672 



7 HE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



produced general well-being, without the growth of offensive differ- 

 ences. I cannot say how it is now, but in my childhood there were 

 no paupers in our commune, except two infirm people who were sup- 

 ported in their misfortunes by voluntary aid. 



Fig. 16. 



]]i )| [|.Ji,iiLi,hiii][i,.i .1 'i.;j|l'| 11 ',.r 



Sheets op Paper stuck into Screens, and inclined tor the Reception op Moths. 



These striking results could not fail to affect the neighboring 

 country. This example of the culture of the mulberry was imitated 

 throughout the south of France, and adopted more or less in other 

 departments. You can judge of the progress made in this culture by 

 the following figures, giving the quantity of cocoons produced an- 

 nually : 



22,000,000 pounds. 

 31,000,000 " 

 37,000,000 " 

 46.000,000 " 



From 1821 to 1830 

 " 1831 " 1840 

 " 1841 " 1845 

 " 1846 " 1852 



1853 



56,000,000 



These 56,000,000 lbs. of cocoons sold at from 2^ to 2| francs per 

 lb., representing a value of about 130,000,000 francs. Now, these 

 millions all went to agriculture, to the first producer ; and so they 

 added to the national wealth at its most vital source. If this progress 

 had continued, in a few years we should have been able to supply our own 

 manufactures, and relieve ourselves of the tribute of 60 or 65,000,000 

 francs that we pay to foreign countries. But, unhappily, at the moment 

 when this culture was most prosperous, when mulberry-plantations 

 were springing up on all sides, fed by the nurseries which were each 

 day more numerous, all this prosperity disappeared before the terrible 

 scourge to which I alluded in the beginning of my discourse. 



Like all our domestic animals, the silk-worm is subject to various 

 maladies. One, called the muscardine, that for a long time was the 

 terror of breeders, is caused by a species of mould or microscopic 

 mushroom. This mushroom invades the interior of the body of the 

 insect. After affecting all the tissues, this vegetal parasite sometimes 



