SILK CULTURE. 307 



THE EXPERIE?fCE OF OTHER NATIONS AGAINST LARGE INVEST3IENTS. 



The history of silk culture is as instructive as it is iuteresting. Large 

 investments have been made by individual enterprise, and to these, gov- 

 ernments have added liberal encouragement. The ditl'erent kinds of 

 silk-Avorms, and of the mulberry, have been bronght together from every 

 country. But however promising the beginnings have appeared, the 

 ends have all resulted in failure, no matter vrhether the experiments 

 were tried in moist or dry climates and soils ; whether the mulberrj- was 

 cultivated as standards or bushes ; whether the worms were domestic 

 or foreign varieties, or however complete the arrangements of the feed- 

 ing-room. Our first duty, then, is to investigate the causes of these 

 failures, and when we have done so the recommendations we will make 

 can be better understood. Many leaders in new enterprises exhibit 

 great zeal, but in their enthusiasm overlook the means of success. 

 They are highly imaginative, seeing clearly enough the desired end, 

 but not the obstacles that are interposed between the beginnings and 

 this expected ending. The history of silk production abounds in such 

 characters, and our own time is not free from them. The compilation 

 of the under-secretary of India is instructive by indicating what these 

 obstacles are, and we will now, as brieily as possible, point them out. 



The production of raw silk includes two occupations, that may bo 

 separated or united, and these are the planting and cultivation of the 

 mulberry, and the hatching and feeding of the silk-worms. 



1. Tlie mulberry. — The mulberry in India, whether of the native or 

 Chinese varieties, generally grew well in a moist or a dry soil. Irriga- 

 tion was necessary in some localities during the dry season, and this 

 led to two modes of cultivating the plant, as standards or bushes. In 

 the former a gi-eater space was given to the plants, but they were 

 crowded in rows in the latter, that no water might be lost in irrigation. 

 Leading cultivators difiered much as to the respective advantages or 

 disadvantages of these modes. The standards were grown into small 

 trees, but kept back so as to make the gathering of the leaves an easy 

 task. In the bush form the plants were cut back often, and every third 

 year cut down to the ground. 



Under both modes the plants grew well until the leaves were plucked 

 or pruned for the worms, then they so far degenerated as to yield an 

 insufficient supply of food, especially in the dry season or in dry soils, 

 and the leaves were so immaturely developed as to be an unhealthy 

 food for the worms, producing fatal diseases and inferior silk. No care 

 in the cultivation of the mulberry could obviate these consequences. 

 One of the cultivators says that '* without* much care, constant atten- 

 tion, and labor," the plants cannot be kept in proper condition. The 

 cultivation recommended was to dig up the earth after the gathering of 

 the leaves had been commenced ; the soil to be manured in October, 

 and in February fresh earth to be put around the plants. When grasses 

 grew, the ground was to be dug up as often as was necessary to des- 

 troy them. This cultivation was much like that of the grape-vine 

 here. But while it could lessen it could not obviate sufficiently the 

 evils we have mentioned to render the raising of the silk- worm a profit- 

 able pursuit on an extensive scale. The general practice among the 

 large growers was to use the leaves six times during the feeding season, 

 four by cutting branches, and two by stripping the leaves. 



2. The sUh-%corm. — In the numerous trials made in India with the differ- 

 ent varieties of the silk-worm, both by keeping them distinct and by 

 crossing, the results have been unsatisfactory^. The causes of this want 



