154 ^''^^^ SOUTH WALES. 



" tlie experiment wliicli had been made to grow silk on an extensive 

 scale in the Colony proved a failure, chiefly in consequence of the want 

 of the proper species of mulberry." 



Various attempts were made from time to time to promote the 

 industry, but they seem to have failed chiefly either from a want of 

 proper knowledge of the subject or from inadequate supplies of food 

 for the silkworms. 



At the time the terrible silkworm diseases were so prevalent in 

 Europe, and which threatened to completely ruin the industry there, 

 the price of healthy silkworms' eggs or graine rose enormously, and 

 nearly every part of the world was searched by agents from France 

 and Italy. This gave a stimulus to sericulture in this Colony, where 

 healthy eggs could be raised without difficulty. The silk manufac- 

 turers in England became alarmed at the probability of importations 

 of raw silk becoming short, and ^' the Silk Supply Association was 

 formed in London to take measures for the arrest of the evil, and 

 promote silk farming in every English country devoted to the growth of 

 the mulberry. * * * The effect of these diseases was gradually 

 to curtail the annual crop of silk available for international com- 

 mence, until a point was reached when the silk industry of the 

 world was threatened with extinction.'" Happily, Pasteur took in hand 

 the investigation of the silkworm diseases, with such splendid results 

 that the expected calamity was averted. 



At this critical time '' we had in this Colony pure-bred races of the 

 old original stock of silkworms, perfectly free from diseases of any 

 kind, owing to the careful efforts of Mr. Charles Brady, who had 

 succeeded in eliminating all traces of disease." Dr. George Bennett, 

 M.D., Hon. Secretary to the Acclimatisation Society of New Sovith 

 Wales, writing to Her Majesty's Minister at Florence, 18th May, 1870, 

 said, " It is well for me to explain that the subject (the rearing of silk 

 and silkworm graine in the Colony) is not quite a new one to us, and 

 Tinder the immediate observations of this society some remarkable ex- 

 periments have been carried on here continuously for several j'-ears last 

 past. Diseased and weak worms have been introduced by Mr. Charles 

 Brady from Europe and from elsewhere, others sound but more or 

 less inferior in quality. Some of this diseased and feeble stock, after 

 treatment by him for several generations in this climate, have, under 

 the influence of fresh food grown in the new soils of the Colony, 

 gradually improved in constitution, and some breeds even appear to 

 afford reasonable hope of becoming perfectly sound and absolutely 

 restored to the original vigour of the parent stock before the disease 

 appeared." Dr. Wallace, of England, in an article on Sericulture in 

 '' Cassell's Technical Educator,'^ remarks, " I have myself received 

 from Mr. Brady eggs of a celebrated European race (Milanese), now 

 very subject, in Europe, to disease, which have been pronounced after 

 microscopic examination by skilled experts to be jDcrfectly free from 

 all signs of disease." 



After Pasteur's investigations and discoveries, the silkworm diseases 

 were sufficiently stamped out to permit of the silk industry being re- 

 established, and the price of healthy eggs fell from £3 3s. per ounce, 

 which had been received by Mr. Brady for his graine, to a price which 



