A N D G A 11 D E N E R S J O U 11 N A L. 



107 



scd. Twenty bushels of shrunk, mouldy sted 



crushed without hulling, at Fnirchild & Gogo's 

 Will, in this village, last season. The yield 



the seed, with Williams &, Purdie's Hydraulic 

 P||f>, was about 4 quarts to the bushel, — the yield 



flux seed is nearly !) quarts, with the same double 

 press. Had the suiillower seed been plump, and 

 rod order, the yield would have been much great- 



F. Gage has planted an acre with the above seed 

 spring. 

 'atcduo, June 7th, IS'lO. D. W. 



The Slug, 



he Editors of the Nac Genesee. Farmer — 



lulievesome of you have made quite n mistake in 



;< idcring the slug the larva of an insect. It bc- 



3 to that class in Zoology termed Moluseu, or 



iseous animals, including the oyster, clam, barna. 



:l>linnil, &.c. ; to the order Nuilata, or nioluscotis 



als destitute of shells, which includes the cuttle 



sea hare, &c. ; and to the genus Lijmax, or slug. 



genus embraces several species, but whether 



■alista have described the species which trouble us 



, is uncertain. 



ui also say that there are many species of Aphis, 

 dso many varieties. That the species are nume- 

 is well known, but I believe they have never been 

 taiiied to run into varieties. ,T. 



From tlic Juurnal of the American Sitk Socictit. 



Keeling Silk. 



le ease with which the operation of reeling silk 

 be performed is not generally known ; indeed it 

 own to none but those who have tried their hand 

 and many even of them have got out of patience 

 ; discovering it. We have heard many anecdotes 

 rative of the facility with which persons who ncv- 

 her reeled or saw it done. An aged gentleman 

 id to us a few months since, the following : He 

 lonsiructed a Piedmontese reel from the drawing 

 escription in the Silk .lournal, and placed it in a 

 room for the purpose of giving it a trial. He had 

 dly studied all the directions lor the operation, and 

 red himself to carry them out literally ; after some 

 tlty he had caught the fibres of as many cocoons 

 wished to combine in a thread, had got the two 

 Is passed through the eyes of the plate, and even 

 i them round each other twenty times, as dircc- 

 efore passing them through the guides of the tra 

 ig bar on to the bars of the reel. At last all this 

 eady. He looked at the cocoons, at the threads, 

 d around each other, and at the reel, with doubt 

 esitation. "It will not do," said he "surely 

 threads wound around each other in that manner 

 'I pass treely — they must break with a very slight 

 Df the reel." He at last ventured to touch the 



gently — the thread passed freely, and he was 

 raged to turn a little faster, when it passed ofl" 

 nore freely. Thus encouraged, he turned the 

 :ster and faster, increasing by gentle degrees, till 

 tit upon full speed ; and the faster he turned, the 

 freely the thread passed, and the more easily the 

 ns unwound. He was so delighted with his e.\- 

 ent, that he called in his family to witness hie 

 3S — for be had made the experiment in private, 

 e might not be exposed to the laughter of obeer- 

 in case of failure. He then proceeded, with the 

 one of his family, ond reeled a skein of raw silk 

 iing to direciione, and sent it to a neighboring 

 where there was a person, a foreigner, who was 

 lered a good judge of rawsilk. The silk was 

 1 to him, and he pronounced it Italian raw silk 

 :ellent quality, and insisted that the skein exhibi- 

 ,'as reeled in Italy, and could not have been reeled 

 9 country. After, however, he was assured that 



been i^roduced h':re, and he was requested to 

 out any fault that it might exhibit, he discovered 

 le thread was occasionally loose. That is, there 

 spots occasiiiinally, in which the fibres remained 

 nected by the adhesion of the gum. No sooner 

 lis fault pointed out than the cause flashed upon 

 d gentleman's mind instantly. It was this. — 

 g the process the reel had been stopped occasion- 

 »r the purpose of replacing exhausted cocoons, 

 nd when it was recommenced, he had omitted to 

 he fibres below their iunction at the crossing. — 

 ibresatthe point had of course not been biought 

 erfect contact, and had become dry ; therefore, 



they passed up and through the crossing, they of 



couite did not remain adherent, and hence iho thread 

 in the skein presented those spots of loose or inadhei cut 

 libres — the peifection of raw silk requiring the several 

 tibies to be closely united by their gum into a cylindri- 

 cal thread. It was a valuable lesson to the old gentle- 

 man, although the trilling imperfection his silk pre- 

 sented in thisrespti-t, would scarcely have been noticed 

 liy the mauuliictuier ; for there is not one skein of the 

 best Italian raw silk in a hundred that is entirely free 

 irom that lault. 



This anecdote, \\'hieh is literally true, ought to en- 

 courage others to reel silk. The old gentleman is not 

 a mechanic, and yet made the reel with his own hands. 

 This shows how simple the Piedmontese reel is, and 

 how easily it may be made by persons at a distance 

 from places where they are kept for sale. 



Another gentleman, who had obtained one of the 

 iron Piedmontese reels that are made in this city, in- 

 forms us that he is now using it, and that he is surpri- 

 sed at the facility with which the rcelere, who never 

 before saw a reel, northe operation of reeling, perform 

 with it. 



Another gcnt'eman, in Pennsylvania, has made a 

 reel himself, of wood, though he is a worker in metal, 

 ot a construction different from the Piedmontese, but 

 which produces similar results ; with which he is also 

 reeling his cocoons, and has produced some beautiful 

 silk. 



We could go on and fill our Journal with similar 

 anecdotes and instances of success in reeling silk, by 

 persons who had never before seen the operation per- 

 formed. But we deem the above sufficient. We 

 could give our own experience, but this has been done 

 au hundred times. When we learnt to reel, we had 

 not the lights of the present time to guide us. Nearly 

 rdl the publications on the subject were in French and 

 Italian, which we did not read. But we found in Rees' 

 Cyclopedia, a description — a very imperfect one, of 

 the Piedmontese reel. We employed a mechanic to 

 make one with variations of our own suggestion. — 

 With this reel we began, encountering all the difficul- 

 ties without any guide by which we could avoid them; 

 and yet in one week we were able to reel wiih the ut- 

 most facility, and produced as good an article as we 

 have since seen from ony country. When the Con. 

 grets Manual was published, we examined its direc- 

 tions for reeling — compiled, as is well known, from 

 the best European authorities — and we wei e able to 

 make many important corrections in our own practice 

 — principally relating, however, to speed in reeling. — 

 We therefore, have our own experience as well as that 

 of others for authority for saying, that any person of 

 ordinary capacity and application can learn to reel in 

 one week's time, so as to produce a perfect article. — 

 It will of course require practice to enable them to reel 

 fast, so as to be able to reel as much silk in a day as an 

 experienced reeler can; but it does not require as much 

 even of this as it does for the performance of many 

 kinds of every day work. For example. A young 

 woman can learn to perform a full day's w-ork at reeling 

 silk in half the time it would require to learn to do 

 a full day's work at spinning cotton or flax. 



It is a common remark by persons who are going to 

 raise silk, that they intend to sell their cocoons ; and 

 one of the most common questions asked of us is — 

 *' will there he a market for cocoons next season ?" — 

 Nearly every body contemplates selling their cocoons. 

 Now this is wrong. The producer of cocoons should 

 also reel them (or many cogent reasons — -Jirst, that he 

 may obtain the profits of reeling, which he will find 

 are nearly or quite equal to those of producing the co- 

 coons. The highest price of a bushel of the beet co- 

 cuons is .$5. This bushel of cocoons if properly reeled, 

 will produce a pound and a half of raw silk of best 

 quality, worth .f'6 to .^8 per pound. But suppose it 

 only worth .fo a pound, there will be $'2 511 for reel- 

 ing the bushel of cocoons. The reeUng will furnish 

 excellent employment for the females of his I'amily, 

 slave or free ; or if he have none, or does not choose to 

 employ them thus, ftir some neighboringfemale less for- 

 tunately situated than himself. Secondly, ibe reUuction 

 of the cost of tiansportion. Cocoons are very bulky, 

 •<!5 to 30 pounds filling a barrel. If they are to be 

 transported to any distance, the expense will be very 

 great. They are also liable to accidents in transporta- 

 tion, such as indentation, which ruins them for reeling; 

 putrefaction from confinement in close barrels, boxes, 

 &e. While the expense of transporting the raw silk 

 is comparatively nothing. A barrel of cocoons will be 

 reduced, in weight, to three and three-fourths of a 

 pound ; and in bulk to the size of a half gallon meas- 

 ure, or even less; so that the raw silk ofone hundred and 

 fifty barrels of cocoons may be packed in a single flour 

 barrel. These are reasons which we should suppose 

 would induce all persons to reel their own cocoons. 



lint, say many persons indeed, the reeling of silk is 

 too nice and difficult an operation lor our blacks to per- 

 form — we do not want the trouble of it. Weliave 

 showed above that it is not so diflicult to reel as is 

 imagined. It is to be sure an art, and the perfection 

 oi its products requires nicety and some degree of skill; 

 but all of which is easily acquired by any ordinary ca- 

 pacity. It is not the real dillicnlticB ot reeling that 

 prevent any one from reeling; but the imaginary ones. 

 Let any one determmc that he will reel, and he shall 

 reel, and that too in a time of apprenticeship that will 

 astonish even himself. 



There arc some rules to be observed in reeling that 

 we may as well lay down here while on the subject. — 

 They arc generally found in the books, so mixed up 

 with other matter that they escape attention. 



1st. The cocoons of each particular crop should be 

 kept by themselves. Severol parcels should not be 

 mixed together ; so that the age of all the cocoons of 

 one parcel may be the same ; for cocoons of different 

 ages require water of dilllrent temperatures. 



2d. The first thing in the morning, the reeler must 

 select her cocoons, putting the best in one basket, se- 

 cond best in another, and the balance in a third. 



3d. She must have clear rain or river water, and it 

 is best, if it be river water, that it be placed over night 

 to settle its sandy particles. 



4th. She must acquire a knowledge of the tem- 

 perature required by diilerent cocoens, so that she will 

 instantly know whether the water be tito hot or too 

 cold. There is no circumstance that causes so much 

 bad silk as a want of this knowledge, or carelessness in 

 a)jplying it. If the water be too hot, the silk comes 

 off in burs or ganglions, and wh»n this is discovered, 

 the cocoons already in the water are injured by the ex- 

 traction of the gum, and the silk is thereby rendered 

 uneven and knotty. If the water be too cold, the co- 

 coons will rise up to the plate, and the fibres be broken. 

 This is not difficult to learn. 



5th. She should always know how long the cocoons 

 have been produced, '.hat is, how old they are ; and 

 in what manner they have been cured, whether baked, 

 steamed, or cured in the sun, as all these require water 

 ot difierent temperatures. Very old cocoons require 

 water nearly boiling, while thosejust produced and not 

 cured requiring it little inoie than milk-warm. Baked 

 cocoons of whatever age require water nearly boiling, 

 while steamed cocoons require it of a temperature ac- 

 cording to their age, and generally a little higher than 

 those cured in the sun. 



6th. Of whatever size the thread is to be, she must 

 keep the number of cocoons regularly the same, or as 

 near it as possible. If she is to produce thread of eight 

 to ten fibres, she must begin with ten cocoons to each 

 thread, and keep that number os steadily running as 

 possible. She will not be able to keep the exact num- 

 ber, but she will never be obliged to allow them to vary* 

 more than two, so that the thread will be called "eight 

 to ten fibre." This is regular enough for all practical 

 purposes. 



7th. After stopping the reel for any purpose, she 

 must wet the thread thoroughly where it crosses, and 

 thence down to the basin, by sprinkling it with hot 

 water from the basin, before she begins again. 



8th. She must change the water in the basin as fast 

 as it becomes foul — two or three times a day, when 

 steadily at woik. 



7th. While the reel is going she must keep her at- 

 tention steadily upon the cocoons in the basin, so that 

 when one is exhausted or breaks she may have another 

 ready to be added. 



10th. The reel must be turned as rapidly as the co- 

 coons will unwind, so that as little gum as possible 

 may be left in the water. 



11. The person turning the reel must keep his eye 

 upon the thread between the traversing bar and the 

 bars of the reel, so that he may see and brush off any 

 moles that may appear on it. 



12th. Bear in mind that care and skill in reeling will 

 make the silk worth two or three dollars a pound more 

 than that produced by a careless reeler — therefore, that . 

 the careful reeler gets one dollar a pound for her in- 

 dustry, and two dollars for carefulness. 



G. B. S. 



The Silk Culture. — The National Silk Society has 

 offered numerous bounties, varying from filOO to 

 $1000 each for the best siiecimensof raw silk, to be 

 produced during the coming summer. The whole a- 

 mount of the bounties is .$16,000. The prospect is 

 fair that the silk culture will become a prominent and 

 setded part of of our domestick industry, and that the 

 silk either rawer manufactured, will constitute w-ithin 

 a few years, a valuable staple of home production. — 

 Xal. int. 



