Cheraw gazette and Pee Dee farmer. [volume] (Cheraw S.C.) 1838-1839, 1839-05-31
SILK CULTURE.
GAYS MACHINES.

Silk is going ahead. The s. gns arc moro
favorable for the cultivation of this new
staple, than they were when the South be.
ran TO turn her attention towards the growth
Of cotton. The Morus MuMea~Fs which
grows with such rapidity that it furnishes
food for the worm, in the very Spring when
j, is planted, furnishes one essential link to.
wards its production. The invention ofnew
Machines, for reeHng and manufacturing
the silk into various forms, enables the plan.
ter to turn his cocoons at once to account.
The weakest part of our slave population,
The young and the old, may be proftably
employed and as we heard Virginia To-
bacco Planter declare the other evening 1t
would not be astonishing, il Gays Machine
were to effect singular revolution in Vir-
giuia, by keeping many Of our people at
home, who would otherwise have gone to
he cotton regions ofthc Sou:h and South
west-and by bringing more population
and capital to our Safe and thus creating
new and important clement of her prosrerl-
y.
The public coah lence seems indeed to
increase IN thus new branch of business. II
Is very evident, 'ha, lhe rage for the Mo US
Maticau is woulJ have soon expended itself
unless It's cultivation had been connected
with the raising Of SILK. The multiplication
of the tree daring the preScn, season, will
he very considerable. Many OF our farm
ers are devo,lng small por'ions ottheiriand;
from 2 or 3 up 20 II or 20 acres. A silk
company near Washington has 400 acres
in cultivation But. the mechanical lagenu'.
" of our countrymen. which exceeds that
of any country il the world, is already "ri~
sing to The level the occasion" and strik.
inc out new machines for the manufacture
of the cocoons iu;o silk. The best reel in
France or Italy. is the Piedmontese reel
bu already the Genius of Mr.. Gay of Con.
ncc,icut has ouislript this boas:ed machine.
This single improvement alone will g i've
new and wonderful impulse to the growth OF
the Mulberry, and the raising Of the worm.
Our attention has been drawn to the interest.
ing subject by the visit Of Mr.. Gay to our
CITY. HIS reel has been exhibited at the
read NJ rooms in the Museum Building,
and no one can see it without admiration
and delight. 1t has suggested the following
reflections
Raising the Mulberry and feeding the
silk worm, are already familiar to many,
and of easy accomplishment by all. The
production Of cocoons has IN fact been
mater of amusement, if not Of profit occas-
ionally, and on small scale, since before
the Revolution but hitherto, insuperable
difficulties have appeared to stand in the
way Of pushing it to the extent of making 1t
a national staple. The chief impedments
have consisted in the time and labor requir-
ed to grow and gather food for the worm,
and 10 the absence of suitable labor saving
machinery for working up the beautiful pro.
duct of its brief labors. | true it is, that
most excellent silk has been made from
worms fed on the white, and on our indige-
nous Mulberry trees but these were OF such
slow growth, as to discourage ,hes;eamboat
locomotive 60 aheadgenious of our people,
especially in the South. The first lmpedi-
ment has been completely removed by the
introdact on and rapid growth of the Morus
Mul icaulis which springs with wonderful
quickness from birth to maturity, like the IN.
sect fox which Providence obviously design.
ed i.-and the remaining difficully,-0ant
Of machinery to make the eocoo's available !;
seems now to have been most opPortunely
surmounted by another invention of Amer.
can ingenuity: We allude to Gays
Machinery which has been exhibited for
some days past in this city. BY the turn
L.