271 



pies of the cocoons and manufactured products, and if possible some of 

 the eggs. In this the consul-general v^as successful, as the following 

 correspondence shows. 



The eggs were dul}' received at the Department, but failed to hatch. 

 This is, we believe, the experience of European experimenters. The 

 object of this importation was to obtain a vigorous race of mulberry- 

 feeding worms, which might be interbred with our own depleted races 

 and instil into them new life. The outcome was unfortunately^ unsuc- 

 cessful. 



United States Consulate-General, 



Shanghai, August 9, 1886. 



Sir: Referring to the Department's instructions No. 7, inclosing a copy of a com- 

 munication from the Commissioner of Agriculture to Mr. Bayard, relative to a certain 

 race of silk-worms named therein, I have the honor to state that Shaug-lin, a district 

 in which a kind of wild worm makes its cocoon on the ordinary mulberry tree, is 

 some 120 miles northwest of Shanghai, and to get there a long and, at this season of 

 the year, tedious journey is necessary. 



I have been informed that the gathering of this wild cocoon is carried on from the 

 end of the sixth month to the beginning of the eighth (Chinese calendar), and it being 

 now the middle of the seventh month, I have thought it advisable to instruct Mr. 

 Emens, the interpreter of this consulate-general, to visit the di.strict of Shang-lin as 

 soon as possible and inform me of the result of his inquiries and procure the samples 

 desired by the Commissioner of Agriculture. 



The obstacles which will present themselves in making the inquiries in this matter 

 will be increased if they are not made during the season, which will close two weeks 

 hence. 



It may be of interest to the Commissioner of Agriculture to know that this par- 

 ticular kind of cocoon, very little known to Chinese and still less by Americans and 

 Europeans, is supposed to be a degenerate form of the ordinary silk-worm. Twenty 

 to twenty-tive years ago, when this section of China was devastated by rebels, the 

 people of Shaug-lin were compelled to flee from their homes at theseason of the year 

 when they were engaged in breeding their silk-worms. Being thus suddenly deprived 

 of any care whatever the butterflies laid their eggs promiscuously, and in time this 

 peculiar race of worms has developed, and it is said they are not to be found elsewhere 

 in China. 



The silk is of lighter weight than the ordinary product, and it may possess ordinary 

 properties that Americans may develop to their profit. 



I do not think it has received the attention of European cultivators of the silk- 

 woruK 



I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, 



J. D. Kennedy, 



Consul-General. 



Hon. James D. Porter, 



Assistant Secretary of State, Washington. D. C. 



Shanghai, August 27, 1886. 

 Sir: In conformity with your verbal instructions to obtain for the United States 

 Department of Agriculture a small quantity of the eggs of a race of mulberry-feed- 

 ing silk- worms, scientifically known as the Theophila mandarina, and called by the 

 natives Tien-seng-tsan, together with samples of the cocoons of this insect and of the 

 silk spun from them, I have the honor to report that I left Shanghai on the 12th in- 

 stant and proceeded to Shang-lin, a name applied to a village and the surrounding 

 district situated in the northern part of Che-Kiang. It is a level, fertile region, 



