14 Silk Manufacture. 



craw or crop, v/hich seems to answer the same purpose as the 

 first stomach of ruminating animals. Here it is that the food 

 is softened and prepared for the stomach, or carried to the 

 young. 



Blood of Birds. This appears to be more highly oxygen- 

 ated than in other vvaim-blooded animals; at least it is 

 warmer, of a briglrter color, and circulates more rapidly, the 

 pulse of birds usually running above a hundred beats in a 

 minute. This may account for their being so voracious; 

 some birds consume more than their own weight of food in 

 the course of a day. 



CABINET CYCLOPAEDIA. 



[We have jtist receive*] from Lonrlon the tv/enty-second volume of 

 the Cabinet Cyciopsedia, containing a 'I'reatise on the Origin and Pro- 

 gressive Improvement of the Silii Manufacture: conducted by Rev. Dioni- 

 siiis Lanlner, L.L. D. F. R. S. L. & E. etc. 



This work is eminently calculated to furnish the Silk Cultivator with 

 rnnst of the necessary information to accomplish his art, and it cannot 

 fail to be instructive and interesting to the general community. 



We propose to |)ublish a considerable portion of it, in a series of essays, 

 with notes and observations from practical and scientific men of the Uni- 

 ted States. We s'lall, however, omit extracting from it in the present 

 number, to give place for some preliminary remarks on the subject.] 



SILK MANUFACTURE. 

 NO. I. 



Within these few years past, the public attention has been 

 directed more than ever before, to the culturk of silk. — 

 Some zealous efforts have been made, and are still making to 

 increase and disseminate this branch of business throughout 

 the Union. The public sentiment begins to demand that we 

 should no longer be indebted to other countries for an article 

 that can be so easily produced in our own ; and that the nat- 

 ural riches of our country, embracing every variety of clime 

 and soil, should remain subject to the bias of contracted vis- 

 ion, and dormant beneath the eye of prejudice. Too long, in- 

 deed, have Americans listened to the counsel of strangers to 

 their country and to its interests, rather than seek for facts, in 

 the bosom of her grateful soil — thereby allowing their own 

 reason and intelligence to the dupe of foreign ignorance, en- 

 vy and rivalry. But happily for ourselves, we live in an age 

 and country in which the people are but little prone to credit 



