190 TEA AND SILK FAEMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 



ment of the white mulberry (Mortcs alba), how to treat silk- 

 worms {Boiiibyx mori), and to obtain their silk. France profited 

 greatly by those instructions, and it is interesting, as illustrative 

 of the intense vitality of this shrub, to note that the first white 

 mulberry introduced by these Italian foresters on that occasion 

 is said still to survive, surrounded by its numberless offshoots. 

 From 1521 to 1853 the progress of sericiculture over Asia and 

 Europe, except during time of war, seems to have gone on almost 

 unchecked, but at the latter date it received a blow from which 

 it has not yet recovered. In that year the mysterious combina- 

 tion of maladies, usually spoken of in a general way as the 

 " silkworm blight," appeared in such strength as utterly to defy 

 all human skill. For some years before it had been slowly gaining 

 ground, but not to such an extent in any one district as to cause 

 serious alarm until 1853. Among these diseases probably the most 

 dreaded was that known in France by the term muscardine, and 

 in Italy by the name calcinetto ; the latter appellation suggested 

 by the appearance of the skin of the afflicted worm, which 

 assumes a chalky aspect ; and the former on account of a fancied 

 resemblance to a kind of sugar-plum made and sold in Provence. 

 Examiued microscopically, the diseased grub is seen to be full of 

 the sprouting spors of a minute fungus {Botrytis hassiana), which 

 eventually pierce the skin, and produce the mealy, chalky, or 

 leprous aspect which lend the distinguishing names to the dis- 

 temx^er. The poor little creature, thus impaled on hundreds of 

 tiny stakes, could scarcely be expected to survive ; accordingly, 

 it usually perishes ere it has had time to commence its cocoon, 

 and the fungus, gathering additional sustenance from the worm's 

 decay, ripens its noxious spores, which, wind-borne, extend the 

 contagion far and near. For the other minor distempers which 

 attack the worm, palliatives, if not absolute means of cure, have 

 been discovered, but for this deadly fungus-fiend — none. The 

 result has been that the scour^^e maintains its hold in most of 

 the countries where the industry has been long pursued, and a 

 deterioration of the silkworm has followed, and is still unchecked. 

 Under these untoward circumstances it was suggested that the 

 Australian climate in some districts might prove uncontaminated 

 with the deadly crj^ptogam ; and as the mulberry was known to 

 grow luxuriantly about Sydney and elsewhere, that the rearing 

 of healthy grubs might succeed there. The experiment was tried 

 with complete success ; strong and healthy worms were hatched, 

 and their eggs, when offered in the Italian market, sold at from 

 twenty to thirty francs per ounce, at a time when the finest 

 Japanese gi^ain (considered till then the freest from disease) oiily 

 brought from fifteen to twenty-five francs per ounce. 



If the climate of Great Britain, or any portion of ifc, had been 

 found suitable for sericiculture so as to yield a fair profit, we may 



