Great antiquity of the silk-manufacture in China—Time and mode of pruning the Mulberry-tree—Not allowed to exceed a certain height—Mode of planting—Situation of rearing-rooms, and their construction—Effect of noise on the silk-worm—Precautions observed in preserving cleanliness—Isan-mon, mother of the worms—Manner of feeding—Space allotted to the worms—Destruction of the Chrysalides—Great skill of the Chinese in weaving—American writers on the Mulberry-tree—Silk-worms sometimes reared on trees—(M. Marteloy’s experiments in 1764, in rearing silk-worms on trees in France)—Produce inferior to that of worms reared in houses—Mode of delaying the hatching of the eggs—Method of hatching—Necessity for preventing damp—Number of meals—Mode of stimulating the appetite of the worms—Effect of this upon the quantity of silk produced—Darkness injurious to the silk-worm—Its effect on the Mulberry-leaves—Mode of preparing the cocoons for the reeling process—Wild silk-worms of India—Mode of hatching, &c.—(Observations on the cultivation of silk by Dr. Stebbins—Dr. Bowring’s admirable illustration of the mutual dependence of the arts upon each other.)
In China, the tradition of the silk culture is, as already shown, carried back into the mythological periods, and dates with the origin of agriculture itself. These two pursuits or avocations, namely, husbandry and the silk-manufacture, form the subject of one of the sixteen discourses to the people. It is there observed, that “from ancient times the Son of Heaven directed the plough: the Empress planted the mulberry-tree. Thus have these exalted personages, not above the practice of labor and exertion, set an example to all men, with a view to leading the millions of their subjects to attend to their essential interests.”
In the work published by Imperial authority, entitled “Illustrations of Husbandry and Weaving[135],” there are numerous wood-cuts, accompanied by letter-press explanatory of the different processes of farming and the silk-manufacture. The former head is confined to the production of rice, the staple article of food, and proceeds from the ploughing of the land to the packing of the grain; the latter details all the operations connected with planting the mulberry and gathering its leaves, up to the final weaving of the silk.
[135] The drawing, plate I. (Frontispiece) is a faithful copy of a loom represented in this curious work. For this representation of a Chinese weaving engine, as well as several translations, explanatory of the silk-manufacture, &c., we are indebted to Walter Lowry, Esq., Sec. to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in this city; who kindly permitted us to copy it from the original plate, forming a part of the interesting work above referred to, which is composed of seventy-five volumes, and was, as we understand, presented to the Board by a New York merchant. Many of the illustrations are extremely beautiful, reflecting the highest credit upon the artisans of the “Celestial Empire.”
The mulberry-tree is chiefly cultivated in Chĕ-kiang, which province, together with the only three others that produce fine silk, namely, Kiang-nân, Woo-pĕ, and Sze-chuen, is crossed by the thirtieth parallel of latitude. Chĕ-kiang is a country highly alluvial, intersected by numerous rivers and canals, with a climate that corresponds pretty nearly to the same latitude as that in the United States of America. The soil is manured with mud, dug from the rivers, assisted with ashes or dung; and the spaces between the trees are generally filled with millet, pulse, or other articles of food. The time for pruning the young trees, so as to produce fine leafy shoots, is at the commencement of the year. About four eyes are left on every shoot, and care is taken that the branches be properly thinned, with a view to giving plenty of light and air to the leaves. In gathering these, they make use of steps, as the young trees could not support a ladder, and would besides be injured in their branches by the use of one. The trees, with their foliage, are carefully watched, and the mischiefs of insects prevented by the use of various applications, among which are some essential oils.
The young trees of course suffer by being stripped of their leaves, which are the lungs of plants, and this is an additional reason for renewing them after a certain time. They endeavor in part to counteract the evil effect, by pruning and lopping the tree, so as to diminish the wood when the leaves have been gathered. It is surprising, however, to observe how soon a tree in those climates will recover its leaves in the summer or autumn, after having been entirely stripped of them by a typhoon or hurricane. Fresh plants are procured by cuttings or layers, and sometimes from seed. When the trees grow too old for the production of the finest leaves, and show a greater tendency to fruiting, they are either removed or so cut and managed as to produce young branches.
The principal object, in the cultivation of the mulberry, is to produce the greatest quantity of young and healthy leaves without fruit. For this reason the trees are not allowed to exceed a certain age and height. They are planted on the plan of a quincunx[136], and said to be in perfection in about three years.
[136] In gardening, the quincunx order is a plantation of trees disposed in a square, consisting of five trees, one at each corner and a fifth in the centre, which order repeated indefinitely, forms a regular grove or wood, viewed by an angle of the square or parallelogram, presents equal or parallel alleys.
Mr. Barrow, who observed the management of the trees and silk-worms in Chĕ-kiang, confirms the usual Chinese accounts, by saying that “the houses in which the worms are reared are placed generally in the centre of each plantation, in order that they may be removed as far as possible from every kind of noise; experience having taught them that a sudden shout, or the bark of a dog, is destructive of the young worms. A whole brood has sometimes perished from the effects of a thunder-storm.”
Some notion of the extent of the care required in the management of the worms may be formed from the following extract, taken from the Chinese work referred to at the beginning of this chapter.
“The place where their habitation is built must be retired, free from noise, smells, and disturbances of every kind. The least fright, makes great impressions on these sensitive creatures; even the barking of dogs, &c., is capable of throwing them into the utmost disorder.
For the purpose of paying them every attention an affectionate mother is provided, who is careful to supply their wants; she is called Isan-mon, ‘mother of the worms.’ She takes possession of the chamber, but not before she has washed herself and put on clean clothes, which have not the least repulsive smell; she must not have eaten anything immediately before, or handled any wild succory, the smell of which is very prejudicial. She must be clothed in a plain habit, without any lining, that she may be more sensible of the warmth of the place, and accordingly increase or lessen the fire. She must also carefully avoid making a smoke or raising a dust, which would also be offensive.”
Silk-worms require to be carefully humored before the time of casting their slough. Every day is to them a year, having in a manner, the four seasons; the morning being the Spring; the middle of the day: Summer; the evening: Autumn; and the night, Winter.
The chambers are so contrived as to admit of the use of artificial heat when necessary. Great care is taken of the sheets of paper on which the eggs have been laid; and the hatching is either retarded or advanced, by the application of cold or heat according to circumstances, so as to time the simultaneous exit of the young worms exactly to the period when the tender spring-leaves of the mulberry are most fit for their nourishment.
They proportion the food very exactly to the young worms by weighing the leaves, which in the first instance are cut, but as the insects become larger, are given to them whole. The greatest precautions being observed in regulating the temperature of the apartments. The worms are fed upon a species of small hurdles of basket-work, strewed with leaves, which are constantly shifted for the sake of cleanliness, the insects readily moving off to a fresh hurdle with new leaves, as the scent attracts them. In proportion to their growth, room is afforded to them by increasing the number of these hurdles, the worms of one being shifted to three, then to six, and so on until they attain their greatest size. When they have cast their several skins, reached their greatest size, and assumed a transparent yellowish color, they are removed to places divided into compartments, preparatory to casting forth their silken filaments.
In the course of a week after the commencement of this operation, the cocoons are complete, and it now becomes necessary to take them in hand before the pupæ turn into moths, which would immediately bore their way out, and spoil the cocoons. When a certain number, therefore, have been laid aside for the sake of future eggs, the chrysalides are killed by being placed in jars under layers of salt and leaves, with a complete exclusion of air. They are subsequently placed in moderately warm water, which dissolves the glutinous substance that binds the silk together, and the filament is wound off upon reels. This is put up in bundles of a certain size and weight, and either becomes an article of merchandise under the name of “raw silk,” or is subjected to the loom, and manufactured into various stuffs, for home or foreign consumption. The Chinese notwithstanding the simplicity of their looms (see frontispiece), will imitate exactly the newest and most elegant patterns from France. They particularly excel in the production of damasks, figured-satins, and embroidery. Their crape has never yet been perfectly imitated; and they make a species of washing silk, called at Canton “ponge,” which, the longer it is used, the softer it becomes.
The Chinese have from time immemorial been celebrated for the beauty of their embroideries; indeed, it has been doubted whether the art was not originally introduced into Europe by them, through the Persians.
From what has been said, it is evident that the raising of the mulberry-tree should first engage the attention of the cultivator, since its leaves form the almost exclusive nourishment of the silk-worm. It is scarcely necessary that we should in a work of this description enter more fully into the cultivation of the mulberry-tree. This has already been so ably done by Jonathan Cobb, Esq. of Dedham, Mass., Dr. Pascalis of New York, Judge Comstock of Hartford, Conn., and E. P. Roberts, Esq. of Baltimore, as to leave no stone unturned, or any want upon the subject.
In such parts of the Chinese empire where the climate is favorable to the practice, and where alone, most probably, the silk-worm is indigenous, it remains at liberty, feeding on the leaves of its native mulberry-tree, and going through all its mutations among the branches, uncontrolled by the hand and unassisted by the cares of man. As soon, however, as the silken balls have been constructed, they are appropriated by the universal usurper, who spares only the few required to reproduce their numbers, and thus furnish him with successive harvests[137].
[137] Mons. Marteloy of Montpelier, who made many experiments upon the rearing of silk-worms, presented a memorial upon the subject to the French minister, in compliance with whose recommendation, a few silk growers of Languedoc caused an experiment to be publicly made in the open air, in the garden belonging to the Jesuits’ college at Montpelier. The whole was placed under the direction of Mons. Marteloy, who had 1200 livres assigned to him to defray the necessary expenses. The experiment succeeded perfectly. This was in 1764. In the following year a second trial was made, and 1800 livres were set apart for the expenses. Owing, however, to the unfavorable nature of the season, this experiment failed entirely, the heavy and incessant rains making it impossible to keep the food of the worms in a sufficiently dry state. The rearing of silk-worms in the open air was not again attempted in that quarter; but the partial success led to the adoption among cultivators of a better system of ventilation, and the production of silk was about this time very much extended throughout Languedoc.—Obs. on the Culture of Silk, by A. Stephenson.
This silk, the spontaneous offering of nature, is not, however, equal in fineness to that produced by worms under shelter, and whose progressions are influenced by careful management. Much attention is, therefore, bestowed by the Chinese in the artificial rearing of silk-worms. One of their principal cares, is to prevent the too early hatching of the eggs, to which the nature of the climate so strongly disposes them. The mode of insuring the requisite delay, is, to cause the moth to deposit her eggs on large sheets of paper: these, immediately upon their production, are suspended from a beam in the room, while the windows are opened to expose them to the air. In a few days the papers are taken down and rolled loosely up with the eggs inside, in which form they are again hung during the remainder of the summer and autumn. Towards the end of the year they are immersed in cold water wherein a small portion of salt has been dissolved. In this state the eggs are left during two days; and on being taken from the salt and water are first hung to dry, and then rolled up rather more tightly than before, each sheet of paper being thereafter inclosed in a separate earthen vessel. Some persons, who are exceedingly particular in their processes, use a lye made of mulberry-tree ashes, and place the eggs likewise, during some minutes, on snow-water.
These processes appear efficacious for checking the hatching, until the expanding leaves of the mulberry-tree give notice to the silk-worm-rearer that he may take measures for bringing forth his brood. For this purpose the rolls of paper are taken from the earthen vessels, and hung up towards the sun, the side to which the eggs adhere being turned from its rays, by being placed inside, and thus allowing the heat to be transmitted to them through the paper. In the evening the sheets are rolled closely up and placed in a warm situation. The same proceeding is repeated on the following day, when the eggs assume a grayish color. On the evening of the third day, after a similar exposure, they are found to be of a much darker color, nearly approaching to black; and the following morning, on the paper being unrolled, they are covered with worms. In the higher latitudes the Chinese have recourse to the heat of stoves, in order to promote the simultaneous hatching of the eggs.
The apartments in which the worms are kept stand in dry situations, in a pure atmosphere, and apart from all noise, which is thought to be annoying to the worms, especially when they are young. The rooms are made very close, but adequate means of ventilation provided: the doors being open to the south. Each chamber is provided with nine or ten rows of frames, placed one above the other. On these frames, rush hurdles are ranged; upon which the worms are fed through their five ages. A uniform degree of heat is constantly preserved, either by means of stoves placed in the corners of the apartments, or by chafing-dishes which from time to time are carried up and down the room. Flame and smoke being always carefully avoided: cow-dung dried in the sun is preferred by the Chinese to all other kinds of fuel for this purpose.
The most unremitting attention is paid to the wants of the worms, which are fed night and day. On their being hatched they are furnished with forty meals for the first day, thirty are given on the second day, and fewer on and after the third. The Chinese believe that the growth of silk-worms is accelerated, and their success promoted by the abundance of their food, and therefore, in cloudy and damp weather, when the insects are injuriously affected by the state of the atmosphere, their appetites are stimulated by a wisp of very dry straw being lighted and held over them, thus causing the cold and damp air to be dissipated.
The Chinese calculate that the same number of insects which would, if they had attained the full size in twenty-three or twenty-four days, produce twenty-five ounces of silk, would give only twenty ounces if their growth occupied twenty-eight days, and only ten ounces if forty days. In order, therefore, to accelerate their growth, they supply them with fresh food every half-hour during the first day of their existence, and then gradually reduce the number of meals as the worms grow older. It deserves to be remarked as a fact unnoticed in Natural Theology, that the substance on which this valuable caterpillar feeds, is the leaf of the mulberry-tree; and Providence, as if to ensure the continuance of this useful species, has so ordained it that no other insect will partake of the same food; thus ensuring a certain supply for the little spinster.
Many persons believe that light is injurious to silk-worms; but, so far from this opinion being correct, the opposite belief would probably be nearer to the truth. In its native state, the insect is of course exposed to light, and suffers no inconvenience on that account; and it has been observed by one who gave much attention to the subject (Count Dandolo), that in his establishment, “on the side on which the sun shone directly on the hurdles, the silk-worms were stronger and more numerous than in those places where the edge of the wicker hurdle formed a shade.” The obscurity wherein the apartments are usually kept has a very pernicious influence on the air: the food of the worms emits in light oxygen, or vital air, while in darkness it exhales carbonic acid gas, unfit for respiration. This well-known fact occurs alike with all leaves similarly circumstanced[138]. To the bad effects thus arising from the exclusion of the sun’s rays, another evil is added by the nature of the artificial lights employed, being such as still further to vitiate the air.
[138] “There is in the order of nature a certain, and very surprising fact; when the leaves of vegetables are struck by the sun’s rays, they exhale an immense quantity of vital air necessary to the life of animals, and which they consume by respiration.
“These same leaves in the shade as well as in darkness exhale an immense quantity of mephitic or fixed air, which cannot be inhaled without destruction of life.
“This influence of the sun does not cease even when the leaf has been recently gathered; on the contrary, in darkness, gathered leaves will exhale a still greater quantity of mephitic air.
“Place one ounce of fresh mulberry leaves in a wide-necked bottle of the size of a Paris pint, containing two pounds of liquid; expose this bottle to the sun; about an hour afterwards, according to the intensity of the sun, reverse the bottle and introduce a lighted taper in it; this done, the light will become brighter, whiter, and larger, which proves that the vital air contained in the bottle has increased by that which has disengaged itself from the leaves: to demonstrate this phenomenon more clearly, a taper may be put in a similar bottle, that only contains the air which has entered into it by its being uncorked. Shortly after the first experiment, water will be found in the bottle which contained the mulberry leaves; this water, evaporating from the leaves by means of the heat, hangs on the sides, and runs to the bottom when cooling; the leaves appear more or less withered and dry according to the liquid they have lost. In another similar bottle place an ounce of leaves, and cork it exactly like the former; place it in obscurity, either in a box, or wrap it in cloths, in short, so as totally to exclude light; about two hours after, open the bottle, and put either a lighted taper or a small bird into it; the candle will go out, and the bird will perish, as if they had been plunged into water, which demonstrates that in darkness the leaves have exhaled mephitic air, while in the sun they exhaled vital air”.—Count Dandolo’s Treatise on the Art of Rearing Silk-worms, p. 144.
An almost incredible quantity of fluid is constantly disengaged by evaporation from the bodies of the insects; and if means be not taken to disperse this as it is produced, another cause of unwholesomeness in the air arises. Noticing this, Count Dandolo observes, “This series of causes of the deterioration of the air which the worms must inhale, may be termed a continual conspiracy against their health and life; and their resisting it, and living throughout shows them to have great strength of constitution.”
In seven days from the commencement of the cocoons they are collected in heaps; those which are designed to continue the breed being first selected and set apart on hurdles, in a dry and airy situation. The next care, is to destroy the vitality of the chrysalides in those balls which are to be reeled. The most approved method of performing this, is to fill large earthen vessels with cocoons, in layers, throwing in one-fortieth part of their weight of salt upon each layer, covering the whole with large dry leaves resembling those of the water-lilly, and then closely stopping the mouths of the vessels. In reeling their silk the Chinese separate the thick and dark from the long and glittering white cocoons, as the produce of the former is inferior.
We are indebted to Dr. Ure for the two following articles (extracted from the Journal of the Asiatic Society, for January, 1837), on wild silk-worms. The first article is from the pen of Thomas Hugon, a resident of Nowgong, and relates to wild silk-worms of Assam.
“The Assamese select for breeding, such cocoons only as have been begun to be formed in the largest number on the same day, usually the second or third after the commencement; those which contain males being distinguishable by a more pointed end. They are put in a closed basket suspended from the roof; the moths, as they come forth, having room to move about, at the expiration of a day, the females (known only by their large body) are taken out, and tied to small wisps of thatching-straw, selected always from over the hearth, its darkened color being thought more acceptable to the insect. If out of a batch, there should be but few males; the wisps with the females tied to them are exposed outside at night; and the males thrown away in the neighborhood, find their way to them. These wisps are hung upon a string tied across the roof, to keep them from vermin. The eggs laid after the first three days, are said to produce weak worms. The wisps are taken out morning and evening, and exposed to the sun, and in ten days after being laid, a few of them are hatched. The wisps being then hung up to the tree, the young worms find their way to the leaves. The ant, whose bite is fatal to the worm in its early stages, is destroyed by rubbing the trunk of the tree with molasses, and tying dead fish and toads to it, to attract these rapacious insects in large numbers, when they are destroyed with fire; a process which needs to be repeated several times. The ground under the trees is also well cleared, to render it easy to pick up and replace the worms which fall down. They are prevented from coming to the ground, by tying fresh plantain-leaves round the trunk, over whose slippery surface they cannot crawl; and then transferred from exhausted trees to fresh ones, on bamboo platters tied to long poles. The worms require to be constantly watched and protected from the depredations of both day and night birds, as well as rats and other vermin. During their moultings, they remain on the branches; but when about beginning to spin, they come down the trunk, and being stopped by the plantain-leaves, are there collected in baskets, which are afterwards put under bunches of dry leaves, suspended from the roof, into which the worms crawl, and form their cocoons—several being clustered together: this accident, owing to the practice of crowding the worms, which is most injudicious, rendering it impossible to wind off their silk in continuous threads, as in the filatures of Italy, France, and even Bengal. The silk is, therefore, spun like flax, instead of being unwound in single filaments. After four days the proper cocoons are selected for the next breed, and the rest are reeled. The total duration of a breed varies from sixty to seventy days; divided into the following periods:—
| Four moultings, with one day’s illness attending each, | 20 |
| From fourth moulting to beginning of cocoon, | 10 |
| In the cocoon 20, as a moth 6, hatching of eggs 10, | 36 |
| — | |
| 66 |
“On being tapped with the finger, the body renders a hollow sound; the quality of which shows whether they have come down for want of leaves on the tree, or from their having ceased feeding.
“As the chrysalis is not soon killed by exposure to the sun, the cocoons are put on stages, covered with leaves, and exposed to the hot air from grass burned under them; they are next boiled for about an hour in a solution of the potash, made from incinerated rice-stalks; then taken out and put on a cloth folded over them to keep them warm. The floss being removed by hand, they are then thrown into a basin of hot water to be unwound; which is done in a very rude and wasteful way.
“The plantations for the mooga silk-worm in Lower Assam, amount to 5000 acres, besides what the forests contain; and yield 1500 maunds of 84 lbs. each per annum. Upper Assam is more productive.
“The cocoon of the Koutkuri mooga is of the size of a fowl’s egg. It is a wild species, and affords filaments much valued for fishing-lines.
“The Arrindy, or Eria worm, and moth, is reared over a great part of Hindostan, but entirely within doors. It is fed principally on the Hera, or Palma christi leaves, and gives sometimes 12 broods of spun silk in the course of a year. It affords a fibre which looks rough at first; but when woven, becomes soft and silky, after repeated washings. The poorest people are clothed with stuff made of it, which is so durable as to descend from mother to daughter. The cocoons are put in a close basket, and hung up in the house, out of reach of rats and insects. When the moths come forth, they are allowed to move about in the basket for twenty-four hours; after which the females are tied to long reeds or canes, twenty or twenty-five to each, and then hung up in the house. Of the eggs that are laid the first three days, about 200, only are kept; then tied up for seed. When a few of the worms are hatched, the cloths are put on small bamboo platters hung up in the house, in which they are fed with tender leaves. After the second moulting, they are removed to bunches of leaves suspended above the ground, beneath which a mat is laid to receive them when they fall. When they cease to feed, they are thrown into baskets full of dry leaves, among which they form their cocoons, two or three being often discovered joined together.
“The Saturnia trifenestrata has a yellow cocoon of a remarkably silky lustre. It lives on the soom-tree in Assam, but seems not to be much used.”
The second article is from the pen of Dr. Helfer, upon those wild silk-worms which are indigenous to India. Besides the Bombyx mori, the Doctor enumerates the following seven species, formerly unknown:—1. “The wild silk-worm of the central provinces, a moth not larger than the Bombyx mori.” 2. “The Joree silk-worm of Assam, Bombyx religiosæ, which spins a cocoon of a fine filament, with much lustre. It lives upon the pipul tree (Ficus religiosa), which abounds in India, and ought therefore to be turned to account in breeding this valuable moth.” 3. “Saturnia silhetica, which inhabits the cassia mountains in Silhet and Dacca, where its large cocoons are spun into silk.” 4. “A still larger Saturnia, one of the greatest moths in existence, measuring ten inches from the one end of the wing to the other[139]; observed by Mr. Grant, in Chirra punjee”. 5. “Saturnia paphia, or the Tusseh silk-worm, is the most common of the native species, and furnishes the cloth usually worn by Europeans in India. It has not hitherto been domesticated, but millions of its cocoons are annually collected in the jungles, and brought to the silk factories near Calcutta and Bhagelpur. It feeds most commonly on the hair-tree (Zizyphus jujuba), but it prefers the Terminalia alata, or Assam tree, and the Bombax heptaphyllum. It is called Koutkuri mooga, in Assam.” 6. “Another Saturnia, from the neighborhood of Comercolly.” 7. “Saturnia assamensis, with a cocoon of a yellow-brown color, different from all others, called mooga, in Assam; which, although it can be reared in houses, thrives best in the open air upon trees, of which seven different kinds afford it food. The Mazankoory mooga, which feeds on the Adakoory tree, produces a fine silk, which is nearly white, and fetches 50 per cent. more than the fawn colored. The trees of the first year’s growth produce by far the most valuable cocoons. The mooga which inhabits the soom-tree, is found principally in the forests of the plains, and in the villages. The tree grows to a large size, and yields three crops of leaves in the year. The silk is of a light fawn color, and ranks next in value to the Mazankoory. There are generally five breeds of mooga worms in the year; 1. In January and February; 2. In May and June; 3. In June and July; 4. In August and September; 5. In October and November; the first and last being the most valuable.”
[139] See p. 40. Also p. 54. footnote [63]
Dr. Anderson informs us, that in Madras the silk-worm goes through all its evolutions in the short space of twenty-two days. It appears, however, that the saving of time, and consequently labor, is the only economy resulting from the acceleration; as the insects consume as much food during their shorter period of life, as is assigned to the longer-lived silk-worms of Europe.
We extract the following paper, with slight emendations, from Ellsworth’s Report of the Patent Office for the year 1844, being a communication from Dr. Stebbins of Northampton, Mass[140]., to the Editor of the American Agriculturalist, as having some bearing upon the present subject.
“As requested, I forward you a sketch of Mr. Gill’s cradle for feeding silk-worms, (It is not necessary for us to give a drawing of it in a work like the present, which is chiefly intended for the general reader, and besides, this machine is already sufficiently known to silk culturists.) I have five patches of mulberry, (in all, ten or twelve acres,) two parcels of which you have seen. The one adjoining my garden, by estimation, may furnish foliage sufficient for a million and a half of worms. The mulberries consist of the white, black, alpine, broosa, moretta, alata, multicaulis, Asiatic, and large-leaf Canton. The two latter I prefer for my own use—the Canton for early feeding with foliage, and the Asiastic for branch feeding. The Canton is highly approved of for producing heavy and firm cocoons, which, by competent testimony and experiments, have been found in favor of the Canton feed as five to eight, and is the true species used by the Chinese, as testified by a resident Missionary, the Rev. E. C. Bridgman, and more recently by Dr. Parker, while on his late visit to the United States. I consider the peanut variety of worms the best for producing the most silk of a good quality.
“From an elevated plat near my cocoonery, you had a view of our extensive meadows spread out at the foot of Mount Holyoke. My cocoonery you have examined, with its fixtures for feeding silk-worms—the mode of open feeding, ventilator, and ventilating cradles. Since you left, the whole has been completed, with hammocks suspended over the cradles, easily put in motion, and so constructed that no offal can drop into the cradles beneath, nor interfere with the rocking motion or winding; the arrangement is much admired, and estimated to accommodate half a million of worms, or more, to be fed simultaneously. About half of the cocoonery has hurdles of lattice work, covered in part with gauze netting four feet wide and the same number of tiers in height. The cocoonery is supposed to be sufficiently open on the sides, ends, and roof, to admit a free circulation of pure air. The flooring is the natural earth.
“The past winter has been uncommonly severe on grape-vines and fruit; forest and mulberry trees; the Asiatic I found the most hardy of any other, and the Canton the earliest in foliage. On the 21st and 22d of May there were severe frosts, destroying garden vegetables, and injuring some early mulberry foliage; added to this, ice was formed in many places. The accounts from Vermont and New Hampshire are so disastrous as to delay early feeding; while in Northampton, June 14, at one of my plantations, you saw silk-worms in the act of winding, and others in a good state of forwardness. On the day of your departure, I received a letter from a distant silk grower, a staunch promoter of the one early and open crop system, that, on account of the unpropitious season and condition of his trees, he would delay fetching out his worms until the last of June, and then make his great effort upon one crop.
“To provide against premature hatching of silk-worms, or the disaster of an early frost, it is advisable to have foliage gathered and dried the year preceding; which, being pulverized and moistened with water, may be given to the worms until new foliage appears; and they will eat it freely.
“To obtain the most and best foliage of the mulberry, it will be necessary every Spring to cut or head them down within three or four inches of the ground, and preserve the stalks for bark-silk. I have a quantity of them saved with bark peeled from the large Asiatics to be used for making bark-silk, in addition to a quantity of mulberry-leaves preserved for making paper. The whole process, although not carried out, as yet, in this country, with either, has been successfully accomplished in France, from proof shown by M. Frassinet. I am endeavoring to have it tested here, by subjecting both stalk and peeled bark to the operation of steaming with soap and water, to facilitate the separation of the bark from the wood, and the outside cuticle from the fibrous substance of the bark, before trying the operation of the brake for dressing, carding, spinning, &c. Should it prove successful, it will be made public (See Mr. Zinke’s process, Chapter XI.). Hopes are entertained that what has been done may be done again; that Yankee ingenuity and perseverance may prove a match for foreign cheap labor(?).
“The present time has been called the age of invention and improvement. But if ”there is nothing new under the sun” (a pretty fair illustration of this assertion of the wise man—Vide Ecclesiastes i. 9, 10.—will be found in this work.); and if what is, has been and may be again, then may we hope to be benefitted by the reproduction of astonishing results in all coming time; and even now, while there has been anxious inquiry for some easy mode to separate the bark of the mulberry from the wood, an historical fact has been recently communicated(?); by which, some two hundred and forty years ago, in the year 1600, an accident occurred, which resulted in the manufacture of a handsome fabric from the fibrous bark of the mulberry, with the inference that the bark had been previously used for the manufacture of cordage, on account of the superior strength of the fibrous bark over that of other materials used for cordage[141].
“Under date of June 6, 1844, I have been favored with a letter from the president of one of the most eminent literary institutions of our country, who expresses his opinion of the progress of silk culture as follows:
‘I am gratified to find a renewed and more general interest excited at the present time. If this awaking up to a scientific and practical consideration of the subject is not soon crowned with signal success, I am satisfied it will not be for want of enterprize or skill in our countrymen, but merely from the high price of labor, compared with the scanty wages given in other silk-growing countries. Even this consideration (though it may retard for a while the complete success of this department of productive industry), will not prevent its ultimate triumph.’
“The above is the opinion of one of the most scientific men of the age, who, in early life, was himself a silk grower. His opinion accords with that of many others of high consideration in the United States.
“While viewing the flourishing condition of one of my mulberry patches, you asked with what it had been manured? and received for answer, ashes, and the deciduous foliage. The foliage, you thought, could be gathered for making paper, and answered, that there would be sufficient defective foliage left to manure the land; the foliage is richer than any stable manure, and stable manure should never be applied to the mulberry. I have not had occasion the last five or six years to use even ashes as a manure, but keep the land in good tilth by frequent hoeing. If you found these mulberries more flourishing than others you had seen, it may be attributed, in a great measure, to frequent hoeing, and dressing with the decayed mulberry foliage.
“The soil is a light sandy loam; and, previous to its being stocked with mulberry, would not yield the value of $10 in any crop; and now, my feeder says, if his worms do well, he hopes to get $800 for the crop! A part of this lot being stocked with alpine, broosa, and Asiatic mulberry, of 6 to 10 feet in height, in rows 3 feet apart; and having grown so vigorously as to shade each other, and liable to have spotted leaves. I have, in order to avoid this, and procure more, larger, and better foliage, cut away or headed down every other row, within three or four inches of the ground; and from the stumps have sprung up a multitude of thrifty sprouts, now fit for use, and the leaves three times larger than those on the standard trees, are so fresh and tender, that in some measure it is hoped, they may answer the purpose of seedling foliage, so highly recommended by M. Frassinet, who has the following encomium on seedling foliage: ‘that 100 pounds of such foliage is worth near 200 pounds of old leaves to make the same quantity of cocoons; or in fact, equivalent in value to nearly double the stock of other foliage.’ I have caused considerable bark to be stripped from the Asiatic trees cut away for manufacturing purposes; and M. Rouviere, of Lyons, has proved that the bark of young shoots, submitted to the same process as hemp, yields abundant silk-fibre to make beautiful tissues (noticed at the close of Chapter XI.). I should advise silk growers to preserve the shoots, have them barked in the best way, and the silky fibre rotted, carded, spun, and wove. M. Rouviere asserts that it will be not only fine and strong, but take the most beautiful colors. Of the bark, ropes and nets are made in the Morea, and may be applied to great advantage in the manufacture of paper, together with the foliage.
“The Canton and Asiatic seed sown this year are in a flourishing condition for plantation use, exclusive of several mulberry plantations which will be for rent, or growing silk on shares, next spring. Up to the first of July, worms have been uncommonly healthy—the probable effect of more open ventilation than in former years.
“Mr. Dabney, consul at Fayal, (now in Boston) has two millions of worms at present on feed. S. Whitmarsh, at Jamaica, has 360 of what he calls creolized native eggs, in constant feed, which go through the whole course to the cocoon in 24 days. The eggs hatch in 10 days after being laid. He has received the silk report, and made such improvement as to save, in all, nine-tenths of the usual labor. The silk cause at Jamaica occasions great interest in England for its prosperity and success.”
D. Stebbins.
Northampton, Mass., July, 1844.
[141] We have abundant testimony that the most beautiful fabrics, comprising mantles, &c., as well as cordage, was produced from the bark of trees, as early as the year 412 B. C. So that Mr. Stebbins’s “historical fact” is anticipated by 2012 years! (See Chapters XII. and XIII. of this Part.)
We will now conclude this Chapter with Dr. Bowling’s admirable illustration, of the mutual dependence of the arts upon each other:—
“Let us fancy that some thousand years ago, a mortal, wandering through an oriental wood, saw a worm falling from a fruit-bearing tree—that he found this little creature had reached the end of one of its stages of existence, and was laboriously engaged in shrouding itself in an unknown substance, like a fine thread of gold, out of which it constructed its tomb; that, attracted by the circumstance, he found this shroud to consist of a thread hundreds of yards long, which a very little attention enabled him to detach; he found he could strengthen the threads by uniting them together, and they could be applied to various purposes of usefulness; he thought of winding off the thread; the reel lends him the first assistance, but he could not make the reel without the co-operation of a knife, or some such instrument with a sharp edge. Thus the aid of art—of the produce of art—is already called in. With this rude instrument he makes a machine which enables him to reel off the thread coffin of the curious animal. In process of time, he finds that this fine filament can be applied to the making of garments—garments alike useful and ornamental. Now trace the progress of things by which, from the narrow sphere of his observation and experiment, his success spreads through the districts he inhabits, and from them to other lands, and becomes an object of importance to communicate with the whole family of man. By and by the cocoon, or its produce, finds its way to foreign countries, probably more enlightened than his own, again to be operated on by a higher intelligence and more practised skill. This associates the thread of the silk-worm with a ship, with ship-building, and all its marvellous combinations.—Some wandering merchant probably conveyed the raw material to Persia; some adventurous mariner to Greece or Italy, or other regions where it gave a new impulse to science and to thought. But consider for a moment, before the ship was launched upon the water, how many elements were necessary for its production; think of how multitudinous and various the materials which that ship required for its construction, before the products of that remote country are brought to their ultimate markets for manufacture. I refer to this particular topic, because it is associated with the prosperity of the districts in which we are, and I wished to carry back your thoughts to the germ whence that prosperity sprung.”—Bowring’s Lecture at the Poplar Institution.