14 SILK GROWER'S GUIDE. 



established the first foundation of a nursery of White 

 Mulberry trees, with an effect so successful, that, from 

 this source, as from a centre, the cultivation extended 

 within a few years over the whole of the southern pro- 

 vinces of France. But its final and more complete es- 

 tablishment in France in 1603, is due to Henry IV., 

 who encouraged by every mode the formation of nurse- 

 ries, and the manufactures of silk, even in the northern, 

 as well as middle provinces of the kingdom, and whose 

 name is held in perpetual remembrance for his noble 

 deeds of goodness and works of usefulness. Olivier de 

 Serres shares equally with him the glory of the effectual 

 work, which was at first opposed even by Sully, from 

 mistake and misapprehension. Colbert, in a succeed- 

 ing age, continued his fostering care. Both Colbert 

 and his illustrious predecessor, by bounties judiciously 

 bestowed, caused both the mulberry tree and its cul- 

 ture to strike deep and permanent root in the soil of 

 France. Once established, it has stood, unmoved by 

 every revolution and storm : unprotected and alone, 

 while all things else have fallen, this important indus- 

 try has flourished, until finally, silk and its manufacture 

 has become one of the most productive sources of the 

 wealth and the power of France. 



The whole value of the silks manufactured annually 

 in France in 1835, amounted by computation, to 140, 

 000,000 francs, and it was estimated in Europe, that in 

 that year, silks to the amount of 50,000,000 francs were 

 exported from that country to the United States alone. 



Yet in France, although they raise so much silk, they 

 still import annually, to the amount of 43,000,000 francs 

 of raw silk, or nearly one third of all they consume, for 

 the supply of their manufactures. 



In England, the climate, from its humidity or other 

 causes, is found to be unsuited to its growth ; for this 

 reason alone, the trials to raise it there have failed. Yet 

 from 1821 to 1828, according to a late and authentic 

 work on the silk trade, they imported of raw silk, 



