STLK CULTURE, 1-3 



years the remains of it were so completely crnslied by the * Pebrine/ 

 a silkworm disease which rag-ed all over Europe at the time, that by 

 18(30 silk culture seemed to have disappciircd entirelv from Hunj^'ary. 



"About 1870 the Hungarian (iovernnicnt once more dirc-cted its 

 attention to this branch of commerce, and instituted a Hoard for the 

 ofHcial inspection of silk culture at Szagzard. 



"In 1880 Baron Gabriel Kemeny, the Minister of Agricultun-, re- 

 organised the Board of Inspection, granting it a more iiulcpendent 

 sphere of action, and nrging and encouraging the occujiation in the 

 country. 



"The arduous task of its development was assured Ijy M. Paul de 

 Bezeredy, who threw all his energies into the work, and strove per- 

 severingly to attain his object not only from an agricultural point of 

 view, but especially in a philanthropic sense, and he sacrificed a laro-e 

 part of his own private fortune for the success of the enterprise. 

 Thanks to the zeal of this able man, and also to the valuable aid of 

 M. W. de Ritter, of Gorice, whose enlightenment and technical know- 

 ledge were important acquisitions, the success surpassed all their 

 highest hopes. The following figures are sufficient to show the 

 enormous strides with which the industry advanced : — In 1880 there 

 were 71 communities^ producing 10,000 kilos of cocoons; in 1891 

 there were 2,268 communities, producing 1,110,000 kilos of cocoons. 



" M. de Bezeredy did not attain these marvellous results without 

 constant hard work and perseverance and overcoming many obstacles. 

 The ignorance and carelessness of the people was a continual obstruc- 

 tion, and in combating this he was assisted by the Royal Government, 

 who invested the president of the Board with the power of requiring 

 from the local authorities the use of the public forces to check dis- 

 orders in any part of the kingdom and to punish the culprits who 

 resisted the picking- of the mulberry leaves and even damaged or 

 destroyed the trees." 



From the examples given in the above brief exti'acts it might 

 reasonably be supposed that there would be many difficulties to over- 

 come in establishing sericulture in New South Wales, or in any of the 

 colonies, and such, in part, has been the case. 



In the earliest days of the Colony, when it was found that the 

 mulberry succeeded admirably, some thoughts were given to tlic 

 establishment of the industry. In 1825 the Australian Agricultural 

 Company expected good results from silk culture, but no steps seem 

 to have been taken to further it at that time. 



In 1842 Mr. Surgeon R. T. Jameson, in his work "Recent Travels 

 in New South Wales," remarked " of these prospective resources the 

 culture of silk is especially deserving of attention. The mulberry 

 tree grows to great perfection, and the silkworms already introduced 

 have shown by their instructive industry that a great trade in raw 

 silk might be carried on from the shores of Australia as easily as those 

 of China and Italy." 



A gentleman named Buezeville, about the year 1848, made an 

 attempt to establish silk culture on a farm at Eastwood, near Ryde, 

 but this collapsed through want of means and profitabh' varieties of 

 silkworms. Flanagan, in his " History of New South \Vales," says 



