STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 257 



Since that time I have every j'ear raised an increased quantity of silk- 

 worms, and have never discovered any disease among them. This is 

 remarkable, because in France, with the same treatment 1 have prac- 

 ticed, it would be impossible to raise a single cocoon. Having no other 

 suitable building, I have been compelled to hatch and feed my worms in 

 a small greenhouse, which being constructed of glass finimes, is subject 

 to become extremely hot in the middle of the day, and in a reverse 

 ratio, cold during the night. The temperature in this structure would 

 often range up to ninety and one hundred degrees in the daytime, and 

 fall to fortv-five in the nio-ht. which is not as favorable a meteoroloo-ical 

 condition for the health and activity' of the silkworm as a more even 

 temperature, which latter will produce the largest cocoons. 



In eighteen hundred and sixty, I sent boquets of cocoons to nearly all 

 of the fairs held in the State, which attracted some attention from 

 visitors and meagre notices from a few newspapers; but no interest 

 could be awakened in this industry, and I received scarcely no encour- 

 agement to persevere in my efforts to get our people to take hold of silk 

 culture. The objections urged against it ^vere mainlj' on account of the 

 high price of labor. This obstacle I had alread}^ disposed of in my own 

 mind, on the ground that ■we had cheaper land than in France, and the 

 availabilit}^ of Chinese labor. The cost of buying three or four acres of 

 land here is not more than the yearly rent of one acre in the silk dis- 

 tricts of Europe. Thus it will be seen that the silk raiser in Europe 

 must deduct the high rent of his land everj^ 3'ear from his profits. The 

 difference in the cost of labor with us and in Europe for silk growing is 

 largely to our advantage, on account of the favorableness of our climate. 

 In my practice I have so simjilitied the mode of feeding and managing 

 the worms that one person here can raise as many worms as six or eight 

 persons can do in Europe, by their system. 



M}' system of silk culture will apply to all climates similar to our own, 

 but will not answer in a wet climate. It is my intention to publish my 

 83'steni in book form, so simplified that it can easilj^ be understood by 

 all. I have no desire for pecuniary benefits to mj-self to grow out of 

 any knowledge of the silk culture which it may be in my power to 

 impart to the public. ' I shall feel amplj' compensated for the years of 

 practical experiment which I have given to silk culture from the pleas- 

 ure I shall be afforded from a knowledge that my humble efforts were 

 somewhat the means of introducing and establishing in our State an 

 industry which will save annually millions of dollars to our people, and 

 eventually make us the largest silk pi^oducing community in the world. 



It affords me great pleasure to state that m}^ efforts to introduce this 

 fascinating and profitable business ar^ meeting with some success at last, 

 as Miss A. Packard and E. Goux, of Santa Barbara, have made a planta- 

 tion of three thousand mulberrj^ trees, and the present season raised five 

 pounds of silkworm eggs — (three million two hundred thousand.) I 

 gave them the eggs to start with, also directions about feeding and man- 

 aging, and their ladies did the work with complete success. Consid- 

 erable plantations of the mulberry have also been made in the San 

 Joaquin Valley during the past season. And I learn that Wilson Flint 

 will have a plantation of over fifty thousand trees, near Sacramento, 

 from which to commence feeding the silkworm the coming season. 



For many j-ears past silk culture has been an uncertain business in 

 Europe, on account of a prevalence of cold, wet seasons. Long con- 

 tinued rain stormy so fill the leaf of the mulberry with water that the 



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