458 



FACTS FROM YARIOUS SOURCES. 



Silk-culture in Kansas.— Iu the Annual Eeport of this Depart- 

 ment for 1870 it was meutioued that Mr. E. V. Boissiere, a wealthy 

 French gentleman, had engaged in the culture and manufacture of silk 

 at a place which is now called Silkville, near Williamsburglj, in Frank- 

 lin County, Kansas; and a general description was given of the build- 

 ings and machinery already completed by Mr. Boissiere, and of his 

 prospective arrangements, for extendiug his enterprise. The Depart- 

 ment has received a letter from Mr. Boissiere, under date of the 12th 

 instant, in which he makes the following statement of the result of his 

 first experiments during the past season : 



I commenced the weavingof silk- velvet ribbons at this place in 1869, hoping to make 

 it a successful business. I conceived the idea of attempting, in connection with it, to 

 raise the silk itself. Accordingly, I procured from France, and planted in the spring of 

 1870, a suthcient quantity of the seeds of the white mulberrj^, the leaves of which con- 

 stitute, almost exclusively, the food of silk-worms in tkat country. The seeds germi- 

 nated satisfactorily, and produced trees which have made a remarkably rapid and lux- 

 uriant growth. I have 10,000 of them, yielding in the proi^er season as much, and 

 apparently as good foliage as could reasonably be flesired. 



Last spring I received from France three ounces of silk-worm eggs. Of these, two 

 ounces (one ounce each, of the yellow and white varieties) hatched on the 27th of April. 

 They appeared to do well until the time of spinning, about the 2d day of June, when 

 the worms died in such large numbers that the yield was only 20 pounds of cocoons, 

 instead of 200 pounds, which is uudei'stood in France to be the average yield froui two 

 ounces of eggs. The third ounce, which I considered more promising than the others, 

 and on which I relied more coufideutly, hatched the l.')th day of May. The worms 

 were at tirst lively, and appeared perfectly healthy, and so continued until the intensely 

 warm weather of the first part of June, when they began to sicken and die, and so 

 many of them died before spinning that I obtained barely 5 pounds of cocoons — only 

 one-half, proportionally, of the scanty yield from the first hatching. It is perhaps 

 proper to remark, that the weather, during the months of May and June last, was es- 

 pecially unfavorable to silk-worms, beiug very wet, and heavy thunder-showers being 

 frequent. But, besides these adverse circumstances, which may be regarded as only 

 occasional, I suspect that French silk-worms, having become habituated to the com- 

 pai'atively moderate summers of Europe, cannot well endure the change to the sultry 

 summers of Kansas. I hope for better success with the Japanese variety, with which 

 I propose, if possible, to experiment next year. From the cocoons produced by the first 

 hatching this year I obtained very good eggs, but I have more confidence in Japanese 

 eggs. 



Moule's eauth-closbt. — Dr. Fergus, of Glasgow, in a recent paper 

 read before the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh, on the sewage 

 question, makes the following remarks upon the earth-closet system of 

 the Kev. Henry Moule, of England, which was fully described, with 

 drawings illustrative of its mechanical arrangement, in the A-unual 

 Report of this Department for 1871: 



Mr. Moule's earth-closet has done well in private houses, asylums, and small villages 

 in this country, and in India has been a very decided success. The great objection to 

 its use iu towns is the bulk of the material required. This objection is removed by 

 employing, as Mr. Stanford proposes, seaweed charcoal instead' of earth. As a very 

 email quantity of charcoal is sufficient, by an improved closet, it is expected that even 

 less than weight for weight of excreta will be found sufficient. I have repeatedly 

 seen Mr.' Stanford's process in operation, and am convinced it is in every way well 

 worthy of trial ; as it satisfies, in all respects, whatever the most ardent sanitarian 

 could desire. The product from the closet is a black mass, somewhat like cinders, free 

 from smell, and without the least appearance of fecal matter. Mr. Stanford considers 

 that 8 cwt. per head par annum is sufficient, and that this need only be removed once 

 a year; and the reservoir of char at the top of the house need only be replenished 

 once a year. Tlie closets are arranged to be quite automatic, aud require no attend- 

 ance from within. Mr. Stanford values the char after use at 8s. a head per annum, 

 and proposes to burn it in revolving retorts, aud to collect in suitable condensers the 

 gas-liquor, tar, and gas. The charcoal increases at each reburning, and therefore the 



