MISS C ALDER ON THE CULTURE OF SILK. 
559 
tlse trouble and expense. There are other 
things, such as wheels, baskets, &c., requir- 
ed. It is not many years I believe since the 
Government made an allowance for a like 
experiment, but without a similar prospect of 
advantage to that which I foresee, and my 
most anxious wish is, that it should reap one 
through the efforts of a female, whose great- 
est reward and pride would be to see the 
general culture of an article which consti- 
tutes her greatest amusement, extend itself 
over a country where it has been hitherto 
unknown, and where, of all other places, it is 
the most suitable. During the short period 
1 kept them, they drew my admiration so en- 
tirely that I studied them with the most 
intense interest, and am now so well ac- 
quainted with their habits, that I could detect 
a sick one amongst a thousand. Should my 
Ian meet your approbation, and the specimen 
send be worth acceptance, I shall be most 
happy. I must, however, say it is not worth so 
much notice now as it has been, having lost 
much of its brilliancy during the long time it 
has been laid by, and by the many hands it has 
passed through for inspection. The thread 
has been wound through hot-water, and con- 
tains fifteen or sixteen of the cocoon threads. 
‘‘ Some months ago I did myself the pleasure 
to address the Society on the culture of 
silk, although I had not at the time suc- 
ceeded in procuring a number of worms, 
having since been many times disappointed 
by the insects dying on the road and even being 
destroyed by ants in the banghy. 1 have now 
the pleasure to state that I ultimately suc- 
ceeded in having,from a parcel which arrived 
on the 31st of December last, about forty- 
two, but in a very weak state, and though 
I afterwards got a few others, I consider 
those as the parent stock. It will serve 
perhaps as a proof that on care and good 
feeding depends all, when I say that those 
sent were wretched bad cocoons and took 
39 days to spin, they then remained 14 in 
the crysalis state, but from care 1 found them 
improve every time, and that they now spin 
in eighteen days and remain enclosed but 
nine. How much they may improve I shall 
be able to say hereafter. The late two 
months of hot winds prevented my doing 
more than to keep them for stock, and I 
have now a number in high health. As I 
had so few at first I did not collect the co- 
coons until the third generation ; and after 
saving a great many for eggs I found to my 
surprise I had upwards of twenty-ohe lbs. 
weight, when the winds put a stop to them : 
though, were proper places erected to keep 
the worm, I am convinced they could be rear- 
ed at all times as the mulberry is in as firm 
a state then as at any other time. I perused 
with great interest a letter from Messrs. 
Dover and Norton, read at one of your meet- 
ings some time back, and the specimens 
which accompany this, 1 collected as well as 
I could after their directions; 1 also remark- 
ed at your last meeting the silk sent from 
Bombay. That I now send is, No. 1, the 
first ever taken at this place and by myself, 
No. 2, also by me, and No. 3, the work of 
a native woman who never attempted it be- 
fore, and to whom, with a strict injunction 
as to care in not wasting it, 1 gave one ounce 
of cocoons ; whether the produce be suffici- 
ent 1 am unable to say ; 1 labour under sad 
ignorance as to gathering the silk, nor can 
1 comprehend what the gentleman meant, 
whose opinion was quoted on that from 
Bombay, by saying it would be better if col- 
lected in the Bengal manner, being twisted 
by a wheel ere it reached the reel. 
Could I be informed on this subject, it 
would be the means of forwarding my ob- 
ject greatly ; indeed, were a proper apparatus 
forwarded to me through your kind inter- 
ference, 1 should be most thankful, and gladly 
bear any expence that might be incurred as 
to the making, carriage, &c. also I should 
like much to know in what manner the re- 
fuse silk, such as the perforated cocoons, and 
so on, disposed of. I submitted this silk, 
through the Resident, for the inspection of 
His Highness the Rajah of Nagpoor, who 
was greatly pleased, and sent it to a com- 
mittee of native silk merchants, whose report 
was mighty flattering to me, so much so, 
that His Highness has kindly volunteered 
to assist me by bestowing some ground and 
giving people to cultivate it for a year. 1 
only now, therefore, require information on 
the subject, as even here the natives seem 
most anxious about it, flocking in numbers 
and offering their services, so aware are they 
of what is likely to be the result. As a proof 
of the improvement 1 send two or three of 
the original cocoons and as many of the last.” 
Mr. Prinsep, inforwarding Miss Calder’s 
communication to the address of Mr. Robi- 
son, observes that-— 
“The principal defect in her silk is, its want 
of staple, and it is one of most serious con- 
sequence ; by this is understood a want of 
adhesion of the various fibres which compose 
the thread, and I should conceive it to be 
owing to its not receiving the usual twist 
while being run off from the basin to the 
reel. This twist is acquired by winding 
always two threads at the same time, each 
being composed of its proper number of 
fibres or cocoons. They pass in a parallel 
direction to an iron director which has two 
small holes in it for the threads to run freely 
through, and then the two threads should be 
crossed round each other from four to eight 
times, according to the strength of the 
cocoon fibres, before they again pass through 
the eyes of the reel- guide on the reel accord- 
ing to the following ground plan : 
This crossing, while the thread comes 
soft from the warm water, gives a consist- 
ence to it which can not be acquired by any 
other means ; it also serves greatly to clear 
it of imperfections which will invariably fly 
up from the cocoons during the rapid pro- 
cess of reeling. To make the reeling per- 
fect also it is necessary that the reel-guide 
should have a lateral motion while the reel 
goes round, it will then lay the thread cross 
ways upon the reel and prevent its becom- 
