PRODUCE AND PROFITS OF THE SILK-WORM. Ill 



if, with good management, I allow a pound of fine 

 reeled silk as the produce of eight pounds of cocoons. 



Count Dandolo has stated, that twenty one pounds of 

 leaves, with economy in feeding, will produce Impounds 

 of cocoons. Again he has stated that, in Dalmatia, he 

 has procured 1^ pounds of cocoons from fifteen pounds 

 of leaves. These several statements allow fourteen 

 pounds and ten pounds of leaves, each and severally, to 

 a pound of cocoons. This is from seven to ten pounds 

 of cocoons to the 100 pounds of leaves. This quantity 

 of leaves then appears to be sufficient to produce a pound 

 of silk, with suitable economy in feeding and in reeling. 

 But allowing for some waste, both in feeding and reel- 

 ing, I will state 120 pounds of leaves as a good allow- 

 ance for a pound of pure silk. Even 100 pounds of 

 leaves were found sufficient by Mr. Tilloy. 



The mulberry tree in France may be stripped of its 

 leaves in the fifth or sixth year, or three years from the 

 time of grafting, and the seventh year it yields leaves 

 worth one shilling, or twenty two cents: and they go 

 on increasing for twenty or thirty years, when the leaves 

 bring thirty shillings, or $6 66. Large trees in the 

 south of France will yield 300 pounds ; by some accounts 

 a great deal more. 



The cost of cultivation is one franc, (18.4) per 100 

 pounds. The average cost of leaves in good years is 

 three francs, or fifty-five cents per 100 pounds on the 

 trees, in that country. 



In some cases, the landlord finds eggs and leaves, and 

 the laborers who make and reel the silk have half the 

 profits. The reeling begins as soon as the crop is com- 

 pleted, and continues till autumn : and a woman experi- 

 enced in reeling will reel two pounds of silk in a day of 

 sixteen hours. 



The pound of silk, when well reeled, is capable of 

 being converted into sixteen yards of the ordinary qual- 

 ity of Gros de Naples, or into fourteen yards of the first 

 quality, and worth its weight in silver. 



