278 



SILK. 



assisted by human lieat ; but which is the best, and prefer- 

 able method of the two, for our climate, time and experi- 

 ence must determine ; the French and Italians think the 

 finest crop is generally secured by hastening the worms 

 through the various stages of their existence, from the 

 hatching to the ascending, and that any check or delay is 

 to be- esteemed as unfavourable to the ultimate success; 

 hence their vigilance to secure an even temperature in the 

 apartments, an abundance of food for the worms, adapted 

 to their age, in its quality, a perfect and constant cleanliness, 

 and such an arrangement of the windov^'s, doors, and traps 

 in the floors, as to ensure a free circulation of air, and to 

 prevent that suffocating and offensive atmosphere, which 

 would undoubtedly occasion a great mortality among them* 

 The cocoons will not be of a uniform colqur, they will be of 

 various shades of yellow, and some white, yet they ail are 

 of one and the same species, and may all be worked to- 

 gether ; after the cocoons are gathered, and cleared of the 

 lios silk, which fastened them to the brush, they should be 

 reeled without delay, and before the millers come out, for 

 if the silk is left on until then, the quality is thereby in- 

 jured; they should be thrown into a kettle of hot water, a 

 small quantity at a time, and stirred with light, clean rods; 

 this will dissolve the tenacious gum by which the threads 

 adhere together; female industry will search out the end 

 of the thread, and wind and spin the threads from ten to 

 fourteen cocoons together into one single thread, with that 

 care and correctness which will make a silk perfectly even, 

 and perfectly clean. 



Here we could enter into minute details, and furnish 

 drawings of such winding and reeling machines as are used 

 in the large Italian and French establishments, but we con- 

 sider that, at the present early period, it would have a ten- 

 dency to fatigue and perplex the attention of such of our 

 readers as may wish to embark in a trial ; their first attempt 

 will probably be upon a limited scale, and undoubtedly the 

 simple means used for winding and reeling in tliis state and 

 in Connecticut, which may be more easily learnt by actual 

 view than by tedious descriptions, will be found amply suf- 

 ficient, and, as we progress in the business, our own intelli- 

 gence and experience, gradually assisted by further informa- 

 tion respectin<:^ the practice of Europe, will make us fully 

 acquainted Vvitli the best process. When it is not conveni- 

 ent to wind and reel all the cocoons at that time, then all 

 the millers must be destroyed before they come out, in order 



