288 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



dullest person applied to, before taking stock, would be apt to inquire if 

 the climates proposed were suitable for success, which at once involves 

 meteoi'oloo-ical considei-ations. 



Had this Eno-lish company substituted thorougli investigations into the 

 habits and requirements of the silkworm before making their large out- 

 lays of capital, they doubtless would have discovered that a climate 

 subject to excessive moisture from fogs, frequent showers, and often Ion"- 

 protracted storms, had natural obstacles to silk culture which could be 

 overcome by no appliance of art. Add to this discouraging feature an 

 accompanying phenomenon of nature, the presence of explosive elec- 

 tricity, and the question of the successful culture of the silkworm in 

 Great Britain or the United States would be settled in the negative. 



All herbaceous food, when saturated with an excess of moisture 

 secreted while in a growing condition, becomes injurious to animal and 

 insect life. _ This is especially and peculiarly the case with the silkworm. 

 Copious rains, with a continuance for days and weeks of a cloudy atmosi 

 phere, have the effect to surcharge the leaf of the mulberry with a'walery, 

 viscid, poisonous consistency, which, if fed to the worms, affects them 

 with a kind of cholera, from which nearlj- the entire stock of worms thus 

 fed will sometimes die within a few hours. It takes about six weeks for 

 the silkworm to pass through its four periods of moulting after hatching, 

 to be in readiness to spin its cocoons, and in order that the leaves shall 

 be in a proper condition, there should be no rain for one or two weeks 

 prior to the time of hatching. Tluis there are required seven or eight 

 weeks of rainless skies, in order that the silkworm may enjoy its brief 

 existence in pei-fect health. 



Explosive electricit}^, incidental to rainy climates, coming suddenly 

 and at uncertain periods, is, perhaps, more fatal in its effects upon the 

 silkworm than any malady caused by bad food. The shock of a single 

 stroke of thunder often destroys vast numbers of worms in a few 

 moments, affecting them with a kinrl of a])oplcxy. The plienomena of 

 rain and explosive electricity, prevailing M'ith greater or less sevei-ity in 

 the climate of Europe and the Atlantic States, is, I apprehend, one of 

 the chief obstacles to comjdete success in silk culture in those countries, 

 as it is palpably evident that in those seasons most exempt from rain 

 and thunder during the season of feeding the worms, the best results 

 are obtained. 



THE CLIMATE OF CALIFORNIA PECULIARLY FAVORABLE TO SILK CULTURE. 



My friend, the Frenchman, has said: "We shall have silk growing 

 States." If an isothermal locality, entirely destitute of rains from May 

 to November, with a meteorological condition in which there is no 

 explosive electricity, should seem to be favorable, then the prediction 

 that we shall have silk growing will some time be verified. Enough is 

 already known to warrant large outlays of capital in the Pacific slates 

 in the establishment of this lucrative and fascinating industr3^ Dm-ing 

 five years of experiment with the silkworm in California, the party 

 engaged in it states that be has never discovered a diseased worm 

 except from accidental wounds or being bitten by ants, neither of which 

 dangers are serious when proper caution is exercised in placing the legs 

 of the tables on which the worms are fed in vessels containing water, 

 thereb}^ preventing the ant from gaining access to them. 



The leaf of the mulberry being sufliciently matured by the first of 

 May to feed the worm when first hatched, and continuing succulent until 



