20 



RAW-SILK. 



(C.) fully acknowledged, that the Residents should 

 insM^icdons ^efuse buying those cocoons in which the worm 

 R^aw^slik^ has been killed by the heat of the sun. The sun, 

 scorching- as it is in Bengal, burns the thread, 

 weakens it, crisps it, tarnishes the colour of the 

 silk, and renders it worse in the hand of the dyer. 



The heat of the oven, by which the worm is 

 killed within the space of one or two hours, helps 

 to strengthen the substance of the gum. The 

 worm being sweated by the heat of the oven, the 

 remainder of its gummy substance, which oozes 

 through the threads of the cocoon, gives a greater 

 degree of consistency to the silk. 



6. As cocoons are more liable to grow mouldy 

 in the rainy season, and are of a worse quality, 

 the silk should neither be spun too fine nor too 

 coarse at that time. 



If it be made of five or six cocoons, it will oc- 

 casion a prodigious waste in winding off at the 

 mill, owing to the bars of the reels being too hard 

 for so slender a thread, which cannot be loosened 

 therefrom without breaking ; and should it be made 

 of from eighteen to twenty cocoons, the silk will 

 be black and musty, for want of time and air to 

 dry it on the reel, which defect occasions a consi- 

 derable difference in the price at the sale in Eng- 

 land. Therefore the Residents of the factories 

 should cause their silk of April, May, June, July, 

 and even August, to be spun in the best weather 

 of seven or eight cocoons, and of from nine to ten 



cocoons^ 



