82 : REPORT—1849. 

of this year could be wound off from the cocoon, and it will not therefore be in my 
power to make my report as full or as statistical as I could desire. I am however — 
unwilling that this meeting should pass without endeavouring in some way to satisfy 
the expectations of those who have been sufficiently liberal to pay regard to my con- 
victions, that the cultivation of silk may with little trouble or expense be made gene- 
ral, and in the end. become a profitable speculation. % 
From the period when I had the honour to place before you an account of my 
early trials, I have paid attention to the cultivation of the mulberry, especially of that 
species which I introduced in 1846, viz. the Morus multicaulis of the Philippine 
«Islands. I have three other kinds of white mulberry, which all grow well at New- 
lands, but as none are so easily propagated as the Multicauli, or bear so great a weight 
of leaf, I have increased my plantation with them chiefly. 
I said in my letter to the Royal Agricultural Society in 1844, that it was as easy 
to do so as to propagate the willow. I now say that it is much easier, and the pro- 
duce is more abundant. The produce of the leaf this year has been immense, aud 
even now, after having plucked them closely to feed my silkworms, they are strong 
and vigorous, and present a luxuriance of growth scarcely to be-credited unseen. 
I find the cuttings, which are rooted in the open ground, produce stronger and 
healthier plants than those struck under glass. 
One of my earliest pupils has a productive nursery at Godalming of the Morus 
alba; many others in different parts of England are planting; and if gentlemen in 
England and Ireland, who have a few acres or roods of land to spare, would plant 
mulberries for posterity as they do their oaks, we should in a few years be independent 
of other countries for our supply of raw silk. 
With regard to the rearing of the silkworm: as their habits become more practi- 
cally known to me, I find less difficulty in bringing them to perfection; and am con- 
firmed in my belief, that with due attention to their peculiarities they may be reared 
in England as well as in any other country, and with as little loss by death. Equable 
warmth throughout the period of their existence (which may be shortened or prolonged 
at pleasure), cleanliness, classification and ventilation, with the adaptation of the food 
(as to its maturity) to the different ages of the insect, will ensure success. 
I have been this season very successful in rearing the worms I was able to hatch; 
they had no disease of any kind; they made their cocoon in thirty days; and the silk” 
I have been able to wind off is as strong and bright and beautiful as that which, in 
1844 and 1845, was pronounced superior to the best Italian raw silk. 
There are many persons in England, and a few in Ireland, who have begun the 
experiment on asmallscale. It requires time to mature and perfect any undertaking; _ 
but if I live long enough, and the growth of the mulberry becomes generally encou- 
raged, I have no doubt my ardent wish to see the cultivation of silk established in~ 
England will be realized. : 




Lj 
ETHNOLOGY. 
On some remarkable Primitive Monuments existing at or near Carnae 
(Britanny) ; and on the Discrimination of Races by their local and fixed 
Monuments. By Dr. Buair. i 
Dr. Brarr described a visit made in 1834; with Mr. Francis Ronalds, to the bourg 
of Carnac, in the department of the Morbihan,—the territory of the ancient Veneti, 
—on the south coast of Britanny, for the sake of examining certain very remarkable 
monuments of the kind usually held for druidical, but of peculiar character and 
unusual dimensions, and hitherto but slightly known in this country. He observed 
upon the surprising richness in these remains of the small district, hardly six miles 
east and west from Carnac, which they explored. Their minute description of up- 
wards of seventy notable objects had been printed,—and accurate drawings of the 
more important lithographed,—but not yet published. These antiquities were of the 
