31. It is supposed that there are now, in Great Britain, thirty millions of sheep; whose annual produce of wool is worth, on an average, about seven millions of pounds sterling; to this may be added five millions of pounds weight from foreign countries. This amount is increased in value, by manufacturing skill, to twenty or thirty millions of pounds. Not less than three millions of persons are supposed to be employed in this branch of British industry.
32. Both the woollen and cotton manufactures have arisen to great importance, of late years, in the United States; and, from the mechanical skill of our countrymen, the abundance of the raw material, and the vast amount of water-power, there is every reason to anticipate a rapid and continual increase in these divisions of American enterprise.
THE SILK-WORM.
1. Silk is the production of a worm, of the caterpillar species, which, in due course, passes through several transformations, and at length becomes a butterfly, like others of the genus. It is produced from an egg, and when about to die, or rather again to change its form, spins for itself an envelope, called a cocoon. The worm then changes to a chrysalis, and, after remaining in this state from 5 to 8 days, the butterfly, or moth, comes out, forcing its way through the cocoon. The moths, or butterflies, eat nothing, and die as soon as they have provided for the propagation of their species. Enough of these are suffered to come to maturity, to provide a sufficient stock of eggs. The rest are killed, in a few days after they have spun their task, either by heating them in an oven, or by exposing them to the rays of the sun.
2. The fibres are wound upon a reel. To render this practicable, the cocoons are put into water heated to a suitable temperature, which dissolves the gummy substance that holds the fibres together. A number of threads being detached, and passed through a hole in an iron bar, form, by the aid of the remaining glutinous matter, one thread, which is wound upon a reel into skeins.
3. The raw silk, thus produced and prepared, is sold to the manufacturers, who twist and double the fibres variously, and finally form them into threads for sewing; or weave them into a great variety of fabrics, which are too well known to need particular description here.
4. According to the ancients, the silk-worm was originally a native of China, and the neighboring parts of Asia, and had there been domesticated for a long time, before it was known in Europe. For many years after silk was sold among the nations of the West, even the merchants were ignorant of both the manner and place of its production.
5. The Greeks became acquainted with silk, soon after the time of Alexander the Great; and the Romans knew little of the article, until the reign of Augustus. Dresses, composed entirely of this material, were seldom worn; but the fabrics which had been closely woven in the East, were unravelled, and the threads were recomposed in a looser texture, intermixed with linen or woollen yarn.
6. The prodigal Hehogabalus is said to have been the first individual, in the Roman empire, who wore a robe of pure silk. It is also stated, that the Emperor Aurelian refused his wife a garment of this description, on account of its exorbitant price. At that time, as well as at previous periods, it usually sold for its weight in gold.
7. A kind of gauze, originally made by the women on the island of Cos, was very celebrated. It was dyed purple, with the substance usually employed in communicating that colour in those days; but this was done before it was woven, as in that state it was too frail to admit of the process. Habits, made of this kind of stuff, were denominated "dresses of glass:" because the body could be seen through them.