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. [140] See Chapter XIII. p. 211. “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.