The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

ITS FITNESS FOR MAKING CLOTH. 213
produced cocoons so small as to require from 5,000 to 6,000 to
make a pound of silk, while not over 3,000 of the American
would be required to do the same thing(!).
" Mr. Richards was shown several pamphlets^ newspapers^
cap and writing paper, supposed to have been made of mul-
berry bark. He said rags were not used in India*, China, or
the islands, for making paper, but they always make it of some
vegetable leaf; that the bark was too valuable for that, and
was used to make fabrics. (See Chapters XI. and XII. of
this Part. Also Appendix A.)
" We, as Americans, have the appropriate soil and climate for
the Cantou and Asiatic mulberry, with the pea-nut variety of
worms, which, being managed with due care and attention,
together with the skill, ingenuity, and perseverance of Ameri-
cans—and, in addition, and could we have the aid of our country
to encourage new beginners—we might hope to compete with
any nation in the production of silk, their cheap labor and
cheap living to the contrary notwithstanding. There is abun-
dant evidence that worms fed exclusively on the Canton mul-
berry have been larger, and produced heavier cocoons, by one-
third in size of worms and weight of cocoons, than by other
* Abdollatiph who visited E^'pt A. D. 1200, informs us (Chapter iv. p. 188 of
Silvestro de Sacy's French translation, p. 221 of Wahl's German translation.),
" that the cloth, rags, ^c. found in the catacombs, and used to envelope the
mummies, was made into garments, or sold to the scribes to make paper for
shop-keepers." This cloth is proved to be linen (See Part IV. p. 365), and the
passage of Abdollatiph may be considered as decisive proof, which however has
never been produced as such, of the manufacture of linen paper as early as the
year 1200. Professor Tychsen in his learned and curious dissertation on the use
of paper from Papyrus (published in the Commentationes Reg. Soc. Gottingensis
Recentiores, vol. iv. A. D. 1820), has brought abundant testimonies to prove that
Egypt supplied all Europe with this kind of paper until towards the end of the
eleventh century. The u.se of it was then abandoned, cotton paper being em-
ployed instead. The Arabs in consequence of their conquests in Bucharia, had
learnt the art of making cotton paper about the year 704, and through them or
the Saracens it was introduced into Europe in the eleventh Century. Another
fact should not be lost sight of, namely, " that most of the old MSS. in Arabic
and other oriental languages are written on this sort of paper," and that it was
first introduced into Europe by the Saracens of Spain. (For further proof, see
Appendix A. Also Part IV. already referred to.)