1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



133 



they are paid by the owner nf the mulberries, some 

 of them amount to as follow: — gathering the 

 leaves, 12 lo 15 sous the quintal ; for gathering 

 the dwarfs, only half the price of the others ; wood, 

 15 livres for 1, 2, or 3 oz. of eggs in one room ; 30 

 livres lor 6 oz. because in two rooms ; 22 livres 10 

 sous for labor in the house; spinning, 40 sous per 

 lb. of silk. The waste is worth 20 sous, therefore 

 the expense is 20 sows. 



For the last lour or five days, eight men are ne- 

 cessary to gather leaves for 20 oz. of gain, their 

 voracity being incredible the latter part of the 

 time. 



The price of the leaves, if bought, is 4 to 5 

 livres the quintal, never at 3 livres, but has been 

 at 10 livres. From 15 to 18 quintals of leaves 

 give one quintal of cocoons, and one of cocoons 

 gives 9 lb. of silk. Cocoons are sold at 26 sous 

 the pound ; silk, on an average, at 19 livres. The 

 leaves, dissected by the worms, are dried, and kept 

 for hogs, sheep, &c., being worth four livres the 

 quintal ; and an ounce of grain yields two quintals 

 of such : and the dung of the worms, from an 

 ounce, is worth 4 livres more, being excellent ; the 

 best indeed of all others. 



Two brothers here, Messrs. Cartiers, have had 

 as far as 80 quintals of cocoons, Mons. Beren- 

 ger's three hundred trees on an arpent, at 8 lb. of 

 leaves each, are 24 quintals ; and, at 4 livres the 

 quintal, amount to 96 livres; and as 16 quintals 

 of leaves gives 9 lb. of silk, at 19 livres, it is 171 

 livres; and for 24 quintals 256 Z/tjres, the half of 

 which is 128 livres ; hence, therefore, to sell the 

 leaves at 4 livres the quintal, does not answer 

 equally with half the produce, (128 livres per ar- 

 pent de Paris, is £6. 4s. Bd. per English acre.) 



Provence.* — jivignon. — At 10 years growth 

 the mulberries yield a considerable produce ; at 

 that age they give 100 lb. to 150 lb. of leaves, but 

 not common. For one ounce of grain, five or six 

 very large trees ate necessary ; or, if the leaves 

 are bought, to the amount of 24 to 30 livres. The 

 ounce will give from 40 lb. to 50 lb. of cocoons, 

 or 5 lb. of silk , but more commonly 12 lb. of co- 

 coons for 1 lb. of silk. Gathering the leaves 10 

 or 12 sous the quintal, one with another, dwar/s 

 and standards. The waste pays the spinning. 



jiix. — Mulberries, beyond all comparison, more 

 profitable than olives ; will give 3 or 4 livres per 

 tree, more regularly than olives will 10 sous ; but 

 the great plantations of olives are on barren rocks 

 that will not do for mulberries. 



Tour d'^/gwes.— One ounce of grain requires 

 15 quintals of leaves, and gives 50 lb. of cocoons ; 

 that is, 50 lb. in a small undertaking, like the 

 house of a poor family ; but not more than 30 lb. 

 in a larofe building. Mons. the President has, 

 however, had 15 oz. of grain that gave 40 lb. one 

 with another: 14 lb. of cocoons give 1 lb. of or- 

 ganzine silk. 



On good land, twenty trees, of ten years old, 

 will give 15 quintals of leaves. The waste, with 

 the addition of 10 sous per lb. will pay the spin- 

 ning. Wood is 12 sous the quintal, and 1^ quin- 

 tal will wind and spin 1 lb. of silk : and one quin- 

 tal of charcoal will make 3 lb. of silk. The com- 

 mon calculation is 10 quintals of charcoal for 1 oz. 

 of grain. 



* Provence — the south-eastern extremity of the 

 kingdom, and bordered by the Mediterranean. 



Labor and fuel, 40 sous per lb. of silk, exclusive 

 of gathering the leaves ; but the common method 

 is to find the trees and the grain, and give half 

 the produce for all the rest. The whole business, 

 exclusive of winding and spinning, employs ex- 

 actly a month. 



Hyeres. — This article is here but little regard- 

 ed ; the number is not considerable, nor do they 

 pay nearly the same attention to them as in Dau- 

 phine. A tree of twenty years pays about 30 

 sous ; and some, of a very great size and age, 6 

 livres. 



Frejus. — Close without the town, on the banks 

 of a small canal of irrigation, are five or six of the 

 largest mulberries I have seen, growing close to 

 the water's edge ; from which it should appear, 

 that they have here none of that objection to wa- 

 ter which was mentioned to me at Montelimart. 

 Estrelles. — At the inn here there is a mulberry- 

 tree which yields black fruit, and leaves of a re- 

 markable size. I asked the master, if he used 

 them for silk- worms? Never, he replied, they are 

 no better for them than elm, oak, or pine leaves : 

 it is the white mulberries that are for worms. So 

 inaccurately understood is this point, even in the 

 silk countries ; for in Languedoc they told me, all 

 sorts were given indiscriminately. This tree would 

 be worth 2 or 3 louis a year. 



To these notes, taken by myself, 1 shall add a 

 k\v others, for the more general elucidation of the 

 subject. 



Languedoc yields, in a common year, from 500 

 to 1,200 quintals of silk.* I have searched books 

 in vain for information of the quantity of silk pro- 

 duced in all France; but I find the number of 

 looms which work it, by one account, 29,000,t of 

 which 18,000 at Lyons ; but by a later and more 

 authentic account, there were ai Lyons only 9,335 

 looms, which worked about 2,000,000 lb. J and in 

 all France 17,500 looms ; which, in the same pro- 

 portion, would work about 3,763,000 lb. In 1784, 

 she imported raw silk to the value of 29,500,000 

 livres, and in 1787, to 28,220,000 livres; call it 29 

 millions, and 20 livres the mean price per lb. it is 

 1,450,000 lb. II ; which will leave about 2,310,000 

 lb. for the home produce, or 46,200,000 livres, 

 which is so gross an impossibility, as to ascertain 

 to a certainty, the exaggeration of the number of 

 looms, and confirms, in a fresh instance, the many 

 errors in the new Encyclopasdia. If Languedoc 

 produces only 100,000 lb. all the rest of the king- 

 dom cannot produce twenty times as much ; for 

 the culture is confined to three or four provinces, 

 except small quantities, that enter for little in a 

 general account. I was informed, at Lyons, that 

 the home growth was about a million of pounds 

 weight, of two-thirds of the value of the imported 

 per lb. or about 20 livres. This makes the growth 

 to the value of 20,000,000 livres or £875,000. If 

 so, Languedoc must produce more than 100,000 

 lb, for that province must be at least one-iburih, 

 if not one-third of the whole, I must confess I 



* Considerations sur le Commerce de Bretagne, par 

 Mons. Pinczon du Sel des Mons. 12 mo. p. 5. 



t Lettre sur les Muriers and Vers a sole, Journal Oe- 

 conomique. 1756, vol. ii, p. 36. 



X Encyclop. Melhodique Manuf. torn, ii, pt. 2, p. 44. 



II A very late writer was strangely mistaken, in say 

 ing;, that France imports 20,000,000 of pounds wei^^ht. 

 Mr. Townshend's Journey through Spain vol. i, p. 52. 



