118 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVA'l’OR. 
top coveted by jiasiingr strips oI paper over 
them They remain in this way about three or 
tour days. They are then spread out thinly in 
an upper loft to cure, where they should be cc- 
casinnally stirred. It will require some weeks 
to thoroughly cure them. Before carnnhoring, 
the dead and bad cocoons must be taken out, 
otherwise they will spoil the good ones. 
When it is convenient it is best to reel as ma- 
ny of the cocoons as possible immediately alter 
they are gathered, as they reel much more free- 
ly before they are exposed to the sun or dried. 
SUCCESSION OF CROPS — PRESERVATION OP EGGS. 
Repeated attempts have been made to feed a 
succession ot crops ol worms throughout the 
entire season from the same stock of eggs. In 
most instances success has failed to attend these 
efibrts. When proper means are employed and 
flue care observed, the eggs may be preserved 
and worms successlully raised until the feed is 
destroyed by the frost. In many year’s expe- 
rience I have never failed in this respect. 
In the spring of 18401 communicated to Miss 
Ranp, of Economy, my method of preserving 
eggs, which she immediately adopted, and has 
pursued it until the present time with perfect 
success, feeding from eighteen to twenty-five 
crops each year. The following is an extract of 
a letter from the Posiirasier at Economy, dated 
January 19, 1843: 
•‘Between May ard September, we raised 
near two millions of worms, in eighteen sets, 
of near equal numbers, afout a week apart, 
producing three hundred and seventy-one bu- 
shehs of cocoons. The last crop hatched the 
9th of September and spun the lOih of October. 
We found no difference in the health of the 
different sets. We are of the opinion that the 
late keeping of the eggs does not bring disease 
on the worms, if they are kept right, and gra- 
dually brought forward as they ought to be.” 
It may be remarked that the qualities of the 
mulberry leaf are such in the latter part of the 
season that as heavy cocoons will not be produ- 
ced as in the fi’rst. A bushel ot the first crop 
raised at Economy, in the season referred to, pro- 
duced twenty three and a quarter ounces ot 
reeled silk, and the last crop, wound in Uctober, 
but nineteen ounces. About one month of the 
best part of that season of feeding was lost by 
the severe frost that occurred on the 5ih of May, 
which entirely killed the young leaves, and must 
have materially injured the crop of the season. 
My method ol preserving eggs is to place 
them in the ice house in February, or early in 
March or sooner if the weather is warm. For 
this purpose a box or square trunk is made, ex- 
tending fiom within one loot of the bottom of 
the ice to the top. This may be made in joints 
so that as the ice settles the upper joints 
may be removed. Th“ eggs should be placed 
in a tin box, and this enclosed in a wood one, 
and suspended in the trunk near the ice. The 
communication of warm air should be cut off 
bv filling the opening with a bundle ol straw or 
hay. The eggs should be aired fora few mi 
nutes as often as once in one or two weeks,al- 
ways choosing a cool dry morning; wh?n se- 
lections for succeeding crops may be made, 
these should be placed in anvjther box and gra- 
dually raised in the trunk for several days, 
avoiding a too sudden transition from the ice to 
the temperature of the hatching room. 
The ice house at Economy is connected with 
the cellar, the bottom of the former being 18 
inches below that of the latter. A long wooden 
box extending into the ice house, level with the 
bottom of the cellar floor, contains all the small- 
er boxes of eggs. The door of the box opening 
in the cellar, is kept well '•losed to prevent the 
admission of warm air. They employ another 
ice house, sunk deep in the cellar, with shelves 
gradually rising from the ice up to the top ol 
the ground, upon which the eggs of succeeding 
crops are placed, and raised one shelf higher 
every day, until they are taken intoihe hatching 
room. The past season they have hatched 
about five ounces of eggs, or one hundred thou- 
sand worms every four days. 
DISEASES OP THE SILK WORM- 
The silk worm, like every other animal or 
insect, is liable to disease and premature death 
European writers have enumerated and descri- 
bed six particular diseases to which it is sub- 
ject. But in our more congenial cliinate no- 
thing is wanting to insure a healthy sit-ck ol 
silkworms, and a profitable rciorn from their 
labors, but to give them sufficient room, a regu- 
lar and lull supply ot suitable io< d, a strict re- 
gard to cleanliness, and a proper ventilation of 
their apartments. 
In excessively hot, damp, or sultry weather, 
in the last age, the disease known as the yellows 
sometimes occurs. Where open feeding is 
adopted some fine airslaked lime may be sifted 
on the worms once or twice a Aay b'fore feedinsc 
and the diseased and dead worms picked out 
and thrown away. In a regular cocoonery, 
properly ventilated and supplied with an air 
furnace, dry air should be made to circulate 
freely. But if the temperature isabove 80or85® 
the ventilating apparatus should be constantly 
emplcyed until a change of weather occurs or 
the disease disappears. 
A feeding house should be so arranged as to 
cut off all communication of rats and mice 
from the worms and the cocoons. 
REELING. 
We have now arrived at another branch of 
the silk business, which more properly comes 
under the head of manufacinring. Every farm- 
er who engages in the silk culture, in order to 
avail himselt of an additional profil, shoitld 
provide his family with a suitable reel, by the 
useol which, alter a little experience, he will 
be enabled to offer his silk in market, in a form 
that will greatly enhance its value, and much 
reduce the trouble and expense of transporta- 
tion. Reels can now be procured in almost 
any of the principal cities at a small cost, or 
they can be made by any ingenious farmer or 
carpenter. The reel now uniformly used is 
that known as the Piedmontese. 
. All attempts to improve this leel in its gene- 
ral principles, I believe, have failed. At Eco- 
nomy, fiowever, they have maCe an addition 
which may be found useful. It consists ol two 
pair ot wliirls, made ol w'ire, in the form ol an 
aspel to a reel, about four inches long and two 
and a half inches across from arm to arm, mak- 
ing the circumference about six inches. These 
whirls are set in an iron frame, and ran eac A 
upon two points or centres. Each pair is equi- 
distant, on a direct line, about eight inches 
apart, between the first guides and those on the 
traverse bar, instead ot making the usual num- 
ber of turns around each thread, as they pass 
between ihe guides on the reel. With this ar- 
rangement, each threaci'is taken from the basin 
and passed through ihtfirst guides, then carried 
over and around the two whirls, and where they 
pass each other on the top, the turns are made 
necessary to give firmness to the thread, then 
passing directly through the guides in the tra- 
verse bar to the arms of the reel, making each 
thread in reeling independent of the other. 
This enables the reeler, when a remnant ol co 
coons are to he finished on leaving the work, to 
unite both threads into one, retaining the neces- 
sary size; whereas both would he too fine if 
continued on the reel in the ordinary manner. 
DIRECTIONS FOR REELING. 
In family establishments, a common clay or 
iron furnace should be procured, to which 
should be fi ted a sheet iron top, about twelve 
inches high, with a door on one side, and a 
small pipe on the opposite side looonvey off the 
smoke; this top should retain the same bevel or 
flare as the furnace, so as to be about twenty 
inches in tiiameier at the top. The pan should 
be twenty inches square and six inches deep, di- 
vided into four apartments, two of which .should 
be one inch larger one way than the others. 
Thev should all communicate with each other 
at the bottom. In large filatures, a small steam 
engine to propel the reels, &c., and to heat the 
water for reeling would be necessary. 
Before the operation ot reeln g is Louunenc- 
ed, the cocoons must be stripped ot their floss, 
andassoited into three .separate parcels, accord- 
ing to quality, or of different degrees of firm- 
ness. The double cocoons, or tnose lormeo by 
two or more worms spinning together, 'he fi- 
bres dossing each other and rendering them 
difficult to reel, these should be laid aside to be 
manufactured in a different manner. 
After the cocoons have been assorted as above 
directed, the operation of reeling may be com- 
menced. The basin should be nearly filled 
with the sofLesl water, and kept to a proper heat 
by burning charcoal, or some ether convenient 
method ot keeping up a regular heat. The pre- 
cise temperature cannot be ascertained until 
the reeling is commenced, owing to the difller- 
ent qu lilies of cocoons; those of the best qual- 
ity will require a greater degree ot heat than 
those of a more loose and open texture; hence 
the importance of assisting them. Cocoons 
also require less heat, and reel much belter, 
when done before the chrisalides are killed, and 
the cocoons become diied. 
The heat of the water may be raised to near 
the boiling point, (it should never be allowed to 
bod,) when two or three handsfull ot cocoons 
may be thrown into one of the laige apartments 
of the basin, which must be gently pressed un- 
der waterfor a lew minutes, with a litile'brush 
made of broom corn, with the ends shortened. 
The heat of the water will soon soften the gum 
ol the silk and thereby loosen the ends of the 
hlaments; the reeler should then gently stir the 
cocoons with the brush, until the loose fibres 
adhere to it; they are then separated from the 
brush, holding the filaments in the left hand, 
while the cocoons are carefully combed down 
between the fingers of the right hand, as they 
are raised out of the water. This is continued 
until the floss or false ends are all drawn off and 
the fine silk begins to appear; tue fibres are then 
broken jfl and laid over the edge ol the basin. 
The floss is then cleared from the brush and 
laid aside as refuse silk, and the operation con- 
tinued until mostof the ends are thus collected. 
It the silk is designed lor sewings, about 25 
fibres should compose a thread; if intended for 
other fabrics, from eight to fifteen should be 
reeled together; the finestsilksshoUid always be 
reeled from the best cocoons. The cocoons com- 
posing the threads are taken up in a small tin 
skimmei, made for the purpose, and passed from 
the large apartment of the basin to those direct- 
ly under the guides. As the ends become bro- 
ken they are passed back into me spare apart- 
ment, where they are again collected to be re- 
turned to the reel. The requisite number of fi- 
bres thus collected for two threads are pa.ssed, 
each, through the lower guides. They ate then 
wound around each other two or three times, 
and each carried through the two guides in the 
traverse bar, and then attached to the arms of 
the reel. The turning should now be commenc- 
ed with a slow and steady motion, until the 
threads run freely. Wiiile the reel is turning 
the person attending the cocoons must continu- 
ally be adding fresh ends as they may be re- 
quired, not waiting until the number she began 
with is reduced, because the inlet nal fibres are 
much finer than those composing the external 
layers. In adding new ends, the reeler must at- 
tach them by gently pressing them, with a little 
turn between the thumb and finger, to the 
threads as they are running. As the silk is 
reeled off the chrisalides should be taken out of 
the basin, otherwise they obscure and thicken 
the w'aier and injure the color and lustre ol the 
silk. When the w’dier becomes discolored it 
should alw'ays be changed. 
If in reeling the silk leaves thecocoon in burs 
or bunches, it i-s eviden the w'aier is mo hot, or 
when the ends cannot be easily collected with 
the brush, or, when found, do not run freely, the 
water is too cold. 
A pail of cold water should always he at 
hand to be added to the basin as it may be re- 
quired. When the cocoons yield their fibres 
freely the reel may be turned with a quicker 
