136 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 3 



the amount of 10 to 15 sous at ten years old, and 

 30 sous at the age of fifieen years. Plants, at two 

 years old, are sold at 3 /i«res the hundred : at three 

 years old, 4livres : and good trees, proper to plant 

 out in an arable field, 20 sows each. In regard to 

 the distance, at which the trees are planted, they 

 have no general rule. I measured many distan- 

 ces, in a large corn [wheal] field, and found 

 them at two rod squaije, at an average: in another, 

 they were six yards by nine ; which trees gave 40 

 sous on a medium : round a garden they were at 

 five yards from tree to tree: a field, entirely crop- 

 ped with mulberries, had them in rows atone and 

 a half rod ; and between the rows another ofsmall 

 plants, in the manner ofa hedge, llsixty square 

 yards are allowed per tree, there will be eighty on 

 an acre, and if they give 30 sous each, it will 

 amount to the vast produce of 5 livres per acre, 

 besides what can be gained under them; it would, 

 however be a question, whether this under-crop 

 would make up tor bad years, that yield nothing? 

 Around field, in roads, corners, &.c., the profit will 

 be greater, it is remarkable, however, that with 

 all this profit attending them, they do not increase 

 about Tours; yet not one acre in a hundred adapt- 

 ed to the culture, is so employed, vvhicli shows 

 either a very uncommon want ol"capital, or doubts 

 whether the cultivation is so profiiuble as it ap- 

 pears to be from such information. 



In order to spread the cultivation, government 

 established nurseries, and gave the trees gratis, 

 until private nurseries were opened; and in wind- 

 ing the silk much assistance was also given, to the 

 loss to government, of 20 sows per lb.; but now the 

 business is carried on without any premium of that 

 sort. Probably such encouragements were of very 

 little use; the abuses incident to all governments 

 would direct such assistance to be given where it 

 was not wanted ; and in that case it would, by 

 raising disgust, do mischief. 



They plant no mulberry but the white ; the 

 black they think very bad. 



NoRMANDiE.* — Bizy. — Haviug read, in the 

 memoirs of some of the agricultural societies in 

 France, that the marshal duke de JBelleisle made 

 a very considerable and successful experiment on 

 the introduction of the culture of silk in Norman- 

 die, on his estate at Bizy, I had lono ago made a 

 note of it, for examining; as the steps which pro- 

 ved successful in such an attempt in Normandie, 

 might probably have the same effiict. if applied in 

 a climate so similar as that of England. ! went 

 to Bizy with this view, and did what 1 could to 

 find out the proper persons, concerned in this un- 

 dertaking, to give me the information that was ne- 

 cessary. 



Five-and-thirty years ago, the duke began by 

 making some extensive plantations of mulberries, 

 to the amount of many thousand trees : thev suc- 

 ceeded well ; and, in order to draw all the advan- 

 tage possible from them, as the people in the 

 neighborhood were ignorant and awkward in the 

 process, the duke, by .means of a friend in Pro- 

 vence, procured a man, his wifij, and all his chil- 

 dren, well skilled in the whole business of the silk- 

 worm, and established them at Bizy, in order to 

 instruct his own people in it. By these means, 

 he made as much silk as the produce of leaves 



* Normandie— in the northern part of France, and on 

 the southern coast of the Eiigliuh channel. — Ed, F. R. 



would admit. I wished to know to what announl, 

 but could not ascertain it ; but the duke continued 

 his plantations of mulberries during nine or ten 

 years. 1 trie^ hard to find out some descendant 

 or remains of this Provencal family, but in vain ; 

 the man was dead, the woman gone, and the 

 children dispersed; the estate, on the marshal's 

 death, having been sold, and coming into the pos- 

 session of the duke de Penthievre, made all these 

 circumstances the more difficult. The great object 

 was. the success of the experiment; this inquiry 

 was uniformly answered by several persons : — it 

 had no success at all. It was a lavorite project 

 of the duke's, and supported, with perseverance, 

 for many years, until his death ; but the silk did 

 not pay charges: and though he very liberally 

 offered leaves to the poor people, on easier terms 

 than they are supplied with them in the south of 

 France, and even gave trees ; yet nothing more 

 was done than what his influence and authority 

 forced : and the Provencal family, after ten years 

 experience, pronounced that the climate would do 

 to make silk, but not with profit. To his last hour 

 the duke had silk made, but not an hour longer; 

 the practice had taken no root: the country peo- 

 ple, by whom alone such an undertaking could 

 prosper, saw no inducement to go into the scheme, 

 and the whole fell at once into utter ruin and ne- 

 glect on the duke's death ; so that the trees them- 

 selves were by degrees condemned, and the num- 

 ber remaining at present are inconsiderable. Cer- 

 tainly no positive physical proof that silk will not 

 do in Normandy, but it is a presumptive one, 

 pretty strongly featured. Go into Languedoc, 

 Dauphine, and Provence, and the poor people do 

 not want the exertions of marshals of France to 

 induce them to breed silk-worms; they have a 

 much more powerfijl inducement — the experience 

 that it is their interest: had this inducement been 

 present at Bizy, the culture would, in more than 

 ten years, have taken root. 



BouRBONNois.* — Moulins. — Mons. Martin, 

 gardener of the royal nursery here, who is from 

 Languedoc, cultivates silk with great success ; he 

 was so obliging as to be as communicative as I 

 could wish. Trees of two or three years old yield 

 a lew leaves, but to be stripped cautiously: at 

 eight or ten years, they come very well into yield- 

 ing. One ounce of grain, that is, of the eggs of 

 the worms, requires twenty quintals [one hundred 

 weight English] of leaves, and yields from 7 lb. 

 to 9 lb. of silk. He has made as far as 300 lb. in 

 a year, the produce of 3,000 lb. of cocoons ; and 

 the worms that year eat 12,000 lb. of leaves every 

 day, for four or five days together, and fifty per- 

 sons were employed for eight days. The whole 

 business of hatching and feeding employs a month; 

 the winding is afterwards done at leisure. For 

 care and attendance of the worms, gathering the 

 leaves, and winding the eilk, he gives one-fourth 

 o( the produce, or about 6 livres the pound of silk; 

 for spinnings livres ; in all, 9 livres ; rest profit, 

 15 livres. I'he men earn 20 to 24 sous a day, 

 and the women 8 to 10 sous. He prefers this 

 climate for the business to that of Languedoc, 

 thoufrh stoves are here necessary for keeping the 

 room to the temperature of 18 degrees, Reaumur; 

 whereas in Languedoc they do without fires. The 

 season here varies from fifteen to twenty days ; the 



• Bourbonnois— east of the centra! part of France. 



