IN EXTRA-TROPICAL COUNTRIES. 187 



varieties provides the food for the ordinary Chinese silk insect 

 (Bombyx Mori).* Silk was produced in Italy 600 years ago, 

 and there this branch of industry has flourished ever since. 

 In China,, silk has been reeled for 4,500 years. This may 

 demonstrate the permanency of an industry which we wish to 

 establish here extensively under a similar sky. " One pound 

 of silk is worth its weight in silver, and this pound may be 

 produced (so far as the food of the Bombyx is concerned) 

 from thirty pounds of mulberry leaves or from a single tree, 

 which thus may be brought to yield annually the material for 

 16 yards of Gros de Naples/' The White Mulberry Tree 

 is of extremely easy growth from cuttings, also readily raised 

 from well-matured seeds. Tt is usually unisexual, and attains 

 finally a very large size. It can be grown in climes where 

 olives will no longer thrive. Spots for mulberry culture must 

 not be over-moist, when the leaves are to be utilised for the 

 Bombyx. In 1870, according to the British Trade Journal, 

 the produce of cocoons amounted in Europe to 16,588,000 ; 

 in Asia to 28,1 12,000; in Africa to 44,000; in the South 

 Sea Islands to 24,000 ; in America to 20,000 ; thus giving 

 a general total of 44,788,000. In 1875 the yield of raw 

 silk in the district of Rajshahye (British India) was estimated 

 at 400,000, employing about 12,000 people, the plantations 

 extending approximately over 150 square miles (Dr. S. Forbes 

 Watson). In that district alone a quarter of a million of 

 people derived their support from the trade and other branches 

 of the silk industries. Superior varieties of mulberry can be 

 grafted with ease on ordinary stock. M. Indica (L.), M. 

 macrophylla (Morett.), M. multicaulis (Perott.), M. Morettiana 

 (Jacq.), M. Chinensis (Bertol), M. latifolia (Poir.), M. Italica 

 (Poir.),M. Japonica (Nois.),M. Byzantina (Sieb.), M. nervosa 

 (Del.), M. pumila (Nois.), M. tortuosa (Audib.), as well as the 

 Constantinople Mulberry, are merely forms of M. alba, to 

 which probably also M. Tartarica (L.) and M. pabularia 

 (Jacquin.) belong. The variety known as M. Indica produces 

 black fruits. The planting of mulberry trees has recently 

 assumed enormous dimensions in California, where in 1870 

 between seven and eight millions were planted. The process 

 of rearing the silk insect is simple and involves no laborious 

 exertions. The cocoons, after they have been properly steam- 

 ed, dried, and pressed, readily find purchasers in Europe, the 

 price ranging according to quality from 3s. to 6s. per Ib. The 

 eggs of the silkworm sell at a price from 16s. to 2 per ounce, 

 and in 1870 Japan had to provide two millions of ounces of 



* The following notes were written for the Victorian edition of this work. 



