SILK GROWER'S GUIDE 



SECTION I. 



HISTORY OF SILK: ITS ANTIQUITY AND COMMERCE. 



SILK, or the splendid material produced by the silk- 

 worm, was first known in ancient Scr or Serica, in Chi- 

 na. It was there first discovered in its own native for- 

 ests of the mulberry-tree. In that country it was called 

 Sc y and by transition it was called Ser by the Greeks, 

 and Sericum by the Romans; and hence by the differ- 

 ent nations of Italy, of France, and of England, it is 

 variously called Seta, Soie, and Silk at the present day. 

 Anciently also, it was called Bombykya, or Bombycina, 

 from Bombyx, a caterpillar which spins a web. 



The silk-worm, or Bombyx mori, is a precious insect, 

 which is thus denominated from moms, the plant -on 

 which it feeds ; otherwise, ami anciently, the Bombyx 

 Assyrian or Syrian, improperly so called, since the 

 country of the Seres or Chinese, was another country, the 

 most remote, and bounded on other shores; many a na- 

 tion and far distant country intervening. 



The cultivation of silk commenced in China 700 

 years before Abraham, and 2700 years before Christ, 

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