The American silk grower's guide. Or, The art of raising the mulberry and silk, and the system of successive crops in each season

Front matter

THE

AMERICAN

OR THE

Section 1. History of Silk; Its Antiquity and Commerce, 9

II. History of the Silk- worm, 17

III. Varieties of Silk-worms, 22

Other V arieties of Silk-worms, 24

IV. Climate, Shelter, &c., 25

V. Mulberry, 26

VI. Black Mulberry, 28

VII. Red Mulberry, 29

VIII. Japan or Paper Mulberry, 29

IX. Shining leaved Mulberry, 30

X. Tartarean Mulberry, 30

XI. Canton Mulberry, 30

XII. White Italian Mulberry, and some other

Varieties, 31

XIII. Morettiana Mulberry, 33

XIV. Chinese Mulberry, or Morns Multicaulis, 33

XV. Soil, Situation and Climate, 43

XVI. Cultivation, 47

XVII. Plantations of Mulberry Trees, 49

XVIII. Hedges, or Dwarf Mulberry Tree Plantations, 52

XIX. Gathering the Leaves for food, 54

XX. Substitutes for the Mulberry, 56

XXI. Pvlodes of Making Silk in different Countries, 57

XXII. Space required for the Silk- worms, 62

IV

Index

Section. Page

XXI1L Habitations, or Magnanerie, Hurdles, &c, 65

XXIV. Amount of Food consumed, 70

XXV. Labor and Attendance, 72

XXVI. Hatching the Insects, 73

XXVII. Remarks on Feeding, Quality of Food, &c., 74

XXVIII. Feeding, Care and Attention, 76

XXIX. Formation of the Cocoons, 79

XXX. Maladies of the Silk-worms, 81

XXXI. Cocoons for producing Eggs, 83

XXXII. Stifling the Cocoons or Chrysalides, 84

XXXIII. Transporting Cocoons, 87

XXXIV. Reeling, 87

Piedmontese Reel, (with a cut,) 92

New French Reel, (with cuts,) 92

XXXV. Different Qualities of Cocoons, 97

On Reeling, (continued,) 101

XXXVI. Formation of Organzine, Sewing Silk, &c., 102

Brooks’s Reeling and Spinning Machine, 106

Dennis’s Reeling ancBSpinning Machine, 107

XXXVII. Produce of the Silk-worm and of Silk, 103

XXXVIII. Produce of Land, of Labor, and of Silk, 113

XXXIX. Division of Labor, 119

XL. Remarks on the Price of Labor, 120

XLI. Uses and Fabrics of Silk, 127

XLII. Successive Crops of Silk, 129

XLM. Modern System of Count Dandolo, of

Italy, and of France, 134

XLIV. Production and Manufacture of Silk in

different Countries, 137

XLV. Climate of America ; Silk Establishments, 150

XLVI. Duties on Silk and Protection Laws, &c., 156

XLVII. Economical Modes of Warming, 159

XLV III. Price of Labor; Power of Automata, or

Machinery, 161

XLIX. Climate of the Northern States, 163

Poetry. The Silk-worm’s Will. 165

List of Authors, See , quoted or consulted, 1 GO

Preface

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The favorable reception by the public, of the first and a large edition of this work, has induced me to offer a new volume, with extensive additions and improvements from the new and abundant materials which have come to hand.

Particularly have I noticed many of the improvements which have been adopted in some of the silk establishments and manufactories which have so lately arisen into existence in the various sections of our country, as well also as those very important improvements which have so recently been adopted in France. For here chiefly it was, and with reason, that I expected to find, exemplified in practice, some of those improvements, the most signal and decisive, of the latest day.

The system of raising silk, which 1 have more especially recommended for America, is, in many respects, another and separate system from that which is usually practised in the less favored sections of Europe. It is the system particularly adapted to our own highly favored climate — to our more serene atmosphere, and almost perpetual sunshine during summer, and to the peculiar requirements of our people.

Silk is believed to be eminently adapted to the soil and climate of every division of the Great Republic. Our serene atmosphere is peculiarly favorable to its growth, and the prolonged and vigorous state of vegetation during our summers. The genial climate for silk is ours, and the highly favored soil of one whole continent of the great western world, which, by an especial providence, with the exception only of Mexico, has fallen to our share, and is ours exclusively.

The annual imports of Britain are four million pounds of raw and thrown silk, at a cost of about <£1 5s. sterling ($5 55) per pound. But the annual value of the silk manufactured in England is £14,000,000 sterling, or more than $62,000,000. The manufactures and exports of France also, as I have elsewhere stated, are enormous. The value of silks imported into the United States, in the year ending in September, 1836, was $22,862,177 ; besides more than $6,000,000 in value, of goods composed of part silk, and part cotton or worsted ; — but this was a year of excessive importation, and is not stated as a just average, But the value of silks imported into the United States during the previous year, or the year ending in September, 1835, amounted to $16,497,980 ; this being the original or first cost in the foreign country. Neither the articles of raw silk, nor any of those numerous and elegant fabrics, which are composed of part silk and p^rt

Vi

PREFACE.

cotton, or of silk and worsted, are included in this amount. During this period, only $486,562 worth of this great amount was exported ; leaving $16,111,418 for consumption. But the actual amount of silks, without mixture, which are consumed by the American people, or the whole cost at retail to the actual consumer , may be fairly estimated at more than $22,000,000 for the year. It must be even greater in this day. And the demand, which is now so great, is continually increasing. Not half this amount of silk was consumed eight years ago; and since 1821, and during seventeen years, the amount of silks consumed has doubled twice.

Asia, and the country from whence originally we derived the silk-worm, has also given to America the new plant, so surpassing in beauty, and which, from the superior nutritive quality of the leaf, and the promptitude with which it is renewed, will afford the abundant and continued succession of nourishment for a double harvest — a plant, which, from the extraordinary quality and size of the leaf, will give to this new and great interest a new and decisive impulse, by producing the most decided saving of time in the cultivation, and an all-important saving of labor in gathering the food. In this reference 1 may moreover include that other new Chinese mulberry, so lately introduced from China, and described at page 30; and which is also of high character, and eminentl}!- splendid. Many trees of this variety, received by John F. Cushing, Esq., of Belmont, Watertown, direct from his Chinese friend at Canton, have been liberally disseminated by him.

Our advantages are indeed very great; to be duly appreciated they must be estimated singly and individually. How much greater and more striking will the}^ then appear, if considered collectively. Our innumerable rivers and rapid streams, our immense forests and mines, the exhaustless treasures of fuel and of flame, the combined elements of wTater, earth, and of fire, offer resources of mighty power, unknown and immeasurable, and willing aids in abrido-ino- the labors of man.

History will record to endless remembrance, the names of these illustrious individuals who have persevered as the faithful guides and pioneers in this great work — those who, by their example or writings, have served as lights to illumine our way, and to cheer us through the long, dark and dreary night.

The decisive impulse is already given — already are its mighty influences extending throughout our country, far and wide. The Americans are awake ! Hope dawns auspicious — the day and its brightness will be ours. Endowed, as are our people, with fortitude, with energy, and with intellectual resources unsurpassed — is there one American who can doubt?

Most of all, might I desire t.o be useful, by aiding in the introduction of a culture, which may make rich the people, even of the less fertile districts, and open to our country the resources of unceasing wealth. Whuja m Ken rick.

Konantum Hill , Newton, Mass., 1839.

Introduction

CHINESE MODES OF MANAGEMENT. IMPROVED MODES ADOPTED IN FRANCE.

According to the authority of the Chinese treatises, and also the high authority of M. Camille Beauvais, while the French have usually lost near fifty in one hundred of their silk- worms, the Chinese hardty lose one in a hundred. This may, in part, be ascribed to their practice of rejecting in the first instance, and invariably, those few worms that hatch first, and also to the great attention they pay to the insects ; but principally, and most of all, their great success is ascribed to their subsequent treatment of the insects, and particularly to their modes contrived for the purposes of ventilation. By these modes, the exterior air is made to enter the apartment for the silk-worms, by numerous tubes on a line level with the floor. When these tubes are opened, an impure atmosphere is expelled upwards, and escapes through various openings in the ceiling or roof, and the air of the rooms is cooled and refreshed. When it is desired to elevate the temperature, these openings are closed. When the silk-worms are forming their cocoons, the temperature is always kept elevated. If the warmth of the atmosphere is insufficient, small chafing dishes of coals are occasionally placed beneath two large hurdles, which are united at top and stand inclining.

At the Government establishment, or experimental silk farm, near Montgeron, in the north of France, M. Camille Beauvais, the superintendent, has adopted, with signal success, the more complete system of ventilation and of warming the apartments, invented by M. D’Arcet. By this mode, the air of a whole establishment is speedily warmed by means .of a furnace in the cellar, the heated air being conveyed beneath by flues, is admitted upwards to the apartment by numerous openings, which are distributed in the floor ; the cold and impure air, beingexpelled upwards, escapes by numerous openings in the roof. In most of our cities, at this day, many private houses, and a great proportion of the public houses and churches are warmed in this way ; an equal temperature is thus produced in a mode the most perfect and economical hitherto devised. In like manner, as I conceive, a pure, cool and refreshing atmosphere may also, at any time, be

VIII

INTRODUCTION.

forced into an apartment from beneath the floor, through numerous openings by strong currents of air artificially produced, which would, in a few moments of time, expel, through numerous openings in the roof, the whole interior and impure heated atmosphere of a vast apartment of silk- worms. Thus it is, that in some parts of India, the apartments of the opulent are refreshed by cool breezes artificially produced, a man standing at the door with a vast fan.

Already at this establishment, and by his extraordinary management, has M. Camille Beauvais succeeded in producing thirteen pounds of silk from the same number of silk-worms which in France usually produce but five pounds, and in Italy seven and a half pounds, and in India twenty pounds ; and even in that cold climate, he expects soon to be able to produce an equal number of pounds.

Through the politeness of Edward S. Rand, Esq., of Newburyport, I have been favored with the loan of a splendid Chinese quarto volume, the property of Capt. David Wood, of that town, and brought out by him from China. It is composed of twentyeight superb colored engravings on rice paper, which represent every part of the process of cultivating the Mulberry, and of raising silk, from the first planting of the mulberry, until the reeled silk is wound off from the reel by hand, upon the distaff.

In those engravings, the plants are represented as kept low for the convenience of gathering the leaves ; or, rising up in spring, usually several stalks from the same root. The gathering of the leaves commences in the first }mar. The trees being successively stripped of their leaves during summer, in autumn the shrubs, thus defoliated, are cut down for the production of a new, luxuriant and future crop of leaves. This is in perfect conformity to the statements of Mr. Cushing, who resided in China many years. In gathering the leaves, I observe that the footstalks are always left, and also a few small leaves on the summit, until the last gathering of the season takes place, and previous to the plants being cut down in autumn.

The ninth Plate, is a representation of children and females gathering the leaves in the manner above described, from the young trees of a few feet in height, and of the first year’s growth.

The tenth Plate, is a representation of the plantation thus stripped of its verdure ; it shews also the modes and process of the cultivation.

The eleventh Plate, is a representation of the second gathering of the leaves of the season, lay females, from the trees, which are now of a more advanced growth.

The twelfth Plate, is a representation of the operation of cutting down the plants, to near the surface of the earth, after they have been completely defoliated for the last time of the season.

Other modes of management in China are given in detail at i>. 58.

SILK GROWER’S GUIDE.

SECTION I.

HISTORY OF SILK: ITS ANTIQUITY AND COMMERCE.

Silk, or the splendid material produced by the silkworm, was first known in ancient Ser or Serica , in China. It was there first discovered in its own native forests of the mulberry-tree. In that country it was called Se, and by transition it was called Ser by the Greeks, and Sericum by the Romans; and hence by the different nations of Italy, of France, and of England, it is variously called Seta , Soic, and Silk at the present day. Anciently also, it was called Bombykya, or Bomhycina , from Bombyx , a caterpillar which spins a web.

The silk-worm, or Bombyx mori , is a precious insect, which is thus denominated from mortis , the plant on which it feeds ; otherwise, and anciently, the Bombyx Assyrian or Syrian, improperly so called, since the country of the Seres or Chinese , was another country, the most remote, and bounded on other shores; many a nation and far distant country intervening.

The cultivation of silk commenced in China 700 years before Abraham, and 2700 years before Christ.

SILK GROWER’S GUIDE.

The Emperor Ploung-ti, “the Emperor of the Earth,” who reigned over China more than 100 years, and whose name is rendered immortal for his noble and useful deeds — he who taught the Chinese to construct houses, ships, mills, carts, and other works of usefulness — he, also, persuaded his first consort, Si-ling-chi, to bestow her attention on the silk-worms, it being his earnest desire that his Empress also might contribute to the welfare of the empire. Aided by the women of her household, the Empress Si-ling-chi gathered the silk-worms from the trees, and introduced them to the imperial apartments. Thus sheltered and protected, and abundantly supplied with the leaves of the mulberry, they yielded silk superior in quality to that produced in the forests. She also taught them its manufacture, and to embroider.

Silk and its manufacture, and the weaving, continued to be the principal occupation of the succeeding Empresses ; apartments being especially appropriated to this purpose, in the Imperial Palace; and soon, from the highest rank of females, it became the occupation of all ranks in China ; and ere long, the Emperor, the learned class, the princes, the mandarins, and courtiers, and all the rich, were attired in the splendid fabrics of silk, until finally, silk became the great and inexhaustible resource of the wealth of China.

From China it was exported to India, to Persia, to Arabia, and indeed to the whole of Asia. The caravans of Serica performed long journeys of 243 days, from the far coasts of China to those of Syria. Silk was also rewoven and manufactured at a very ancient date, in the island of Kos, situated in the Archipelago, from the substantial fabrics which were received from Seres. It was here that Pamphila first invented and taught her nymphs to unravel, and with her loom to recompose from the precious material, the thin transparent gauze and the other fabrics of an equally extended nature.

The expeditions of Alexander to Persia, and to India,

HISTORY OF SILK.

first introduced the knowledge of silk to the Grecians, 350 years before Christ, and with the increase of wealth and luxury in the Grecian court, the demand of silks prodigiously augmented. Persia engrossed for a time the trade of Greece, and became rich in the commerce of silk, which they procured from China. The ancient Phoenicians also engaged in the traffic of silk, and finally carried it to the east of Europe. But for a long time after, even those who brought it to Europe knew not what it was, nor how it was produced, nor where situated was the original country of Serica from whence it came.

Ser or Serica was called Sereinda, a name evidently composed of Seres and of Indi, the names of two distinct and separate countries which the ancients had thus confounded ; even as the name of India has been, and still is, often indiscriminately applied to all the countries of the whole east of Asia, at the present day.

Ammianus Marcellinus, the celebrated historian, has described the Seres as a sedate and gentle people, living in perpetual peace with the neighboring nations, and therefore exempted alike from the calamities and the alarms of war : with no occasion for offensive weapons or even the knowledge of their use. Blessed with a soil the most fertile, and a climate the most delightful and salubrious, they are represented “ as passing their happy days in the most, perfect tranquillity and delightful leisure, amid shady groves, fanned by gentle breezes, and producing fleeces of downy wool, which, after being sprinkled with water, is combed off in the finest threads and woven into sericum

This fable, which undoubtedly served for ages to deceive the nations, is supposed to have been the invention of the Seres themselves, that they might appear to the wondering world as a. peculiar people, on whom blessings were profusely showered down from heaven, in which no other nation could expect to participate.

At Rome, and so late as A. D. 280, a silk attire of

SILK GROWER’S GUIDE.

purple, was accounted by an Emperor as a luxury too expensive even for an Empress, and that Empress his wife, Severa ; its value being equal to that of gold, by weight. Others there were at Rome, and enough even at that day, who were by no means thus scrupulous in regard to price. But it was not till long after the seat of the Roman Empire had been transferred to Byzantium or Constantinople, that the distinct and more perfect knowledge of the nature and origin of silk became known, and the mystery of the long sought “ golden fleece ” was revealed to Europe.

In the sixth century, two monks arrived at the court of the Emperor Justinian, at Constantinople, from a missionary expedition to China. They had brought with them the seeds of the mulberry, and communicated to him the discovery of the mode of rearing the silk-worms. And although the exportation of the insects from China was forbidden, on pain of death, yet by the liberal promises and persuasions of Justinian, they undertook a new expedition, and at length they returned through Boukliaria and Persia to Constantinople, in 555, with the eggs of the precious insect concealed in the hollow of their canes or pilgrims’ staves, which they had obtained in the far and still more distant country. Until this time, the extensive manufactures of the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Berytus had received their whole supplies of raw silk through Persia from China. Even to the days of Justinian, according to ancient historians, no person at Constantinople knew to a certainty that silk was the production of an insect. It was generally supposed to be produced from the bark or leaves of trees, or growing like the finest hair from their branches. A new era now commenced.

In Greece, the culture and manufacture of silk soon overspread the country; the noblest families themselves aided by their example. The people of Thebes and Athens, from the time of Justinian, cultivated and manufactured silk for 400 years. And the Venetians in the height of their

HISTORY OF SILK.

prosperity and commercial glory, carried supplies of silk from Greece to the whole west of Europe. On the downfall of the Roman Empire, Arabia became the seat and centre of science, of arts, and of civilization. The establishment of the Turkish power in Asia about the middle of the 6th century, and the subsequent wars, caused great interruption to the caravan trade between China and Persia. And after the conquests of Mohammed II. the Saracens or Arabians planted the mulberry and encouraged the culture of silk everywhere, throughout their dominions, both on the islands and on all the shores of the Mediterranean. Silk and the mulberry were introduced to Spain and Portugal by the Arabians or Saracens, on their conquest of those countries in 711. Spain is also indebted to their enlightened conquerors, for their political redemption from barbarism. Those wise sovereigns, the great Caliph Haroun al Raschid, and his immediate successor, introduced as axioms of policy, the arts of civilization, as essential to the welfare of a nation — the practice of agriculture , commerce and industry , being especially inculcated by the Koran itself; thus elevated to virtues , they are ranked with the good deeds of the believer.

From Greece the cultivation of silk was introduced to Sicily and Naples. Roger, king of Sicily, on his invasion of Greece in 1146, introduced by compulsion many silk weavers and manufacturers, which he carried to Palermo. In 20 years, the manufactures of Sicily became famous, being adorned with various colors and figures, interwoven with gold, and embellished with pearls. Here it long mysteriously remained, and it was not till 1540 that it had extended to Piedmont and indeed to all Italy. So extensive is its cultivation at the present day throughout Italy, that according to Count Dandolo, two thirds of their whole exports to all countries consist of silk. Its first introduction to France was in 1494; but no very important result succeeded, until, in 1564, Traucat, a common gardener of Nismes,

SILK GROWER'S GUIDE.

established the first foundation of a nursery of White Mulberry trees, with an effect so successful, that, from th is source, as frotn a centre, the cultivation extended within a few years over the whole of the southern provinces of France. But its final and more complete establishment in France in 1603, is due to Henry IV., who encouraged by every mode the formation of nurseries, and the manufactures of silk, even in the northern, as well as middle provinces of the kingdom, and whose name is held in perpetual remembrance for his noble deeds of goodness and works of usefulness. Olivier de Serres shares equally with him the glory of the effectual work, which was at first opposed even by Sully, from mistake and misapprehension. Colbert, in a succeeding age, continued his fostering care. Both Colbert and his illustrious predecessor, by bounties judiciously bestowed, caused both the mulberry tree and its culture to strike deep and permanent root in the soil of France. Once established, it has stood, unmoved by every revolution and storm : — unprotected and alone, while all things else have fallen, this important industry has flourished, until finally, silk and its manufacture has become one of the most productive sources of the wealth and the power of France.

The whole value of the silks manufactured annually in France in 1835, amounted by computation, to 140, 000,000 francs, and it was estimated in Europe, that in that year, silks to the amount of 50,000,000 francs were exported from that country to the United States alone.

Yet in France, although they raise so much silk, they still import annually, to the amount of 43,000,000 francs of raw silk, or nearly one third of all they consume, for the supply of their manufactures.

In England, the climate, from its humidity or other causes, is found to be unsuited to its growth ; for this reason alone, the trials to raise it there have failed. Yet from 1821 to 1828, according to a late and authentic work on the silk trade, they imported of raw silk,

HISTORY OF SILK.

24,157,508 lbs. ; worth $120,787,580. Of this amount $59,881,283 came from Italy alone.

At the present day, the silks which were consumed in Great Britain alone, so late as 1835, amounted to the enormous sum of $28,282,582 annually, at the wholesale prices, besides the whole amount of all they exported.

The sudden and extraordinary extension of the silk manufactures, both in France and in England, during the last 18 years, has been mainly ascribed to the machine invented in France by M. Jacquard; and the powerful impulse thus given, has been assigned to the Jacquard Loom. This loom is stated to perform all those labors which had heretofore been exclusively confined to the most skilful hands, with important economy of time, and of labor in the preliminary steps, and is so decidedly superior to all other looms, for all the curious varieties of figure-silk weaving, that it has superseded them all, both throughout France and England.

Yet in our own country, so highly favored in all respects by nature, the successful introduction of the silk culture, is mainly due to individual exertion. One day, the cultivation of the mulberry, and the growth and manufacture of silk, in the United States, will become a very important resource of wealth to the nation. Unsupported and alone, the work has wonderfully begun, and is now taking deep and permanent root in the soil of our country.

I have before stated, that, according to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, the value of silks imported into the United States during the year ending 39th September, 1835, amounted to $16,597,980 : this being the original or first cost in the foreign countries. During this period, only $486,562 worth of this great amount was exported : and the actual cost of the above to the American people, or the ichole retail cost to the actual consumer , may be estimated at more than $22,000,000 for the year. Most of all this was imported from Italy, Switzerland and from France. Formerly,

SILK GROWER’S GUIDE.

half our imports were from China. Yet neither the articles of raw silk, nor any of those numerous, substantial, and elegant fabrics, which are composed of part silk, and part cotton, or mixtures of silk and worsted, are included in the above amount. In no year previous to 1821, had the annual amount consumed arisen to one fourth of what it was in 1835. Butin no year previous to 1830 had the annual consumption arisen to one half this amount; the increase during 15 years being fourfold.

In the year ending September 1836, the importations of silk amounted to 822,000,000 at the first cost in foreign countries; and the imports of those fabrics composed of part silk and cotton, and part silk and worsted, amounted to $6,000,000 more in that same year ; but this was a year of excessive importations and is not stated as the average.

Those resources, the millions we now annually expend for silks, the productions of foreign industry and of foreign policy ; those vast sums should be preserved to our own citizens, and a great and general interest encouraged- — an interest so adapted, as an occupation for the feeble, and a resource for the poor, and to awaken to habits of industry and of virtue the rising generation. Thus instructed and educated, they will be enabled to contribute their share to the public happiness and prosperity, and to add to the resources and wealth of the country.

The enterprise, the fertile invention, the noble efforts of individual exertion, have already accomplished much ; but much yet remains to be done. That industry, that portion which, unawakened is now lost, being alone more than sufficient to accomplish all — more than sufficient to recover again those very considerable sums, the millions so lavishly expended, with interest an hundred fold.

By those unceasing toils, and mighty efforts, and matchless labors, for which our people are so distinguished ; the millions thus recovered, will not only be their just reward, but will add to the substantial wealth of the nation, and to the glory of the whole republic.

HISTORY OF THE SILK-WORM.

Section II. History Of The Silk-worm

The silk-worm or Bombyx mori, is a caterpillar ; its body formed of twelve membranous rings, which support the legs, which are sixteen in number and in pairs. Six of these are in front and inflexible, and situated beneath the three first rings, and are each covered with a scale. The other ten are flexible, and membranous, their positions beneath the rings ; these are called climbers or holders, and are provided with sharp hooks or claws, to aid in climbing. The head has a horny covering, like a scale; the jaws are very strong, the teeth sharp, serrated, or indented like a saw. The mouth is vertical and peculiar, and not horizontal as in most other beings; two broad objects in its forehead, which might be mistaken for eyes, are but bones of the skull. The eyes are small, fourteen in number, seven on each side of the head and near the mouth. The organs of respiration are eighteen in number ; equi-distant, and situated along the body are the holes or openings, nine on each side, which serve for breathing.

The substance of which the silk is composed is a liquid transparent gum, of a fine yellow color, and is contained in two separate sacks, of slender dimensions. Each of these vessels is about ten inches in length, and wound in the stomach in spiral folds: near the jaws two ducts convey the silken fluid ; these uniting in one serve to compose the silken thread, which is usually from 400 to 1200 feet in length.