Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-06-25
THE SILK WORM,
From the Egg to the Cocoon. Opens a
Way for the independence OF the
Women of the South.
The Lesson Taught by the American Silk
Exhibition Under the Auspices of
the American Exchange.

NEW DIRK j uue 2l.-Despite the intense
heat OF last Monday, which was really the
hottest day we've had this season, donned
as comfortable toilet as possible and made
an early morning visit TO the fret American
SIX Exhibition, under the auspices of the
North American Silk Exchange now bold
ing at Turn Hall, Nos. 66 and IS East
Fourth street, which began on the LIST OF
June and is TO continue till September lst
That length of time will give every one at
all interested good opportunity of seeing
| the wonderful process OF silk culture IN
every stsge of its remarkable development.
An industry so especially clamorous OF
women's attention BY reason of its peculiar
aaaptsbility 10 their delicscy of touch and
careful handling, which they can do so much
easier and better than men. m sking it a mat
! ter of necessity therefore to employ women
and girls instead, is subject about which
| too much cannot be written or said, partlcu-
larry by a woman in thorough sym
pathy with the poor and struggling OF her
own sex; and how many thousands there are
of that kind? Alas! who wants to write or
say it?
| YOU PAY TWENTY-FIVE CENTS
admission, and the first thing seen on enter
ing, in the center of the hall-otherwise
decorated with evergreens and hags-is a
long, low bench OF table, about two fett wide,
on which, in separate square trays, covered
with perforated paper, it seemed to me, and
fitting closely together, first the little green
ish-brown eggs, looking Just like mustard
seed, then the worm in all stages OF growth,
from the tiniest little moving, thing just
Matched, that requires q msgnifyiDg glass to
be seen at all, to those of one two, three,
four and perhaps five weeks old, which is the
average time OF 'going up" to the "heaths, y
or other branches, in order TO spin their
cocoons.
The German, Mr., Gigrich, in charge OF
the exhibition is thoroughly informed upon
silk-worm rearing, and very courteous and
paiustaking in his explanations. He has a
farm on Long Island on which there are
1900 mulberry trees, which furnish all the
eggs, worms and cocoons necessary TO the
present exhibition. A number of girls are
| employed-all young, not over twelve or
fourteen years of age-and are perfectly
satisfactory in the work given them to do.
1t was beautiful TO see the deftness and
easy, graceful way one little girl managed
| the reeling OF the cecoons, the thread OF
which being so exceedingly fine i wondered
how it could be touched without breaking.
! As Mr.. Gigtich said: No mans hand in the
world could reel those cocoons without spoil
ing the whole thing" His Own, he said,
| were so rough the delicate thread would
catch and cling, and finally become so hope
lessly eutangled nothing could be done with
the cocoon but give it up in despair" There
fore, elk culture is logically the practical as
| well as
THE POETIC DOMAIN OF WOMAN.
Now, at the risk of boring the APPEAL
| readers, some men, more women-because
| women as vet are not as class, quite earnest
enough and alive to the modes and resources
of their own sex-Im going to repeat what
| my German friend told me.
| He showed me French, Italian, Turkish,
| Japanese and Mississippi silk worms. The
silk moth, or butterfly, shows in its wings as
great difference in coloring as in the quail
| ity Of silk each cocoon makes.
| The Japanese and Turkish worms rank the
| highest, their cocoops and the moth being
white; the Italian has both straw-colored and
| yellow and white; the French yellow; all su
perior 80 far TO the American in point of
beauty of sheen and texture, if not durability.
Nine pounds of Turkey cocoons make one
pound OF silk, selling at So per pound.
| 1t is said, also, that one acre of mulberry
trees in full production can feed $4,000 to
| 100, 900 worms, or from 800 to 5000 pounds
of cocoons, according 10 the care, climate and
soil.
One of the most curious and interesting
| features belonging to the habit of that mys-
| terious little creature, the silk worm, is the
number of "motsD or Sleeps in its life.
There are five different ages from the hatch
| ing, according they change their skin.
Their age is counted by the number of
spent from their birth. That would be
| terrific count for some men and women /
know if at all sensitive as to their ages.
The fifth and last age extends from the
fourth melting to the "going up" II is queer
| to see the worms at
THE TIME OF NOTING.
They do not eat mite of anything during
twenty-four hours. They have no mouths
then, and maintain a perfectly stiff, torpid
and half erect position too peculiar TO
describe.
AS stopped down to examine those curl
Gus and useful little sinuous things carefully
and attentively, 1 couldn't but think that
Shakespeare thought of silk worms when
he wrote, Sermons in stones and good IN
everything" for they contain both.
As soon as the worm begins Its spinning,
which is nothing more nor less than stream
of beautiful color, great compactness and
solidity, almost irresistible to any ressona-
BILE attack, il passes into insensibility, in
which condition it remains from eight to
twenty days before it appears as moth.
That, of course, is the chrysalis state, and
the most mysterious to me OF all natures
laws, and which serves so beautifully TO typify
more than anything else ever taught from
the pulpit the great lesson and simile Of the
souls immortality, and which skeptics lind
it hard to answer.
requisite number of days, all conditions con-
ducive, the unattrsetive, crawling thing
bursts forth with beautiful wings and color
ing, and then the mating begins. AS
soon as the female begins to hatch
the male disappears and dies; after the
Matching, her task being done, the female
moth also dies.
The japanese cocoons are small and per-
fectly white and lovely in their purity. They
produce better silk than the French or
Italian moth with all their gorgeous colors
and beauty.
To return to the Daodus OperGndi. Six days
after the worm ascends to the heath for the
purpose OF
SPINNING ITS OWN CLOSELY WOVEN COFFIN,
it is picked eff carefully, and unless kept for
seed or sold al once, ii is placed in hot oven,
200 degrees of heat, half an hour, in order TO
stifle the chrysalis; then pretty soon il is
ready for the softening effect Of the boiling
water, whence the Keeling takes place. The
silk as it comes out of or off the cocoons
passes through four glass needles. In the
good breeds, with a careful and experienced
spinner, ten pounds of cocoons give one
pound Of silk. 1 saw skeins of silk made
from the Usage orange, which stands next, II
is said, to the white mulberry, yet the silk Is
very inferior to that produced by The lat
ter tree.
The cocoon from which the moth has
emerged ia sold now at about 81 per pound,
and used chiefly in mixing with cotton ma
terial The thread is broken. OF course, by
the hole in one end-the moths place of exit
and is therefore unf! for long winding or
Keeling.
At present there are about 200 silk mills
in the United States, and two-thiTds Of the
raw silk used is imported. The Southern
States are considered to De better adapted TO
silk culture than either France or Italy, and
the question is, why not proceed at once to
making il feasible by practice?
There is but little expense involved, and
almost as little care or trouble required,
with which immense starting point there IS
no ressou why women now dragging out a
wretched existence with their needle, or
standing behind a counter for wages that
barely afford the necessaries OF life, may not
make an effort, and begin at once this new
resource that has only TO be taken hold of to
be found highly profitable and beyond all
comparison perfectly satisfactory in other
respects.
THE NORTH AMERICAN SILK EXCHANGE
offers to those who haven't the means to
furnish lands, plant trees, build houses and
sell the same on inst ailments, and il viii
give the highest market price for cocoons,
reeled silk, silk-worms, egg1 silk producing
trees, cuttings, seeds, etc.
/ am not writing all this in the interest
Of the exchange or anybody but my own
sex, the women themselves.
The exhibition is open an hour or 20 every
Sunday morning for the sake Of those who
cannot attend curing the week. That's a
move in the right direction highly com
mendsble.
In the South three crops can be raised
each season, two in the Middle States, ana
one in the Northern States, each crop taking
from four to six weeks; and each crop will
Weld about $40 10 every acre Of lend
planted in mulberry trees. This does not
include the sale Of iree-cuttiDgs or surplus
eggs.
The polite German gave me two cOcoons-
one the broken she'll from which the spirit
ualized silk-spinner had flown away, and
therefore, OF no value save a. curiosity or
10 sell at a reduced price; the other still IN
tact, inside Of which now going on u that
wonderful mystery and metamOrpbozis that
tends mere TO provoke curiosity and speeu-
lation than any of all natures hidden LAVE,
for there is nothing else just exactly similar,
h x-,a rEo