THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 79 



six different manufacturers, equal to the best grown in Europe. Some atten- 

 tion has been paid to the subject in Utah, and worms have been repeated!}' 

 raised,. on a small scale, by m3^self and others in various portions of our 

 •own State. All these trials have gone to prove that the worms can be 

 raised with us; and they have not been remunerative simply because they 

 were carried on more for pleasure than profit, and not extensivel}" 

 •enough to warrant the purchase or manufacture of suitable reeling ma- 

 chines. 



SILK GROWING IN (IjALIFORNIA. 



Through the efforts of Colonel Warren, of the California Farmer ; the 

 late ^I. L. Prevost, and others, much attention has been paid to silk-raising 

 on the Pacific Coast since the close of our civil strife. That they have, in 

 that section of the country, a climate most eminently adapted to the growth 

 of the Mulberry and the rearing of the worms, admits of no doubt what- 

 ever. The extremes of heat and cold, the thunder storms and rains which 

 often occur in France and Ital}' during the rearing and breeding season, /. e., 

 in May, June and Jul}", are almost unknown in some of the California 

 •Coast Valleys. 



M. L. Prevost, who by his enthusiasm earned for himself the title of 

 •^^ Pioneer Silk Culturist of the Pacific Coast,"* selected some 10,000 acres 

 in San Bernardino county as a basis for a silk settlement. In a short time 

 he managed to create a great interest in the subject, especially in IjOS Ange- 

 los, Santa Barbara, and San Bernardino counties. In 1867, he published 

 the " California Silk-growers' Manual," and though he is now no more, and 

 it is unnecessary to criticise the work as it deserves, it is important to point 

 out a few of its inconsistencies in order to prevent others from being de- 

 ceived and misled by it^ It is made up principally of a series of fugitive 

 newspaper articles brought together in an undigested form, and without re- 

 gard to arrangement or chronological order. He never once mentions the 

 race of worms he raised; asserts without proof that one man can take care of 

 as many worms in California as can eight in France ; argues without suffi- 

 ■cient ground on a constant demand for California eggs from Europe; and 

 asserts prematurely that California silk by the superiority of the climate is 

 bound to be a superior article, and consequently will command the market 

 in all parts of the world. On page 162 he speaks of the bones [! !] of the 

 scull of the worm. On page 59 he shows that a lot of worms which he 

 attempted to raise in Sacramento in 1866, were, from one cause or another, 

 very badly diseased; while on page 152, in a chajiter which was evidently 

 written subsequently, he roundly asserts that he had never been able to 

 observe any diseaseiu California worms. On page 60 he says that a change 

 from' Mulberry to Osage leaves started the disease above mentioned, and 

 afterwards (p. 120) clearly shows that it was started before the Osage was 

 fed. On page 105 is given a list of prices of cocoons at Lyons, France, the 

 average of which is $1.96 per lb.; while Ure's Dictionary gives the price of 



* According to his own showiiisr, however, (Manual p. 136,) Mr. Henry Hentsch was tlie first to 

 fmpoi-t the eggs of the worm ahcl the seed of the Mulberrv. 



