228 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No, 4 



been standing; nor is the ground removed by the 

 new damages awarded for'injury already sustain- 

 ed and sued for. No matter how often damages 

 may have been given 10 the plaintitf by succes- 

 sive verdicts, anil paid by the defendant, there 

 will continue ground to sue, and recover, as long 

 as the pond remains, and is hurtful. It is surpris- 

 ing that the law, so fiavorable to the interests of 

 mill-owners, and regardless of all conflicting inter- 

 ests and rlffhts of other persons, should have per- 

 mitted, in this particular, so much of remedy for the 

 previous injustice and injury infiicied by the law. 

 And it is still more surprising, that afier legal de- 

 cisions have so clearly shown the remedy, that of so 

 many thousands of individuals who are unques- 

 tionablv suffering every autumn from the neigh- 

 borhood of stagnant mill-ponds, so few should have 

 availed themselves of the offered means of relief. 



If the importance of this general subject were 

 duly appreciated, its investigation would become 

 an object of the care, and be conducted at the ex- 

 pense of government. If the legislature of Vir- 

 ginia (for example) would institute a "General 

 Board of Health," or "Commission of Sanitary 

 Police," for the purpose of investiirating the sub- 

 ject of malaria thoroughly, and of reporting the 

 sources and proper remedies, the body of evidence 

 which would be collected, and the after-results, 

 might be made worth many millions of iiicreased 

 pecuniary value to the state, besides the far great- 

 er benefit to be produced to the health, the physi- 

 cal and moral qualitie.s, and the general happiness 

 of the people. At any possible cost of such an in- 

 vestigation, and of the system of measures found- 

 ed thereon, the public improvement and benefit 

 produced thereby would exceed the expenses an 

 hundred-fold. 



CHINESE TREATISE ON RAISING SILK-WORMS. 



[We are indebted to the attention of the Hon. John 

 Forsyth, Secretary of State, for a very curious work, 

 which, upon his recommendation, and we may say un- 

 der his auspices, has recently been translated and 

 pubhshed in this country. It is an octavo volume of 

 169 paEjes, and 10 plates, published by Peter Force, 

 "Washington, February, 18.38, and entitled z.'Summary 

 of the principal Chinese Treatises upon the Culture of 

 the Mulberry and the Rearing of Silk-worms.' The 

 American publisher's note states that — 



"This "Summary" was first translated from the Chi- 

 nese, by Stanislas Julien, member of the Frencti In- 

 stitute, and professor of Chinese Literature, m the 

 College of France, and printed at the Royal Press, in 

 Paris, by order of the Minister of Public Works, Ag- 

 riculture and Commerce. The French copy from 

 which this translation was made, was transmitted 

 from Paris, to the Secretary of State, and by 

 his recommendation has been translated and published 

 here." 



The body of the work consists of numerous extracts 

 from various Chinese works and authors, on the cul- 

 ture of the mulberry, and all the different parts of the 

 management of silk-worms, and the cocoons. The 

 Chinese originals of these extracts, are of various ages, 

 but generally of very ancient date, and some are as old 



as 4000 years. Independent of any economical value, 

 in the furnishing instruction in unknown and useful 

 practices, this work is a literaiy curiosity, which can- 

 not fad to be interesting to every general reader who 

 knows any thing of the remarkable peculiarities of the 

 Chinese people. That nation had reached a very high 

 degree of civilization, and of advancement in learning 

 and the ornamental and useful arts, many centuries be- 

 fore any part of the now enlightened portion of the 

 world had emerged from ignorance and barbarism. The 

 Chinese were thousands of years ago but little less 

 advanced in these respects than now; and if they 

 have learned less (as is the case in a very remarkable 

 degree) than any rising people, they have also lost 

 nothing of the acquisitions in knowledge which they 

 possessed thousands of years ago. If, therefore, from 

 their books and their present practices we can learn 

 nothing novel or of late improvement, in China, we 

 may surely count on meeting with instructions and 

 practices approved by the experience gained through 

 many centuries, by the most industrious, careful, and 

 economical people in the world. 



But it is not merely to' readers of literary or 

 antiquarian taste that this book may be interesting 

 and valuable. There are many particulars of man- 

 agement recommended which are different from any 

 used in Europe or this country; and if, to any of these 

 practices, the Chinese owe their great and peculiar 

 success in rearing silk-worms, and in silk culture ge- 

 nerally,then there may be much value gained by adopt- 

 ing some of their methods, novel to us, though per- 

 haps in use twenty or thirty centuries in China. In a 

 late number of the Farmers' Register there was re- 

 published the novel information that rice-flour was a 

 useful addition to the food of silk worms; and this new 

 discoverj is found among the very old instructions pre- 

 sented in this Chinese work. 



Other and more important differences of practice 

 are exhibited in the manner of giving food to the 

 worms, and especially in the numerous times of feed- 

 ing, through night as well as day. In regard to 

 other things, we quote the last paragraph of the "In- 

 troduction" to the French version, by M. Camille 

 Beauvais, who is one of the highest European author- 

 ities on silk culture. 



"I should like, in terminating these reflections, to 

 call the attention of the reader to some irn])ortant 

 points of the Chinese work; for example, upon the 

 manner of making the butterflies lay their eggs, and of 

 preserving the eggs ; also, of the means employed to 

 make them hatch at the same time. I will point atten- 

 tion, from the same authority, to the disastrous effects 

 which result from the sudden introduction of cold and 

 damp air in a silk-room, where the temperature is 

 high, as well as the fatal influence which is produced 

 by the fermentation of the leaves, upon the health of 

 the silk-worms. I will add another fact, to give in a 

 few words an idea of the incontestable superiority of 

 the Chinese methods over the European: it is, that 

 they hardly lose one silk-worm out of a hundred, while 

 the Europeans lose fifty out of a hundred." 



We shall copy from the American version of the 

 Chinese work the part containing instructions for 

 managing the insects, from the egg to the end of the 



