STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 251 



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thing is certain — that in Asiatic countries, where the people themselves 

 live more in a state of nature, and where they seldom resort to any- 

 artificial means in the treatment of the worms, disease among them has 

 never prevailed to any extent, while in European countries, where 

 almost everything in connection with such treatment is artificial, disease 

 has become so chronic and fixed, that without constant renewal from 

 other countries, the worm would there long since have become extinct. 

 Science in the rearing of silkworms may be very well, but it should be 

 that science which discovers the requirements of nature and carefully 

 adheres to them. In a climate like ours, where all the natural conditions 

 for the industry seem to have been provided in so favorable a manner, it 

 is doubtful whether man can improve those conditions. Our study 

 should be to learn what those conditions are, and how the best to con- 

 form to them. 



To shield the worm from the direct rays of the sun, and protect it 

 from the immediate currents of wind, to supply it with a sufficiency of 

 fresh and healthy food, and keep the cocoonery clean in all its parts, 

 and the air free from artificial impurities, seems to be about all we have 

 to do to secure success in this pleasant and most profitable industry. 



PROFITS OP MAKING EGGS. 



I think I have proven to the satisfaction of all who have read this 

 article, that while the past season has been, for reasons stated, the most 

 unfavorable ever known in the State for silkworm feeding, still, had 

 there been no artificial causes to prevent, the business would have been 

 attended with satisfactory success. Also, that nothing has yet occurred 

 to destroy confidence in the business, or in the least to mar the bright 

 prospect of silk culture in the future, except the unfavorable construction 

 and execution of the laws heretofore so wisely passed for its encourage- 

 ment. This unfavorable action, of course, is but temporary, and cannot 

 affect those hereafter to engage in the business. By it, however, the 

 enterprising pioneers in the business, who risked their time and money 

 in it when there were doubts about its success, have unexpectedly, and 

 as I think wrongfully, been deprived of the means upon which they were 

 induced to depend, to meet their necessary expenses, and to prosecute 

 the business with energy and to good advantage in the future. 



But this unfavorable action and its consequences I propose to speak of 

 in the future, and will therefore dismiss it for the present, to consider a 

 brighter and more pleasing side of this interesting 'subject. I refer to 

 the profits to be realized from egg and silk culture in California. The 

 first question asked by a prudent business man, when investigating any 

 new business with a view to engaging in it, is, " Will it pay?" Califor- 

 nians generally ask, in addition, "How soon will it pay?" These ques- 

 tions I propose to answer. In doing so in the most concise, and proba- 

 bly in the most satisfactory manner, I will state the result of some past 

 transactions, as matters of fact, and then show the favorable prospects 

 of the business in the immediate future. 



In eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, I fed the leaves from three and 

 one-half acres of land covered with two-year-old morus multicaulis trees. 

 The trees had been grown from cuttings where they then stood. They 

 had been cut back in the spring or winter, close to the ground, and the 

 tops used for cuttings, so that they did not furnish much over half the 

 early foliage they would have done had they only been pruned with an 

 eye to that purpose. 



