From the book " from star to star - Memoirs of a peasant country " Chiara Frugoni [1] Editore Laterza (2003) I took (pages 120-127) this beautiful song that best describes long hard work of the silkworm, and the difficult and impoverished conditions in which it was lived in Italy.
Soldo, the protagonist of this book is a town halfway up the hill overlooking il lago d'Iseo [2] , rimasto immobile fino agli anni Cinquanta, quando il benessere ha cancellato la sua vocazione agricola, ha mutato le case, il paesaggio, la mentalità.
Le pene del filo d'oro
Il primo raccolto in assoluto, prima ancora dell'orzo e del frumento, non veniva dai campi. Era quello dei bozzoli da seta ai primi di giugno. L'allevamento cadeva in un periodo di grande lavoro e lo aumentava notevolmente. Nei campi bisognava cut the grass and look after the vines; wandered the rows hoed, weeded, weeded, sprayed bunches of copper sulphate.
We began by preparing and cleaning the building that would house the bug: it had to be as clean and warm, free from aphids, lice, ants.
early bugs were small and blacks: looked like ants. Crescendo would change color, becoming the first green and towards the end, when they were as thick as a finger, yellow and translucent. Ate incessantly, day and night, and only mulberry leaves, increasing visibly. At first you had to go down to the shore where there were wild mulberry trees with tender leaves, unplug and then shred bags and sacks one by one, as fine as a hair, were also prepared for the night, administered at least two or three times. Then all the mulberry leaves were good, however, even when the worms were grown, always needed to bring new non-stop, removing the ribs from each.
The "seed " bug was bought by dividing the cost in half between owner and sharecropper, from a firm of Maron beyond the Lake Iseo. It was weighed to the ounce as castor oil at the pharmacy (an ounce is about one ounce), a fourth of an ounce would be enough.
early bugs were small and blacks: looked like ants. Crescendo would change color, becoming the first green and towards the end, when they were as thick as a finger, yellow and translucent. Ate incessantly, day and night, and only mulberry leaves, increasing visibly. At first you had to go down to the shore where there were wild mulberry trees with tender leaves, unplug and then shred bags and sacks one by one, as fine as a hair, were also prepared for the night, administered at least two or three times. Then all the mulberry leaves were good, however, even when the worms were grown, always needed to bring new non-stop, removing the ribs from each. In Solto fields, especially in the morning, the mulberry trees were scattered a bit 'all over the world, with rows in the larger plots. Hardy and resistant, could also have a hundred years, the first had been planted in the nineteenth century, when he started raising silkworms.
Women and men will start up early in the morning with " Pelara ö the " , a bag held open by a circle of wood, so that the bag, hanging from the branch, left hand for free strappare velocemente le foglie. Se i rami erano troppo lunghi e difficili da raggiungere venivano potati e se ne ricavavano pali per la vite, per sorreggere i tralci e per rinforzare piccoli tronchi di alberi da fruta; il resto diventava legna da ardere, quella fine per accendere il fuoco, quella più grossa per riscaldarsi durante l'inverno e cuocere le vivande. Un gelso robusto e rigoglioso era un albero molto alto, con una chioma compatta che offriva un rifugio ombroso nelle calde estati; i frutti dolciastri, in mancanza di altro, completavano il pranzo in cascina. Erano mangiati molto volentieri anche dai polli che d'estate razzolavano liberamente nei campi, tanto da non avere quasi bisogno d'altro.
The worms were placed on leaf litter spread on " scalere " , boards made of woven cane castle (one ounce of seed was enough for six or seven " scalere " ), in a room where the fire had to be always on, often the kitchen was being revolutionized by the invasion of bugs. They had the warmer bugs in May of men throughout the winter! The sharecroppers were forced by bosses to keep the bugs, the owners, providing the mulberry leaves, the peasants, the fatigue at the end the money was divided in half.
letters or "racks" were places where silkworms
The work of cocoons or " galète " , as was said, lasted for the entire month of May and the ' early June and it was tremendous: in particular involving women, who had no more peace. In addition to providing continuous leaf - it was asciuttissima paying attention - they had to clean the litter daily and remove sick or dead bugs, to avoid infection.
In their short life bugs change skin four times. At the fourth suit, which coincides with the final stage of growth when become translucent, are taken from " f ü ria " , a hunger paroxysmal. The leaves are never enough and the bugs, if they still exist, constantly swaying left and right as horsemen, keeping the body upright, half desperate for green. For this were called "the fourth caaler de " (knights of the fourth set). " Caaler of the fourth " were jokingly called teenagers also insatiable.
the fourth suit was so voracious bugs the noise of crushed leaves became very strong women and men of the house were busy foraging at night, being careful not to let wither. In recent days, the bug is big, almost yellow, and ripe for " go to the wood " : it was time to get ready for the branches because the bugs were in need of support for the cocoon yellow cards, within which disappeared quickly. He then proceeded to the harvest of " galète " , detaching them from branches and freeing them from " bael " , the silk thread tied to the poor who held sprigs; put aside, would be spun by hand, in the stables.
The chrysalis, if left to its natural cycle, would become a butterfly leaving the cocoon, bucandolo and shattered all over the wire, soon to lay eggs and die. To get the thread instead of continuing need, therefore, block the process of life, to die in the chrysalis. This measure ovens dell'essicatoio: there was one to Riva, just where in more recent times was the " factory " chicks, then closed.
The " galète " served to reduce the debt to the bakery owners who called for calm and rents, because they were sold to mills scattered in Riva and Solto: remained in operation from May to October and allow another family to take, especially dealing with young women and girls.
families, close out of poverty, did not hesitate to send girls too: already nine years could be spinning, and most began to eleven. Many small workers were malnourished, skinny and sick with tuberculosis. The City gave permission to a " booklet" and had some strict criteria: it was forbidden to work in theory if not there were at least eleven years and would also have to look after the physical condition.
Also in theory, the mills would have to pay contributions, " put tricks " . But he forgot. They seemed to forget the working class - the demand for labor exceeds supply, and competition off his memory - except sporadic start, even when the pay came late: short riots were happening then. Some girl was " home " and that dismissal was teaching the others to stay silent. The awareness of their rights was not time to establish itself as the first snow dissolves as soon as he touched the ground: in fact work in textile mill usually ended with the marriage and the girls are married very young.
Solto worked at least five mills: one at the Castle until recently, still showed the characteristic architecture intact: a single large room elongated, arched, completely open to allow steam and fumes from the fires of the stoves of exiles, the appropriate amount of air carried with it the cold and the currents outside. The machining were not at all protected from the boiling water in which they were forced to dip hands, which could boil over and scald your feet infilatinegli hooves, were not at all protected from temperature changes, as there were no windows. The stove, part iron and part brick had as a working stove where he was surrounded by a deep basin about forty centimeters, of iron or copper, filled with boiling water, which served to soften the cocoons so that the melted binder by unrolling the wire. The workers had to be quick to grab the thread and tie the wire to other wires, wrap reel, the winding coil, which had above him and ran fast, driven by other machines.
water heating stove was carried out directly in each: a method that did consume a lot of wood. The mills had a more organized person who looked after the fire, while in others the workers employed to spinning should also monitor the flame. The days were endless: it was necessary to stand for ten hours and more nauseating fumes that cooked pupa inside the cocoon up to float when the wire was all done. Periodically, with a ladle and pot holes, pupae were removed and replaced by other cocoons. To make the work more difficult to contribute to poor combustion of wood: the air was filled with smoke and was difficult to keep the fire lit.
The largest mill in Solto was low, which remained active from 30 to beyond the end of the last war and occupied from fifty to a hundred workers, as well as the driver who had to keep running and efficient facilities . In this mill, much more modern, but the boiler was centralized and carried the hot water through tubes directly to individual workstations of the workers. The mill requires a lot of water in the country but was not there to be transported in barrels on the cart. As long as the property of the silk factory Solto down an artesian well was not dug very deep, three or four men with their donkeys and carts, did every day back and forth to Lake Gaiano.
rearing of silkworm
series of six Liebig cards - n ° 1370 Sanguinetti
The mill opened at six thirty in the morning, with the whistle of the siren, because it was necessary to give workers time to go to " messaprima " . Boiling water in the room was ready in two rows of copper pots, pans and large bowls deep and low. In the front row working the " scoarine " (small scopettaie) threw quickly and without distraction and took away the cocoons in the water with a slotted spoon. when the heat was beginning to unravel the cocoons, the " scoarine " threw them into the bowl in front, of the row, where " tacarina " , putting their hands in boiling water, quickly seized the clue. It was a very thin wire, about six hundred yards long, which was united with many others before we can form a skein of floss, a deep golden color. This wire, through a suitable device, arrived in another room: here a dozen older women make sure that there were dirt or nodes, and put the rolls of a ton bales that, in boxes, were shipped and sold in Milan.
Silk
12 Stickers Sheet # 24 - Insert "Corriere dei Piccoli"
Ed Corriere della Sera (1969? )
The atmosphere was damp and unhealthy, the smell of dead pupae are scattered throughout the quarter, when the water was renewed and the old invaded the gutters of the streets, the stench of the dark rivulets seemed would never end. The stench clung to the clothes that they could not change, because they had very few workers available. They worked continuously, except for a quick snack, ten hours behind the guards shouted when the wire broke, if the pace slowed. But the worst was the pain in the fingers, the skin was cooked in boiling water for his hands still.
output, the whistle of the siren, however, was festive: the largest firm saw a little 'distance, the young men who followed them at a distance, back home. Some have found a way to do them through the door with a formal request. Since then " talking together " , that were engaged. A short season of mixed joys and expectations, before the youth ended abruptly with the wedding.
Chiara Frugoni
[1] Frugoni Chiara (Pisa, February 4, 1940) is a historic Italian medievalist.
[2] Solto Sebino High Hill is a town in the province of Bergamo.
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