126 The Rev. F. W. Hope on Silk Insects. 



will no doubt repay the speculator for rearing silk. To reduce, 

 however, his expenditure as much as possible, I would recommend 

 him to feed the silk-worm with lettuce instead of mulberry-leaves ; 

 1st, as there is less expense in the cultivation ; 2ndly, as the lettuce 

 can be grown cheaply in cucumber-frames during the winter months ; 

 and, lastly, as the quality of the silk does not depend so much on 

 the quality of the leaf as it does on the degree of temperature in 

 which the worm is reared, I would strenuously recommend the lettuce. 

 Should the food of the mulberry-tree, however, be preferred to the 

 lettuce, we can still adopt the discovery of Ludovico Bellarde of 

 Turin. His plan consisted in giving the worms the pulverized leaves 

 of the mulberry-tree slightly moistened with water : the leaves were 

 gathered in the previous summer, dried in the sun, reduced to pow- 

 der, and then stowed away in jars for the winter food, or till the 

 tree was in full foliage. Repeated experiments made by Bellarde 

 prove that the worm preferred this kind of food to any other, as they 

 devour it with the greatest avidity. To reduce still further the ex- 

 penditure, old men, women and children might be employed in 

 feeding the worms, as is the case at present in India : indeed, might 

 not the poor in the workhouses be rendered available, thus affording 

 them amusement and profit ? 



With regard to rearing other silk-moths, I am well convinced that 

 the Pavonia minor might be propagated to any extent in this coun- 

 try, as the larva a.T^ general feeders ; probably the Lacquey Moths 

 might also be reared with success ; the larger Pavonia; of Europe 

 and other countries should also be tiied. But a great object would be 

 to import the eggs and breed the Atlas Moths in England, which 

 have already yielded a fine silk well worthy the attention of the 

 manufacturer of Great Britain. 



As there is not time at present to enter into the merits of the 

 Tusseh, Arrindi, Bughy and Kolisurra Silk- worms of India, I merely 

 mention the chief writers on this subject, viz. the celebrated James 

 Anderson, Dr. Roxburgh, General Hardwicke, and Colonel Sykes ; 

 t^he two last, I am happy to say, are members of this Society, and I 

 am sure will most willingly give all assistance in their power towards 

 the attainment of so desirable an object as that of rearing silk in 

 this country*. 



* Should the first attempts fail, eventually there is every reason to believe that 

 success must follow perseverance, as it has already done in other countries. Till that 

 wished-for period arrives, I would earnestly recommend not only the increased cul- 

 tivation of silk in India, but in all our colonies, most particularly in New Holland. 

 At the Cape of Good Hope, at the Mauritius, at Malta, at the barren rocks of 

 St. Helena, the silk-worm has been introduced with partial success ; and from those 

 countries may we not in future calculate on some increasing produce ? 



