November i, 1884.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



395 



Bonification of a Christian gentleman, and, with fewer faults 

 and frailties than most men, he set a noble example to 

 the world of intellectual activity uniformly directed, from 

 boyhood to old age, to the one great object he had in 

 life, viz., what in modern days may be called altruism or 

 the greatest good of the greatest number. C. S. 



SERICULTURE IN AMERICA. 



In the letters by our special- correspondent to America 

 reference has been made to the admirable system by which 

 the various agricultural associations are consolidated for 

 concentrated effort, by a plan of federation within the 

 individual states, which are in turn knit together by organised 

 communication with the central head at Washington. From 

 the head of that department we have received his elaborate 

 report upon the progress of silk culture throughout the 

 Union for the year 1883, from which we gather that the 

 most important organised effort for the promotion of silk 

 culture which has come into the field since the date of 

 the last report is the establishment of the California State 

 Board of Silk Culture at San Francisco, by authority of 

 the legislature of California. The first regular business 

 meeting of this board was held on the 1st of June, 1883, 

 when it was decided that a short address on some subject 

 pertinent to silk culture should be delivered at every regular 

 meeting of tile board. The first address was delivered by 

 Mr. W. B. Ewer, of the Pacific Rural Press, on the Progress 

 of Silk Culture in the United States. The board voted to 

 offer premiums to the amount of 150 dollars for the best 

 silk cocoons raised in the State during the year 1883, as 

 follows: — Five premiums, respectively, 50 dollars, 40 dollars, 

 30 dollars, 20 dollars, 10 dollars; the cocoons to be thoroughly 

 dried and to be put in suitable boxes by the competitors, 

 and to be sent to the next State fair in Sacramento for 

 exhibition. Bulletin No. 1 was issued by the board on the 

 1st June, and gives a list of members and officers, times 

 of meeting and objects of the board. This board recom- 

 mends home culture, discouraging speculation, guarantees to 

 purchase all the cocoons raised for that current year in 

 California, and to have them reeled at the State reeling school; 

 guarantees to supply the best grade of eggs for next year, and 

 urges everyone not to raise any eggs for themselves, lest 

 bad breeds become perpetuated ; and gives advice as to the 

 preparation of cocoons for reeling or for the market, and 

 the detection and treatment of diseased worms. 



California appears to excel every other state in the 

 attention which i' is paying to silk culture, as in addition 

 to the "Women's Silk Culture Association of California, and 

 the California Silk G rowers' Association, which are mentioned, 

 minutes are given of the proceedings of the California Silk 

 Culture Association, which is stated to be, although independ- 

 ent of the State Board of Silk Culture, acting in harmony 

 with that board, and meeting in its rooms. Mrs. Theodore 

 H. Hittell was president of the first-named society and 

 corresponding secretary of the second last year, and is now 

 the corresponding secretary of the last-named. Mrs. Hittell 

 also reports that the State legislature has voted to appro- 

 priate 10,000 dollars the coming year to the encouragement 

 of the silk industry. 



Reports from persons to whom eggs were sent from the 

 Washington department in the early part of 1S82 continued 

 to come in throughout the new fiscal year. Many com- 

 plaints were made of the lateness and coldness of the season, 

 but this seems not to have interfered with the success of 

 the experiments, except by occasioning the death hy starv- 

 ation of prematurely hatched worms. Eggs kept from 

 hatching by being exposed to artificial cold in ice houses 

 and the like yielded healthy worms, even after the eggs 

 had become damp and mouldy. Nearly all the letters I about 

 1,000) received by the department relating to silk culture 

 were inquiries for information, for the silk manual, for 

 eggs, trees, slips, or seeds. All applications for trees, slips, 

 or seeds were dealt with by the horticulturist. Some corre- 

 spondents observed that a portion of the eggs which they 

 procured by breeding hatched in the course of a fortnight 

 or less after laying, while the remainder of the eggs did 

 not hatch. Two or three of these correspondents raised 

 a second brood ot worms, and speak well of this brood, 

 considering that it takes less time to grow and less care 

 than the fir6t brood. Mi-. S. G. Stoney, of Charleston, raised 



a third brood, which spun in August, and he rons red 



this the best crop of the three. 



Correspondents who fed the worms once or twice a day 

 seem to have succeeded as well as those who fed eight 

 times a day; and those who dispensed with stoves as well 

 as those who were particular about the temperature of 

 their rooms. Mr. Charies Yonson, of Maryland, who 

 found his eggs hatching when he received them, and kept 

 them in an ice house until the 22nd May, when the v were 

 found to be very damp and mouldy, exposed the eggs on 

 that day. On the 29th of May they began hatching. A 

 20 hatched on the first two days and died. The fifth 

 hatch was the largest and most vigorous. Mrs. M. Alden, 

 of Rochester, also kept eggs on ice from January t-i the 

 25th May, when she exposed them ; 1850 hatched from 

 2,000 eggs on 8th to 13th June; 1,000 of them on the 12th 

 June. The fourth day's hatch appeared to be the most 

 healthy and hardy of all. Miss Esther M. A. Marett, of 

 Philadelphia, tried to feed the newly-hatched worms on 

 parsley and dandelion leaves, as well as on lettuce (mulberry 

 and osage orange leaves having been killed by frost). They 

 would not feed on parsley ; fed very sparingly on dandelion, 

 but fed well on lettuce for twelve days, and then most of 

 them died. From 350 worms surviving and fed on mulberry, 

 29fi cocoons were obtained, all but one of which proved 

 sound. Mrs. Witherspoon, of Texas, states thai she fed 

 the young worms on lettuce and elm buds, on which they 

 lived for several days and made healthy worms. Miss Mary 

 Mills, of Alexandria, fed the worms on black mulberry 

 leaves six times a day, hatching them on 7th and 8th June. 

 She was unable to control the temperature of the cocoonery, 

 which ran from 75 degrees to 90 degrees Fahr. Her French 

 annuals, which were very large and flue worms, died by 

 the thousand just as they were going to spin. Some few 

 worms which hatched in the first week of May, and which 

 were kept in a garret and fed on osage orange, made the 

 largest and finest cocoons she ever saw, and very few .lied. 



Mr. William P. Haywood, New Jersey, hatched out about 

 95 percent of the eggs sent him, and about that percentage 

 made very fine cocoons. He raised two crops of cocoons ; 

 the second crop smaller, hut finer in texture, than the 

 first. The worms were fed on cut branches of morus nigra, 

 seldom fed on Sunday, anil when the weather was rainy 

 only fed every other day, but liberally. Worms placed in 

 a mulberry tree outgrew those fed by hand at least 50 per 

 cent, but the birds got them. Mr. Haywood reported his 

 intention of putting up a reel this winter, but says it will 

 not pay to raise silk unless the duties on raw silk (2 dollars 

 per lb.) are restored. It cost 2 dollars per lb. to nil silk, 

 and as reeled silk from China and Japan now costs from 

 4 dollars to 6 dollars, only 2 dollars to 4 dollars an 1.1 1 

 for the purchase of cocoons and for profit. Mrs. Martha 

 B. Bond, Ohio, fed her worms on " native mulberry." The 

 temperature of the cocoonery was about 60 degrees Fnhr., 

 and the weather wet the most of the time. She had to 

 have a fire in the room all but a few days. She does not 

 think six died of sickness out of the whole lot, after she 

 got mulberry leaves for them, although many died while 

 being fed with lettuce at the outset. A thousand lived 

 to spin cocoons. Mr. Charles Yonson fed his worms on 

 osage orange from a hedge until about the last age, and 

 then fed osage orange from trees. He mixed a few morns 

 multicaulis leaves with those of the osage orange. He 

 obtained 071 cocoons, 33 of which were soft. The remainder 

 were 574 yellow (Japanese), weighing 29 02., or 317 to the 

 pound, and 304 white I Japanese), weighing 14 oz., or41fi 

 to the pound. The temperature of the cocoonery was 70 

 to 80 degrees Fahr., excepting a few days in thelastage, 

 when at times it was 65 degrees. 



Mr. Joseph J. Smith, of West Philadelphia, fed the 

 worms entirely on mulberry leaves, principally the white 

 variety, eight times a day. The eggs wire m 1 exposed 

 for hatching until 29th of May, having previously been 

 kept in a cool cellar. They hatched very slowly, and hall' 

 of them failed to hatch at all. Fifteen per cent of those 

 that batched were unable to spin; the rest, did very well, 

 but made rather small cocoons. The worms were kept in 

 quantitiesof about 2G0j on sheets of newspaper, and trans- 

 ferred to fresh sheets every second day on fresh leaves. 

 The weather was generally fine and warm ; only n few c Id, 

 wet days occurring. ,1 . Herbelin. New Orleans, reports having 

 obtained in 31 days from date of hatching cocoons of first 



