated during the 

 first [wo or three days. In this elevated tempera- 

 ture, and in a pure atmosphere, it consumes its 

 food rapidly, requiring feeding constantly, not only 

 by day, but equally so during night. In this tem- 

 perature it completes its course quickly or in from 

 22 to 24 days, when it begins ite cocoon, which it 

 finishes suddenly, working night and day continu- 

 ally during three days. The cocoons thus produc- 

 ed, being invariably very large, the filament sub- 

 stantial and strong, not liable to break in reeling, 

 or to waste : less than nine pounds of cocoons of a 

 superior size and quality being sufficient for a 

 pound of reeled silk. The economy in regard to 

 food, by this system of constant feeding being also 

 very great. 



According to the authority of the Chinese trea- 

 tises, and also the high authority of M. Camille 

 Beauvais, while the French have usually lost near 

 fifty in an hundred of their silkworms, the Chinese 

 hardly lose one in an hundred. This small loss in 

 China is to be ascribed, in part, to their superior 

 climate, so much resembling our own; in part also 

 it may be ascribed to their rejecting in the first in- 

 stance, and invariably, those few worms that hatch 

 first; but principally their extraordinary success is 

 ascribed to their subsequent treatment of the in- 

 sects, and to the great attention whiidi they bestow 

 on them — to their constant and night feeding, as 

 well as by day, and particularly to their modes con- 

 trived for the purposes of ventilation, and for the 

 preservation of a high and suitable temperature. 



At the government establishment or experimen- 

 tal silk farm near Montgeron, in the ii«rth of France, 

 M. Camille Beauvais, the supeiintendent, has adopt- 

 ed with signal success, the nioro complete system 

 of ventilation and of warming the apartments, in- 

 vented by M.D'Arcet. By this system, a high tem- 

 perature being at all times preserved, the silkworms 

 are fed twentyfour times a day for three days, dur- 

 ing the first age ; eighteen times a day during the 

 second age ; twelve times a day during the third 

 and fourth agi.'s ; eight times during the fifth or 

 last and longest age, during which they eat many 

 times more food than during all the previous ages. 

 The most perfect cleanliness being at all times 

 preserved as indispensable. In conjunction also 

 with this high temperature and continued feeding, 

 by night as well as by day, a certain degrse of 

 moisture or dampness is indispensable, since it is 

 found that a drying heat has the effect not only to 

 absorb suddenly alt the moisture of the leaves, 

 thus rendering them unfit for food, but it absorbs 

 also the moisture from tfie lungs and bodies of the 

 insects. With a temperature of 81 to 84'' of Fah- 

 renheit, a degree of moisture must he preserved 

 equal to from 85 to 89° of Sussures' hygrometer. 

 Without this suitable degree of moisture, a high 

 temperature was found by M. Beauvais to be utterly 

 destructive. The same destructive effect it is well 

 known is produced on the human .system from simi- 

 lar causes. By this system of management, he 

 has also ascertained that the worms eat more, 

 while the consumption of leaves is diminishe<l, be- 

 cause they make much less litter and waste : the 

 education being completed with a very groat sav- 

 ing of time, und-consequrntly economy in all things. 

 So great was this saving, that in 18.36, the whole 

 process was completed in 21 days, whi^e in a com- 

 mon temperature it lasts usually from 3i to 3 i days. 



I have stated as the results of his experiments 

 in 1837, at 185 pounds of cocoons, the product of 

 40,000 silkworms, and but 2000 pounds of leaves — 



cocoons of this superior size being sufficient to pro- 

 duce 20 pounds of reeled silk. 



The honor of the introduction of this system to 

 America, is justly due t.o Messrs Cheney, of Bur- 

 lington, New Jersey. In 1839 they tried the sys- 

 tem, but without the apparatus ofM. D'Arcet, which 

 it was impossible then to obtain. Their success 

 being wonderful ; in 24 days the silkworms finished 

 feeding, the product being 178 pounds of cocoons 

 of the largest size, or 225 to the pound, with the 

 consumption of 2000 pounds of leaves, or in that 

 proportion. They are now making preparations for 

 a complete and perfect trial of the system in all 

 its parts, during the present summer, and with the aid 

 of D'Aicct's system of ventilation: the results of this 

 system being the most sure and infallible. The 

 synoptical table containing a complete develop- 

 ment of this system, and published by the French 

 Minister of Commerce and Agriculture, lias been 

 republished in America by them. In that table the 

 teinpeiature, as there designated, is preserved at 

 77° gen''raily. Four of those original tables have 

 during the last month, been sent to nie from 

 France. 



In describing the outline of M. D'Arcet's system 

 of ventilation and "salubrious cocoonery," we sup- 

 pose an oblong building, with four ranges of hur- 

 dles. In the cellar of such a building, and at one 

 end, a stove is placed, a little elevated. This stove 

 may consist of a plain common box stove, or a 

 plain sheet iron air tight stove, of Olmstead's or 

 any other pattern, which is found to consume an in- 

 credibly small quantity of fuel. This stove is sur- 

 rounded on all sides e.xcept the front, with rough 

 masonry, from the bottom of the cellar to the floor 

 above, leaving a narrow space or cavity on three 

 sides of the stove, this being the air chamber: — 

 within this air chamber or narrow space, the cold 

 air entering at the bottom becomes heated, and ris- 

 ing to the height of the floor above and tlience di- 

 vidhig into four juain branches, it i.s carried by four 

 main wooden tubes beneath the floor, also beneath 

 the hurdles: it escapes upwards through the floor 

 liy square holes, at intervals of about 2 1-2 feet 

 asunder — -tlie first hole being an inch square, the 

 size increases in arithmetical progression as it pro- 

 ceeds, because the current diminishes in velocity. 

 In the garret are four corresponding wooden tubes. 

 Into these all the impure air ascending, enters by 

 similar apertures from beneath and through the 

 ceiling. These tubes conduct the impure air thus 

 drawn out, to the chimney. Here and near the 

 chimney, is also a fan-wheel or blower, of four 

 times the area of each of the wooden tubes._ Air 

 being a substance so extremely light and ethereal 

 that a vast body may be suddenly set in motion by 

 a small power. In hot, sultry, calm days, by mo- 

 tion of the fan, impure air is drawn out, while a 

 steady current of air enters the apartment from the 

 cellar beneath. I'his air may be cooled when re- 

 quired, by ice placed in the cavity or air chamber. 

 Thus it is that during hot and sultry days, and days 

 of excessive heat, in some parts of India, the apart- 

 ments ofthe opulent are refreshed by cool l^reezes 

 artificially produced, a man standing at the door 

 with a vast fan. 



It has been very lately stated by Dr Ure, that 

 the five guinea fan ofthe Messrs Lillie and Fair- 

 bairns, operates to admiration. In some nf those 

 vast manufactories of Manchester, where its use 

 has been introduced, the whole impure and unwhole- 

 some air is completely and suddenly expelled and 

 driven out, its place being supplied by pure air. 



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