SILK CULTURE. 235 
ciety of Illinois offered a premium of $1,060, payable in 1881, for the 
best ten acres of artificial timber forest. In 1865 Nebraska enacted a 
law for encouraging forest culture. The State of New York is paying 
bounties for the same purpose, through her agricultural societies. In 
Europe the governments foster this industry by various and effective 
means, and are making it a specialty of national interest. 
SILK CULTURE. 
+ 
Some progress in silk culture has recently been made in California, 
The disease prevailing among silk-worms in the south of Kurope has, for 
several years, created a large demand for silk-worm eggs, and a luera- 
tive trade with France, Italy, and China has been carried on. At the 
present time, however, as a consequence of the war between France and 
Germany, this industry has suffered an unexpected check, as orders 
received from Paris last spring for large quantities of eggs were 
countermanded after the commencement of the war, which has ren- 
dered the product of the year almost an entire loss. This contin- 
gency, whieh is only temporary, will not be likely to happen again very 
soon, and such is the encouragement for the production of eggs and co- 
coons in future, that mere mulberry trees have been planted in the State 
this season than in any former year. Sericulturists are sanguine that 
the business will soon be much better than ever before. 
In 1868° an act was passed by the legislature of California for the 
encouragement of silk culture, and bounties have since been paid to the 
following persons in the counties named: To H.G. Ballou, of Yolo, $300 
for 100,000 cocoons; to Mrs. E. M. Weston, of Sacramento, $1,875 for 
625,000 cocoons; to 8. J. Scuffregan and Leon Gambert, of Santa Clara, 
$250 each; to A. Packard, of Santa Barbara, $450 for 150,000 cocoons ; 
to A. Isoard and A. Miller, of Nevada, $250 aach. 
Silk-worms were first hatched in California in 1860, and numbered - 
about 500; in 1866, the number was estimated at 300,000; in 1867, 
500,000 ; in 1868, 2,700,000; in 1869, 5,500,000. . In June last the Scientific 
Press expressed the opinion that there would be 25,000,000 in 1870. 
Mr. William Agnes, an experienced silk manufacturer, considers the raw 
silk produced there equal to the-best India or Japan. Mr. Ryle, of Pater- 
son, New Jersey, expresses the same opinion. The fiber is very strong, 
fine, free from all impurities, and remarkably smooth and glossy. 
Mr. Leon Gambert, of East San José, who has been breeding silk- - 
worms for the past two years, and received this year a premium of $250 for 
silk culture, has 5,000 mulberry trees of the Moretti ov Ltalian variety, be- 
sides 10,000 of the same kind in a nursery, some of which are two and 
others three years old, valued, respectively, at $10 and $15 per hundred. 
He considers the Moretti variety the best for silk-worms. Last year he 
raised seventy ounces of eggs, worth $8 per ounce. All thé work of 
feeding and tending was done by one lady. This year he is hatching 
three and one-half ounces of eggs, from which he expects to get about 
140,000 siik-werms. , These worms will produce moths enough to lay 460 
ounces of eggs, worth $3,680. One hundred and fifty female moths will 
lay an ounce of eggs. But, as about one-half the number of the moths 
from the cocoons are males, 300 cocoons are usually considered necessary 
to produce moths enough to yield one ounce of eggs. His silk-worms 
