THE CULTIVATOR. 
135 
at the filatures. But the samples of reeled silk, now be¬ 
ing exhibited from time to time, though they afford cheer¬ 
ing evidence of what may be done and of a spirit to do 
it, yet from their heterogeneous nature and from other 
causes, they would be of little or no use to the manufac¬ 
turer, and of course would bring nothing. Let us see for 
a moment, what would be the result of our plan. 
There are 17 millions of inhabitants in the U. States. 
Suppose one person in every thousand should engage in 
growing cocoons, and should appropriate one-fourth of 
an acre each, to the multicaulis, to feed the worms. This 
with skilful management, would produce 100 bushels of 
cocoons, which would yield more than 100 pounds of 
silk. But suppose we deduct one-half, and say fifty 
bushels. This, at $4 per bushel, would yield the grower 
$200 for one quarter of an acre of ground, and less than 
two months labor; except in preparing accommodations 
for the worms, which of course will be kept for future 
use. The cocoons will yield 50 pounds of silk, which 
if well reeled, would command from $6 to $7 per pound. 
But say only $5; $250, the price of 50 pounds of silk, 
multiplied by 17,000, would amount to $4,250,000, and 
this for the first year. 
It has been proved by numerous instances, that the 
bounty granted in this and several other states, is equal 
to the necessary expense of growing the cocoons, leaving 
the proceeds of sales a nett gain. It would be strange if 
such encouragement did not induce each adventurer to 
double the quantity of land employed, and consequently 
of silk produced, annually, for at least four years, as this 
would only require two acres for the last year. The ag¬ 
gregate of silk the last year, at the same ratio, would be 
6,800,000 pounds, and the return in cash, $34,000,000. 
This vast sum can be annually realized from the em¬ 
ployment of one person in a thousand in an easy and 
pleasant business, not over three months in each year, 
with the assistance, the third and fourth years, of a few 
children to each person, who would otherwise earn 
nothing. 
This is no exaggerated calculation, merely to make a 
delusive show on paper. There are persons now doing 
the business on a more extensive and equally profitable 
scale, and there are many more than the proportion I 
have named, who are anxious to engage in it. There is 
no other article we can produce, which would command 
so fair and so steady a price in the European markets, as 
silk; and those markets could not be glutted till it had 
raised our nation to independent wealth. 
When we are supplied with good raw silk, the manu¬ 
facturing interest will commence its growth spontane¬ 
ously ; and though, as I have stated, by small and simple 
oeginnings, the natural accelei-ation of its progress will 
enable it in due season to reach its destined perfection. 
The course I have described will inevitably produce the 
results I have named, and probably in a much greater 
ratio. But if its early operations are left to the guidance 
of the promiscuous dictates of unassociated and unin¬ 
structed individual fancy, we may, perhaps in a few cen¬ 
turies, arrive at equal perfection in the silk manufacture, 
with the Chinese, which by the proper course, would be 
surpassed in a few years. 
The laudable ambition displayed in samples of sewing 
silk, though it shows conclusive evidence of the power 
of ultimate success, if properly directed, is, for want of 
such direction, rendered perfectly useless in a public 
point of view; for the best sewings can never be made 
without machinery and the skill acquired by experience. 
With their aid it is now produced in perfection, from the 
very poorest quality of silk, and with a facility with 
which domestic labor cannot compete. The best silk is 
worth more in its raw state from the reel, than if twisted 
into even good sewings. Besides,even a national monopo¬ 
ly of the entire business of sewing silk, would be, as an 
object of national importance, but as a grain of wheat to a 
bushel, compared with the production of raw silk for ex¬ 
portation. 
The manufacturers want no twist given at reeling, nor 
would they accept it so twisted, at any price. The twist 
to suit each occasion, is given by the silk throwster, who 
has machinery for that purpose. The various machines 
which have been sold throughout the counti-y, however 
they may have answered the pux-pose of their ingenious 
constructors, can be of no earthly use in i - eeling silk for 
market; for every one acquainted with the subject, well 
knows that reeling and twisting silk cannot be done to 
any advantage by one and the same operation. This may 
meet the disapprobation of venders of those machines, 
but I feel it an imperious duty to undeceive the public, 
and I pledge myself to prove what I have stated, by the 
experience of all Italy and Fx-ance, if so much proof is 
necessai-y. S. Blydenbxjegh. 
SILK CULTURE-REELS, REELING, &e. 
The most difficult part of the whole business of silk 
making, is that of reeling the cocoons; without which, 
all the previous operations will have been fnxitless. Ii 
is at this point, that thousands of persons who have be¬ 
gun the culture of silk, under high hopes and expectations, 
have been arrested in their progress by what they called 
insurmountable difficulties, and abandoned the whole bu¬ 
siness in despair; there being no market accessible to 
them for the sale of the cocoons. In vain have they 
been exhorted to persevere in the trial with patience 
and industry for a few days—in vain have they been 
told, that the devotion of one week’s time, and half a 
dozen pounds of cocoons, would be sufficient to teach 
them the art. The process seems so tedious, the result 
so trifling, that, after a few hours trial, they give it up,and 
thus ends their career in the silk culture. Thousands 
of instances of this character have occurred; not more than 
one person out of every hunched that have made the 
trial, has persevered to the end, and really learned to 
reel silk. It is to this cause that a lai’ge portion of the 
obstruction to the progress of the silk culture is to be 
attributed. Thousands of bushels of cocoons are stow¬ 
ed away in garrets and out-houses, and eaten by roaches 
and mice, in the United States, because the producers 
had not perseverance enough to learn to reel. Had each 
producer of cocoons learned to reel, and reeled the co¬ 
coons he produced, he would not have abandoned the 
business, but would the next season have commenced on 
a larger scale, and with gi-eatly increased prospects. 
For the encouragement of those who wish to learn to 
reel, I can and do assure them, that, when any intelli¬ 
gent person has persevered for one week, he has invari¬ 
ably become an expert reeler in that time. Many have 
become so in less. Any person, therefore, that will 
devote one week and five or six pounds of cocoons, stea¬ 
dily and perseveringdy to the object, will be certain of 
accomplishing it. It requires almost Job-like patience, 
but patience was never better paid for. Let this be an 
invariable rule with all who would leara to reel: Take 5 
or 6 pounds of cocoons, set apart one week of time, with 
a determination to waste all the cocoons, if necessary, 
and to allow of no interruption, during the time, anti 
then go ahead. If, in two or three hours you find your¬ 
self making a good thread, all the better; but don’t be 
discouraged if you presently find that thread becoming 
worthless from some cause or other, but take it off the 
reel and begin anew. Who ever heal’d of a young wo¬ 
man learning to spin cotton, wool, or flax, even in one 
week’s trial, or in. a month’s? Why, then expect to 
perform a much nicer opei-ation by intuition? Persevere, 
then, and you will leai’n. Let me, for further encourage¬ 
ment, inform young beginners, that I have taught many 
persons to reel by writing one letter to them, describing 
the pi’oeess, which letter forms the basis of the following 
instructions: 
The Silk Reel. —The substance of the following re¬ 
marks has been published by me in various forms, at 
least twenty times, in the coui-se of the sixteen years I 
have devoted to the business, and I have as yet seen no 
cause to change a syllable of them. Indeed, my opin¬ 
ion has been sustained by the experience of every suc¬ 
cessive year, and by every observation. The Reel most 
pi’oper for the purpose, is the one established by the 
Piedmontese govex’nment, and now well known here by 
the name of the “ Piedmontese Reel.” Reasons are as 
“ thick as black-berries” for this opinion. Its constrac- 
tion is peculiai-, by which it secures several important 
points in raw silk. By means of its vibi-ating bar, it 
lays the threads obliquely across in such manner as to 
prevent adhesion by means of the still wet gum. 1c 
draws two threads at a time, and they are wound around 
each other, between the plate and the guide wires, on 
passing up to the bars of the reel, in such a manner as 
to compress the otherwise loose fibres of each other in¬ 
to a solid cylindi’ical thread, without twisting, which is 
important, as the raw-silk can then be used as floss, or 
twisted more or less to suit the various purposes for 
which it may be wanted.* Our countrymen seem, how¬ 
ever, disposed to reject them; or rather think that a com¬ 
pound machine, that will reel anil double and twist at 
the same time, is better, and hence there are various 
contrivances for this pux-pose. But I feel it incumbent 
upon me to urge again upon silk culturists the reasons 
that have actuated me in rejecting everything of the 
kind. There is no principle better established than that 
of the economy of the division of labor. So well do 
manufacturers understand this, that they will not even 
allow one machine to spin a perfect thread—they first 
pass it through one machine that forms it into a sort of 
loose rope, and then through another to spin it into the 
thread. As to reeling silk, the object is to produce raw 
silk in the simplest possible form—that any sort of goods 
may be made out of it afterwards. But even supposing 
that simple sewing silk is ultimately intended to be made” 
it is more economical then, to reel it first, and double 
and twist with other machinery afterwards. For mere 
family purposes, the reeling and twisting machines may 
do very well; but for commercial purposes, the silk 
must be reeled in a manner similar to that produced by 
the Piedmontese reel, and that, or some reel producing 
the same l-esults, must ultimately be adopted by us if we 
ever become a silk growing people. All staple articles 
of commerce must have some fixed and uniform charac¬ 
ter as a standard, all xleviations from which deteriorate 
its quality. Why does the raw silk of China sell for a 
less price than that of Piedmont? Simply, because it 
is not reeled like the latter. Its fibre is every way equal 
to that of Piedmont; but its reeling is so slovenly, that 
much of it is wasted in woi’king it up. 
[The pamphlet fx’om which Mr. S. wishes us here to 
make an extract, has not come to hand.] 
Waste Silk and Perforated Cocoons, may be 
worked up as follows. Put the cocoons into a bag, put it 
into a boiler, with rain or river water sufficient to cover 
the bag, and put one quart of good soft soap to every 
four pounds of cocoons; boil from one to four hom-s, 
depending on the age of the cocoons. If they are fresh, 
one hour’s boiling will be enough—if a year old, four 
or five hours will be required. Rinse them in Clearwa¬ 
ter, hang them up to drain. When well drained, they 
may be spun like flax on the flax wheel, by holding the 
* Has our correspondent ever used Jones’ Silk Reel? It ap¬ 
pears to us to possess all the advantages here attributed to the 
Piedmontese Reel.— Eds. 
cocoon in the hand, and spinning from the perforated end. 
The silk comes entirely off, leaving the shell of the crysa- 
lis bare, and makes a most beautiful article for stock¬ 
ings, mits, &c. 
This concludes what I have to say on the subject, un¬ 
less information be requix-ed on some particular point on 
which I have not been sufficiently explicit, in which case 
I shall, with much pleasure answer any interrogatories 
that may be directed to me either privately or publicly 
Baltimore, July, 1842. Gideon B. Smith. 
^Domestic 
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN CHEESE. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker—I am about to write on 
the subject of a cheese dairy. I must inform you that 
I have no practical lrnowledg-e in cheese making, yet I 
acquired much information from the best makers in the 
vale of Gloster, England, from those who were celebrat¬ 
ed for making the best double and single Gloster cheese. 
Some of the best dairies were owned by my relatives 
and as I was alxvays inquisitive on practical subjects, I 
hope my information may prove beneficial to our cheese 
makers. 
Whenever I make use of the term milk-cheese, it will 
be understood cheese made from milk without the addi¬ 
tion of cream, to contradistinguish it from Stilton or 
Chedder, which have the cream of one milkin«- added 
to the milk of the following. The cheese of these 
dairies sell for three times as much as the best milk 
cheese. 
I was induced to write you on this subject, from hav¬ 
ing read in your February number, first page, some 
observations of your English Correspondent, T. C. 
Peters, Esq. He observes “that our cheese, sent to 
England, were too thin and flat, and that our flat cheese 
present too much outside for their weight.” This ob¬ 
jection may be true, yet I think your correspondent must 
have been misinformed, as I never heard any such ob¬ 
jection made by any consumer, maker or seller, in Eng¬ 
land. It is a well known fact that no two counties Tn 
England make their cheese of the same thickness. The 
Cheshire, the most commonly used at public tables in 
England, are large and thick; the North Wiltshire are 
are small and thick; the double Gloster are thin and flat 
weiging four to the lOOlbs.; the single Gloster are thin¬ 
ner than any cheese made in this country, yet the cheese 
of the best dairies of this make, sell twopence per pound 
higher than the Cheshii-e, and this accounts for its bein«- 
so seldom used at public tables. Besides, cheese eatei-s 
in England seldom cut off any rind; they mei-ely scrape 
the rind clean and eat it with the cheese, so that in a 
cheese of forty pounds, it could not make half an ounce 
difference whether thick or thin. 
Those who often dine at farm houses in England, will 
be sure to hear the tale of a wealthy gentleman who 
made choice of a wife from three beautiful farmers 
daughters by their eating cheese. He had resolved to 
marry one of the three, but as they were all equally 
beautiful and accomplished, he was at a loss which to 
choose until he was invited to dine with the family. 
Cheese is always the last thing eaten at dinner in Eng¬ 
land; and he observed one of the daughters to cut off’ a 
thick rind which she left on her plate, this one he con¬ 
sidered extravagant; the second one eat the cheese rind 
and all without scraping; this one he concluded must be 
dirty; the third one scraped the rind clean and then eat 
it, and to this one, as being clean and economical he 
was married. 
I have eaten as good made cheese in this country as 
any of the best English make; but it is not so common¬ 
ly found in our market. During the last war I bought 
a sage cheese, made in Narragansett, equal for flavor and 
richness to any milk cheese I ever eat in England. 
About ten years since I had a double Gloster cheese sent me 
as a present, and I had just then tasted a cheese weighing 
forty pounds, made by a Mr. Rockwell, of Goshen,'’Con¬ 
necticut, that I thought rather superior to my English. 
I therefore sold the English cheese for 18| cents pe”- lb." 
and bought one of Rockwell’s for 124 cents. As some 
of my English friends knew I had received a fine double 
Glostei’, I made cuts from the Rockwell and sent them 
around as presents; they all speak of that beautiful cheese 
to this day, and regret they cannot obtain a supply 0 f 
such. We have for the last year eaten of cheese made in 
this state, by a Mr. Root, fully equal to any milk cheese 
of the best English make. There is one error in the 
making of this cheese, that scarcely any tw’O in succes¬ 
sion have the same flavoi-, and had I tasted of the same 
cheeses in England, I should consider they were made 
at two distinct dairies. This proves that there is a want 
of system in the maker; for if the same conditions were 
observed in the making, they would be of uniform fla¬ 
vor. 
The first object with a dairy farmer should be to lay 
in a profitable stock; such as will give a good quantity 
of mik, and rich in quality. The quality is strictly to be 
attended to, as some cows which give an unusual quanti¬ 
ty will afford very little cream. I once owned tw'o 
cows in England; one of them gave more than four <ral- 
lons at a milking, when in full milk, and the otherless 
than three; yet the milk of the last made more butter 
than that of the first. I read in one of your Cultivators 
that your correspondent had made twenty pounds of 
butter in a week. This would be considered in any 
country a first rate dairy cow. I knew a farmer in,England, 
who boasted he had a cow that would make twenty-one 
I pounds of butter in a week; another farmer bet him a 
