REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 117 
reasoning: Suppose the extreme case of a tray containing twenty 
moths which have been pronounced healthy by the microscopist. If 
‘one of those moths were diseased it would be quite as possible as 
not to overiook the corpuscles which it contained in a mass of over 
a fluid ounce of the mixture, and once it is passed by the first comp- 
troller the chance of its being discovered by the second is much 
smaller, as he takes but a small portion of the primary mixture and 
combines it with portions of others which might have been entirely 
healthy. Altogether they claim that the double control is but a 
step in an unworthy system of advertising. 
At the Deydier establishment, which is situated at Aubenas, in 
the Department of the Ardéche, in France, this system of double 
control has been abandoned, the microscopists being divided into 
small groups, one operative supervising the accuracy of the work of 
the others of the group. The French establishment occupies an old 
filature building, and is not so completely fitted up asthe Italian one. 
The production of eggs reaches about 15,000 ounces per annum. M. 
Deydier informed me that he had noticed that cocoons raised in the 
United States from his eggs were larger and better than those from 
which the eggs were originally produced in France. This, however, 
is not an unusual result of transplanting stock to a new climate. 
MULBERRY TREES. 
No effort has yet been made to rear Silk-worms on an extensive 
scale at the Department, because, though Osage Orange leaves may 
be easily obtained in any desired quantity, it has been impossible to 
find, in the immediate vicinity, a proper supply of Mulberry leaves 
with which to make comparative tests. A plantation, however, has 
been recently started in the Department grounds, which includes 
some of the best varieties, and it is hoped that we shall scon have a 
plentiful supply of food. Among other trees recently purchased 
are some from the Cattaneo nurseries, near Milan, where the care of 
the young trees is so systematic and wel!-conducted that an extended 
description of their methods will not be out of place here. Judg- 
ing from our own experience it is not the custom of American nursery- 
men to in any way prune or train their Mulberry trees while in their 
plantation. Asa result it is found to be almost impossible to train 
a two or three year old tree so that its foliage may be picked with 
the proper facility. The proper pruning and training of Mulberry 
trees is excessively important, as it is conceded upon all sides that 
three times as many leaves may be picked, in-a given time, from a 
well-pruned tree as from one where nature has been allowed full 
sway. The methods employed in the Cattaneo nursery, while almost 
identical with those described in the tenth chapter of your manual on 
the Silk-worm, tend to show the care with which European nursery- 
men handle their stock from the seed up, so that a four-year-old 
tree, when sent from the nursery, is‘in just as good condition as if it 
had been raised on the silk-grower’s own plantation. 
THE CATTANEO NURSERIES. 
The Cattaneo nurseries have their office in Milan and their plan- 
tations in the immediate vicinity. They makea specialty of a White 
Mulberry, which they call the “ Primitive,” the original stock of which 
they imported at great expense from China. it is, as far as can be 
