192 



TEA AND SILK FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 



maintenance, working expenses connected with the first crop of 

 cocoons, and the financial result. 



Preliminary Outlay. 



Cost of fifty acres, at £2 per acre, . . . £100 



Clearing and trench j^loughing, at £7, 5s., . 362 10 



Cost of 20,000 mulberry bushes, at 5s., . . 5000 



Magnaneries, stores, and incidentals, . . 700 



£6162 10 



Estimate of Annual Maintenance, 



Cost of ordinary labour, at £b per acre, . . £250 



Incidental expenses, 100 



Interest on £6162, 10s., at 8 per cent per 



annum, 



493 



£843 



Estimate of Working Expenses. 



A series of " educations," or hatchings, in 

 connection with the food afforded from fifty 

 acres of five-year-old mulberries would re- 

 quire six ounces of silkworm's eggs per acre, 

 or 300 ounces requiring the services of — 

 Sixteen women and girls at £3, 

 Eight Chinamen at £1, 16s. 8d., 

 Four boys at 14s., ..... 



Cost of labour for each education, . 



But as the climate of Australia allows seven 

 hatchings to occur, therefore multiply by 

 seven, ....... 



Add annual cost of maintenance, . 



The cost of obtaining a season's silk from 300 ounces of eggs 

 hatched and fed upon the produce of fifty acres of five- 

 year-old mulberries ....... £1301 



5 4 



Estimate of the Pecuniary Return. 



Sav 30, 0000 lbs cocoons, vielding 3000 lbs. of 



raw silk at £2, . . " . . . . £6000 

 Less cost of reeling, at 3s. 6d., . £525 

 And cost of obtaining as above, 1301 5 4 



1826 5 4 



Thus yielding an apparent profit of .... , 



£4173 14 8 



It is only fair to add, however, that the accuracy of this 

 example of successful silk rearing has been questioned as either 

 exaggerated in regard to the income, or modified in respect of 

 the outlay. That samples of Australian grown silk have been 

 valued in the London market at 40s. per pound admits of no 

 doubt, and it may equally be allowed that perhaps some items 

 of expenditure may have been overlooked in the foregoing esti- 

 mate ; nevertheless, the large profit it exhibits of £83, 9s. 5|d. 



