American Pocket Library of Useful Knowledge/A Manual for Producing Silk
A MANUAL FOR PRODUCING SILK,
Planting.–In the Middle Slates, plant the morus multicaulis from the 15th of April to the 15th of May–a little later or earlier, according to the season. The ground to be made fine; furrows three or four feet apart; distance in the furrow about the same. Some plant one, and others one foot and a half apart. The more distant, the more the tree will branch; but the increase of surface to cultivate, increases the labour. Plant the layers or branches entire, or cut them into two bud cuttings, and bury them as you would corn, but not too deep. Be careful the first weeding. Hot, unfermented manure, is bad. This part of the business requires about the same skill and management as corn, observing a dry, sandy loam: sandy, light gravelly, or stony soils, produce the sweetest leaf and the finest silk. An acre will hold 14 500 trees, the rows three feet wide, and trees one foot apart in the row; or it will contain, if three feet each way, 4840 trees.
Preserving Eggs.–Rev. Mr. M’Lean says he folded his eggs in a small tea-chest, lined with lead, and covered with flannel. This box was placed in one a size larger, and the space between filled with charcoal, covered with a loose board. Place in an ice-house or cool cellar, where the heat will not rise above 45 degrees. Dennis says, put eggs in a glass jar, covered, and set in the ground two-thirds of its height in a cool cellar. Roberts says, use tin box or glass, not stopped tight, and keep in a dry, cool cellar, or any other cool place where water will not freeze.
Some experienced Silk-growers think the retarding process is unnatural and improper, and that hatching may be regulated to wait, at the same time, the requirements of nature and the supply of food. (See Journal of Am. Silk Society. By G. B. Smith, Esq., Baltimore.)
The Cocoonery.–Cool, airy situations, are best, guarding as far as possible against extremes of sudden heat or cold, dampness, or too great dryness. Cobb, Smith, Terhoven, and others, agree in three tiers of pine boards fixed on upright posts, four feet wide, and two and a half feet above one another, with room to pass all around the frame so as easily to reach any part of it.
The Hatching.–Hatch the eggs in a pasteboard box, or on sheets of paper, a table, or shelf. An ounce will give about 30,000 worms, and upwards. Those that appear red when hatched are worthless, and should be thrown away. Give the worms young leaves, to which they will adhere; then raise the leaf, and thus convey them to their proper places. Keep off rats, mice, roaches, and spiders, and especially ants, which guard against by smearing the upright posts, ends, &c., with tar or molasses, or set the ends in a cheap pan, which fill with water. Hatch when your leaves are sufficiently forward to insure a supply.
The Feeding.–Give the young worms as many cut leaves as they will eat, and no more, feeding eight or ten times a day, and as late at night as you can. Neither stunt the worms nor waste the leaves. The leaves should be fresh, clean, and not wet. (Since this Manual was compiled, an important invention has been patented, by Mr. Edmund Morris, Burlington, N. J., which in its simple, rapid and economical operation, not only promises to supersede all other modes of feeding, but to effect a revolution in the business itself forming a new era in the history of Silk Culture.) Mr. M’Lean fed his worms without hurdles, removing the litter every third day. Keep the worms quiet, well ventilated, and do not handle or kill them by too much care. Air-slacked lime sprinkled over the shelves, and lightly over the worms themselves, once in two or three days, during the latter part of the feeding, is found highly advantageous. Some have produced a pound of silk from only 50 or 60 pounds of leaves, but 150 pounds is a fair and ample allowance.
The Winding.–Straw tied in small bundles and set on the shelves will do, but green oak bushes seem more natural to them, which they like to conceal themselves among.
Preserving Cocoons.–Gather the cocoons from the seventh to the tenth day, and spread them to dry. Select those intended for seed, strip off the floss, spread them out thin, and in two or three days the moths eat out. Each female lays about 450 eggs, on muslin or paper hung up. The moth in your silk cocoons, immediately kill, either by exposing to a hot sun under glasses, or by hiking in an oven not too hot, or suffocate the moth by burning charcoal in a close room; in each case omitting the operation as soon as the worm is dead, which ascertain by opening a cocoon. Generally from a half to one or two hours will answer.
Reeling.–The Piedmontese Reel is the best, and is sold for about 15 dollars. For the double operation of reeling and twisting, Brooks’ machine has received the highest commendation–price 40 dollars. To transport cocoons, pack them in dry boxes or barrels, shaking them down, but be careful not to mash or indent them. In measuring, the bushel is heaped if the floss is on, or level with it off.
Those who prefer reeling themselves, may readily do so by observing the following:
Directions.–Before the reeling is commenced, the cocoons must be stripped of their floss, and sorted into separate parcels, according to quality. The fine cocoons are strong, hard, and of a fine close grain; the larger, and of a more loose open grain; the double cocoons are those formed by two worms, the fibres cross each other, and renders them difficult to reel; the soft, thin, and coarse cannot be reeled.
Have a large basin of soft water, and keep at a proper heal by charcoal, or any other convenient method. Cocoons of the best quality will require a greater degree of heat than those of a loose and more open texture. Cocoons also require less heat, and reel better, when done before the chrysalides are killed and the cocoons become dried. The heat of the water may be raised to near the boiling point, when a handful or two of cocoons may be thrown into the basin, which must be gently pressed under the water for a few minutes, with a little brush made of broom corn. The heat of the water will soon soften the gum of the silk, and thereby loosen the ends of the filaments; you then stir the cocoons as gently as possible with the brush, until some of the filaments adhere to it; they are then separated from the brush, which is laid aside, and the filaments raised up and the cocoons gently combed down between the fingers, as they are raised out of the water; this is continued, until the floss and false ends are all drawn off, and the fine silk begins to appear, the fibres are then broken off and laid over the edge of the basin; the floss is then cleared from the brush and laid aside as refuse silk, and the operation continued until a sufficient number of fibres are thus collected to make a thread of the size required; you then unite the fibres, and passing the thread through the eyes or guides, attach it to one of the arms of the reel. When two skeins are intended to be reeled, another thread is prepared in like manner, and passed through other guide wires and attached to the reel. The threads being fastened to the reel, it turned with a steady motion, until the threads run freely and easily, for it will happen that some of the ends taken to compose the thread will prove false, and will require to be again added anew to keep up the tuber designed for the thread. It is necessary to put more cocoons than is intended to continue. While the reel is turning, the reeler must continually be gathering fresh ends to add to the thread as they may be required, because the internal fibres are much finer than those composing the external layers. In adding fresh ends, the reeler must attach them to the thread that is ling, by gently rolling them between the thumb and finger. A handful of cocoons must occasionally be thrown into the basin, and wholly immersed in the water, to be ready as wanted, to keep up the thread of required; care, however, should be taken not to add cocoons faster than is necessary for this purpose, by being too long soaked in the hot water, they will wind off in burrs. As fast as the silk is reeled off, the chrysalis should be taken out of the basin. Have your fingers smooth.
When the water becomes discoloured it should always be changed, say two or three times daily.
When the cocoons are first put into the water, if the silk comes off in bunches upon the brush, it is a sign the water is too hot; or if in reeling it runs off in burrs, it is too hot; when the ends cannot be caught, or when caught, do not run freely, the water is too cold. A pail of cold water should always be at hand, to be added to the basin as occasion may require. When the cocoons give their threads freely, the reel may be turned with a quicker motion, for the quicker the motion the better the silk winds off.
Intrinsic value of Trees.–A good tree will yield from three to five cents worth of silk, more or less, according to the skill and care in its management. The capital which will yield this percentage is perhaps the only correct criterion by which to fix the value of the article. In Italy, each full grown mulberry tree pays the government an annual tax of sixteen cents. Let the early friends of the silk cause persevere in their efforts to introduce this important branch of national industry and wealth into the country.
THE SILK CULTURE.
The millions of dollars annually exported in specie to pay for silk–the superiority of the silk grown in the United Stales, and the ease with which, by proper management, it is produced–the adaptation of our soil and climate to its culture–the highly favourable reports made by committees in Congress, and in several state legislatures–the fact that the actual produce of silk in 1840 exceeded twenty-five thousand pounds–the recent American improvements by which the cost of feeding is so greatly reduced, and the probability of a duty being laid on foreign silk–the fact that a farmer may raise a few pounds of silk without neglecting his other crops or any additional expense, and that were each farmer to do so, the balance of trade would be turned so largely in our favour, and a stop put to the incessant drain of specie, are among the private and public reasons that should dispose all to give the silk culture at least a fair trial.
Governor Seward, of New York, in his recent message, presents the most cogent reasons for the advancement of the Silk culture, and the important fact, that two small districts in Italy, possesing less natural advantages than that State, export silks annually to the amount of twenty-five millions of dollars.
The instruction condensed in the foregoing Manual, is believed to be sufficient for any intelligent mind. Further information will be abundantly supplied in the monthly Journal on Silk, by G. B. Smith, Baltimore, Md., or by E. Morris, Burlington, N. J.
DUTY ON SILK.
In 1839 the imports of Silk amounted to 22,838,028 dollars; of which nearly 22,000,000 dollars was free of duty. Had a fair duty been imposed on this Silk, the impoverished treasury of the country would have gained 5,000,000 dollars, and the country itself would have been benefited many million dollars more, in aiding the home production of the article. It may well be said, that in imposing duties on all our produce, other countries evince a determination to protect their own industry, to encourage their own citizens, in short, to take care of themselves, leaving us to argue about the doctrine of free trade, which is free only upon one side, and whose only tendency, so far, has been to drain our country of its precious metals.