THE MARKET SYSTEMS OP THE COUNTRY. 241 
cause of the silk-worm disease now so prevalent in that country and 
other parts of Europe and Asia. From his experiments he concludes, 
that the worms succeed much better when raised in the open air than 
when kept in close rooms at high temperatures, as is usuvaily the case; 
that they bear very well a temperature as low as 47° and as high as 
1049; and that they are not injured by the direct rays of the sun nor by 
sudden changes of temperature. He attributes the disease to confine- 
ment in too close rooms, and recommends that they be kept in open sheds, 
with roots sufficient to keep off the rain. Worms kept in this way yield 
very satisfactorily, 58 ounces of eggs furnishing sufficient silk-worms to 
produce 372 pounds of cocoons, besides a large number of eggs from 
which to rear a new stock. 
SILK SUPPLY. 
In consequence of the diseases of the silk-worm, the imports of raw silk 
into Great Britain have fallen off 40 per cent., and prices have risen 100 
per cent. Many silk manufacturers have abandoned their business and 
sought other employment. Imports of silk from China into Great 
Britain, between the years 1857 and 1864, fell from 9,000,000 pounds 
per annum to 3,000,000 pounds; and in one year, 1864, they fell from 
7,800,000 to 3,000,000 pounds. To remedy this evil, the silk manufac- 
turers of England have formed a company, called the “Silk Supply 
Association,” the object of which is to stimulate silk production by cot- 
tage culture, and in every other practicable way, in all countries where 
the silk-worm can be raised; to encourage the introduction and ex- 
change of eggs of the best kinds of silk-worms; to impart practical 
suggestions to silk-producers for improving the quality of their silk and 
the manner of reeling it; to promote importations of cocoons from coun- 
tries which have not facilities for reeling them; and to confer with all 
consular agents in foreign countries to secure their codperation in pro- 
moting and extending the culture of ‘silk in all places where they can 
exert an influence. The association has already published a “ Guide to 
Sericulture,” and intends soon to issue a monthly journal, called the 
Journal of the Silk Supply Association, for the purpose of more effect- 
ually carrying out its objects. An attempt to cultivate the Bombyx mori, 
or true silk-worm, in Engiand, is proposed to be immediately undertaken, 
and a speedy revival of silk culture is confidently anticipated. 
THE MARKET SYSTEMS OF THE COUNTRY, THEIR 
USAGES AND ABUSES. 
The wide margin between the home prices of fruits and vegetables, 
the grains and meats of the farm, and the rates at which they are sold 
to city consumers, is often suggestive of extortionate combinations and 
oppressive regulations and usages, by which greed obtains a large portion 
of the reward of labor. While the laborer who carries the produce of the 
farm to the city larder is as worthy of his hire as the husbandman him- 
self, theré is opportunity for oppression in the fact that the market men 
and hucksters of the city are voters of the municipality, and the selfish- 
ness of human nature in such a contingency usually involves municipal 
reguationsin some degree unjust and burdensome to the original producer. 
Where farmers are permitted equal opportunity with hucksters to sell 
in ieee, marke, there can be no ground for censure of city dealers. 
164A 
