20 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



duty of horticMilture as a branch of silk culture. The best and 

 only safe food is the nuilhernj-frec lea res. Without the mulberry no 

 silk culture. 



A company called the New York Silk Exchange, located at 27 

 Broad Street, New York City, have established a paper, under the 

 editorship of Miss L. Capsadell, called the '' Silk and Fruit Cultu- 

 rist.' It is a good monthly paper, at the low price of one dollar a 

 year, and has a circulation reaching all over the United States. This 

 company have purchased a large tract of land, near New York City, 

 in New Jersey, and have laid it out into three and five acre lots, 

 planted with the best varieties of mulberry and other fruit trees, and 

 small fruits, and have put up hou.ses. They sell the premises on easy 

 terms. They have erected a large school to teach practical silk cul- 

 ture. They also buy cocoons, furnish silk-worm eggs, utensils and 

 the trees necessary. 



Another establishment of the kind is started by Prof. L. S. Cro- 

 zier, in Corinth, Mississippi. He is one of the best writers and 

 instructors on silk culture, sells trees and eggs, and buys cocoons, 

 from which he reels the silk. 



And I, your humble servant, try to do the same on a small scale 

 here. 



America has a favorable climate and good lands for the mul- 

 berry tree, and the never-resting nurseryman, to propagate, improve, 

 and sell the trees. In New Jersey and Pennsylvania there are silk 

 schools for boys, with practical teachers who spend their time in 

 raising silk and in becoming good and rich citizens. This industry 

 will prove a great blessing to our people, by giving our young men 

 and women a practical and remunerative employment, better than 

 that of ' piano thrashers, clerks, bookkeepers, stage-struck actresses, 

 songsters and clog-dancers. Our peculiar institutions and habits 

 exclude millions of young men and women from profitable, honor- 

 able business. No wonder that our streets are lined Avith them. No 

 wonder that drunkenness prevails, and the penitentiaries and lunatic 

 asylums are filled to the top. Who is to blame for this? I often 

 pity these young people cursed by everyone who does not make the 

 matter a study. Give them good advice and set the example for 

 them ; give them work, and the evil will cease. '' Idleness is the root 

 of all evil." 



I will give a very brief description of the practical work of silk 

 culture. The first necessity is to have mulberry trees planted to get 

 food for the silk worms. Before you can get sufficient mulberry 

 leaves, you may rely upon osage orange, or hedge plant leaves; this, 

 however, ])roduces an inferior silk, which is consequently cheaper in 

 the market. The leaves of the Japonica mulberry tree produce the 

 very finest silk, which demands the highest market price. The next 

 best variety is the Moras Rosea; next to that is the Moras Moretti, a 

 black variety of fruit: and next the Moras Alba, or white mulberry. 



