THE SILK CULTURE. 
101 
THE SILK CULTURE. 
You kindly asked me to give you a sketch of 
some late travels undertaken for purposes con¬ 
nected with the silk business. I find that I can 
not do justice to my notes without making an ar¬ 
ticle too long for your crowded paper. I therefore 
select two or three things, giving more full state¬ 
ments to the public through other channels. 
1. The manufacture of silk in the eastern states 
has greatly increased within one or two years. In 
that time, and under the fostering influence of our 
late tariff, several new factories have been started, 
and several old ones that were connected with, and 
prostrated by the mulberry speculation of 1838 
and ’39, have been revived, and are now going 
prosperously forward. All these establishments 
are confined chiefly to sewings, twist, cords, gimps, 
and other trimmings, and find a ready and profit¬ 
able sale for their goods. They consume severally 
from 20 to 200 pounds raw-silk weekly. Their 
chief dependance is upon foreign stock, although 
they purchase all the American silk properly reeled 
they can get, and pay higher for it, because it is 
better. Beyond doubt there is now worked up 
weekly in New England, New York, and New 
Jersey, two or three times the quantity of raw-silk 
that was consumed one year ago. 
2. West of the mountains, the almost entire at¬ 
tention of manufacturers has been turned to weaving. 
I brought home with me some seventy different 
samples of silk goods, from the richest figured vel¬ 
vet, down to the plain pongee. ( a ) These estab¬ 
lishments are in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, In¬ 
diana, and Tennessee, and none of them use a 
pound of foreign stock. On the other hand, the 
increase of the raw material in that quarter has 
been such, for the past two or three years, that the 
interests of the silk business now demand more 
manufacturing capital, or regular arrangements 
for sending their surplus raw-silk east. They find 
a ready and profitable sale for their goods as fast 
as made. I could not learn that any of these es¬ 
tablishments had failed, or had been suspended, 
though some of them have suffered for the want 
of more capital. The two leading establishments 
at the west, are Mr. Rapp’s at Economy, Pa., and 
Mr. Grill’s, Mount Pleasant, Jefferson county, Ohio, 
each employing from 40 to 50 hands. I found Mr. 
G-ill putting up a new building 50 by 20 feet, three 
stories, to be filled with power-looms for weaving 
pongees. 
3. Feeding Worms at the west, for the past 
year or two, has been generally in sheds, tents, or 
other open buildings, in a perfectly natural state 
of the atmosphere. Hundreds of pounds of excel¬ 
lent silk have been made in this way. The report 
of our Silk Convention in New York, in October, 
is full of facts relating to this important point, 
yet at Economy they have fed for ten to twelve 
years, and use enclosed buildings and are always 
successful. This year they fed 22 or 23 crops, and 
made between 500 and 600 lbs. reeled silk of first 
quality. I went through their buildings, and am 
satisfied they are no better ventilated than hun¬ 
dreds of others, where disease and death have so 
often reigned triumphant among the worms. The 
grand secret of their success is that they clean 
their worms every day. ( b) 
Growing silk is rapidly extending at the west, 
and southwest. In Tennessee the crop of 1840 
amounted to 1200 pounds cocoons. This year to 
20,000 or 25,000 pounds. [Several large establish¬ 
ments for feeding are under way. Mr. J. O’Hara, 
near Pittsburg, has 6 or 7 acres of trees, and is 
preparing to stock 20 more in the spring. I spent 
a very pleasant evening with Mr. George Sanders, 
at his silk-farm, near Wheeling, Va. This gen¬ 
tleman has been personally connected with this 
business in France and Italy. He has 8 or 9 
acres of trees, and is preparing to stock 50 more, 
and to carry out the most approved artifical sys¬ 
tems of Europe on a large scale. He purchased 
the place in October. 
Mr. S. agrees fully in the opinion so often re¬ 
iterated by silk-growers, that we have much more 
to dread from heat than from cold , especially hot, 
sultry, confined weather. This is the great dan¬ 
ger. He is therefore preparing to guard against 
it. In his one-story cocoonery, 132 by 35 feet, full 
of doors, windows, and scuttles, he is putting up 
twelve chimneys, designed chiefly for flash-fires, 
made of brush, straw, leaves, or other light ma¬ 
terials. He says that in this way he can entirely 
change the air in the room in a few minutes. The 
principles certainly are perfectly philosophical. It 
was stated in the papers of the day, that the heat 
generated by the great fire in New York was so 
intense as to cause the wind to come blowing in 
upon the fire from all points of the compass. I 
know of no Cocoonery in the country built in this 
way, or with artificial fans, or in any way so con¬ 
structed as effectually to secure the great point 
here aimed at—changingthe air at pleasure. We 
have all provided means for rearming the room 
when cold, but none for this. We have guarded 
against the lesser peril, but have left the greater 
one unprovided for. This, together with careless¬ 
ness and negligence in feeding and cleaning, fully 
accounts for all the sad disasters in large feeding- 
establishments. We trust that our intelligent 
friend will fully demonstrate the feasibility of his 
plan. It has been already demonstrated that 
worms can be fed with entire safety in sheds and 
tents, and other open shelters. Let it be shown 
that they can be fed in enclosed buildings, and in 
large establishments, and it will give an impetus 
to the business which nothing can resist. 
J. R. Barbour. 
Oxford, Mass., March 7, 1844. 
(a) When Mr. Barbour passed through this city 
he exhibited these patterns to us. They are not 
only very handsomesamplesfor the kind, but are 
well dyed, and we think heavier, stronger goods, 
than similar qualities imported from abroad. 
(b) The temperature of the rooms night and day 
is also kept very equable. When we visited this 
establishment in June, ’42, the superintendent in¬ 
formed us that the atmosphere did not vary more 
than 10 degrees throughout the whole feeding 
season. 
