240 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



ever flattering, it was a prospect warranted and supported by reason 

 and facts. Among these facts may be mentioned the decline of the pro- 

 duction of silk in European countries, in consequence of a disease 

 among the worms, rendering their product less in quantity and inferior 

 in quality, and the reproduction of the worms from year to year, from 

 their own eggs, impossible; a destructive malady, in the form of a para- 

 site, among the silkworm chrysalis in Japan, seriously threatened to cut 

 off the supply of eggs to Europe from that country ; the increasing 

 demandfor silk as a wearing apparel, the world over, and the consequent 

 increase in the price of the same; the unparalleled success which for ten 

 successive years had attended the experiments of Louis Prevost in the 

 production of mulberry trees and silk cocoons in this State — to which 

 had been added the uniform success of many other parties, during the 

 last three or four years, in different parts of the State — the writer hav- 

 ing cleared over a thousand dollars an acre in the year eighteen hundred 

 and sixty-eight, from feeding worms the leaves grown on two-year-old 

 trees, on four acres of land ; the growing demand for California eggs in 

 all parts of Europe where the}- had been tried ; the encouragement held 

 out by our State to all parties engaging in the business — two successive 

 Legislatures having offered liberal bounties for the production of mulberry 

 trees and silk cocoons. 



The foi-egoing facts and reasons combined had operated to place Cali- 

 fornia in a mosj favorable position, as respects the silk industry, at the 

 beginning of the present year. Since that time apparent discouraging 

 causes have been at work, which, to the general public, seem to have 

 cast a shadow over the prospects of the industry, but which, with one 

 exception, will in reality prove beneficial; and aside from that excep- 

 tion, our State has to-day a brighter prospect for the development and 

 profitable prosecution of this industry than at any previous period of its 

 history. 



• 



THE YEAR EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE NATURALLY AN UNFAVOR- 

 ABLE SEASON. 



Although, as stated above, the losses of silkworms in this State this 

 year may be traced, in nearly every instance, to local aud artificial 

 causes, yet it would be unreasonable to suppose that even in* this most 

 favorable climate all seasons are equally favorable. Experience will un- 

 doubtedly teach us that even here we have some seasons much more 

 favorable than others for the growth of the mulberry tree, as well as for 

 the health and perfection of the work of the worm. This is the case 

 with reference to all other productive industries, and why should silk 

 culture form an exception ? Although our climate is among the best in 

 the world for this business, yet I do not believe it absolutely perfect. I 

 believe that the season of eighteen hundred and sixty-nine has been an 

 exceptional one; that it has been, in fact, the most unfavorable season 

 for the success of the silk business that we have had for eight or ten 

 years past, or may have for the same period to come. This being the 

 case, we should endeavor to note carefully its peculiarities, and learn 

 from it all the lessons we can for our guidance in the future. Few per- 

 sons have realized the intimate relations existing between the animate 

 and inanimate worlds. A moment's reflection will teach us bow close is 

 that connection, and more especially when we refer to those insects 

 which, while in a larvae state, subsist on the secretions of flowers or 

 leaves of vegetables and trees, as, for instance, the honey bee, the dif- 



