1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



141 



ekin and the outward i'ortn of llie worm are both 

 cast ofl', and tlie juices exuiiinjr from the body 

 Boon harden into a dark colored lliin and close 

 shell. This is the chrysalis stale. The body is 

 shortened, and contracted in size ; and the Ibrrn is 

 as much changed, as the appearance in color and 

 size. After a short time, the thin shell or skin of 

 the chrysalis is also thrown off, and the insect 

 opens a way through its silken dwelling, and 

 comes Ibrih a winged moth. 



To many vulgar eyes and understandings, these 

 several chan<res oi' the outward form of insects, 

 are absolute transformations, or metamorphoses, 

 as complete as any told of in lUiry tales, and as 

 unaccountable as if a magician, merely by words 

 of incantation, or waving his wand, were to change 

 a man to a beast, or a reptile. And to sucii per- 

 sons, who do not know that such complete translbr- 

 mations are altogether impossible, these would ap- 

 pear less strange and incredible than will the true 

 facts of the case. It has been ascertained, by, deli- 

 cate dissections and careful observation, that each 

 one of the successive and various outer firms of 

 the insect is but the cover and disguise of the next 

 which is to appear. The several skins which the 

 worm throws off and renews, without changing 

 its figure, are probably produced by the mere so- 

 lidifying of the juices exudinti from the newly 

 stripjjed body. But the very dirt'erent and succes- 

 sive forms of maggot, chrysalis, and moth or fly, 

 all exist at once, however faintly traced, in the 

 semi-fluid pulp which fills the body ol'the animai. 

 Thus, the form of the silk-worm-moth may not 

 only be easily traced within the chrysalis, but also, 

 though more faintly, in the latter stage of the pre- 

 vious form of larva, or worm. 



It is a curious matter for consideration, that al- 

 though the silk-worm is as certain to live and to 

 thrive as any other animal, under the artificial 

 treatment and proper care of man, yet, if without 

 that care, in any known region, and under any 

 natural circumstances which we can suppose lo 

 exist, that few could live even a month; and, ifleft 

 to sustain themselves, and exposed to the inclemen- 

 cy of the weather, and to the attacks of their nu- 

 merous and resistless enemies, that the whole of 

 the lifeble race would probably become extinct 

 within the year. Of course, this absolute neces- 

 sity lor artificial nurture could not have always ex- 

 isted ; for there must have been a time when inan 

 had not learned the value of silk, or the skill re- 

 quired for its culture. It may be presumed, that 

 in the forty-six centuries, (as asserted by Chinese 

 authors,)' during which the silk-worm has been 

 under the care of man, that like other long do- 

 mesticated animals it has changed some of its ori- 

 ginal instincts and habits, and thereby has ceased 

 to exercise any power to guard against disasters 

 to which it is no longer exposed. It is alleged, 

 indeed, and has been so stated in books, that silk- 

 worms have been in part, and extensively, raised 

 in their native country, China, on trees in the open 

 air. But the general facts of the extent of this 

 peculiar mode of silk-culture, have not been estab- 

 lished by sufficient authority; and even if it were 

 possible so to raise silk-worms, we should have no 

 faith in the greater cheapness or profit of this me- 

 thod. Silk, of some kind, may be made from the 

 cocooris of various kinds of caterpillars ; and large 

 wild silk-worms, as they have been called, exist in 

 this country as well as in Chini; and high hopes 



were entertained in Virginia, 190 years ago, of 

 the great profits to be derived from raising, in 

 prefiirence, this "natural Vir<xinia silk-worm."* 

 There are three kinds of wild silk-worms in China, 

 as described in a memoir on the subject by the 

 French Jesuit missionary, D'Incarville ; but it is 

 certain that neitherof these is like the domesticated 

 insect, inasmuch as the latter feeds exclusively on 

 the leaves of the mulberry tree, and the former are 

 staled to reject this food, and severally, to eat the 

 leaves of the oak, the ash, and the fagara, or Chi- 

 nese pepper tree. 



China is supposed to be the native country of 

 the domesticated silk-worm. There are extant 

 Chinese writings on this subject more than 4000 

 years old ; and a compilation of extracts on silk- 

 culture from Chinese books of very great antiqui- 

 ty, (compared to any such treatises produced in 

 what we are fain to consider as the civilized world) 

 has recently been translated into French, and 

 thence into English, and published in this country. f 

 From this very curious work it would seem that 

 silk-worms have not changed materially, if at all, 

 since the remote times of these writings, and that 

 they were no more then than now, able lo dispense 

 with the tender care of man. 



II. The early progress of the culture and use of 

 silk. 



Until the sixth century of our era, the produc- 

 tion of silk was confined lo China, and the Seres, 

 a tribe driven by their more warlike foes from Chi- 

 na to Bucharia, where they found refuge, and esta- 

 blished this branch ?f then* former industry. From 

 the latter country silk stufls were sent westward 

 until they reached Rome, in small quantities, and 

 burdened with enormous expenses of transporta- 

 tion, and of the intermediate profits of the Persian 

 and other traders. Virgil, the earliest writer of 

 the west who expressly mentions silk, describes 

 it as "the soft wool which is combed from the 

 trees of the Seres," by which, it would seem that 

 its origin had been confounded with that of cotton. 

 Notwithstanding its increasing use, for centuries 

 afterwards the Romans were not much more cor- 

 rectly iiilbrmed on this subject. The next notice 

 oi' silk by any Roman author, is by Pliny the el- 

 der, who speaks of it as a product of the Greek 

 isle, Ceos, and as being derived from caterpillars 

 which fed on the leaves of the cypress, ash, and 

 oak trees. These, of course, could not have been 

 silk-worms. The price of silk was so great, that 

 even two hundred years afer Pliny, the stuffs sold 

 lor their weight in gokl. It is recorded that as late 

 as the reign of Aurelian, that sovereign of the 

 world refused a robe of silk to his empress, on ac- 

 count of the high price. The costliness and great 

 beauty of such apparel had, at a much earlier date, 

 caused it to be counted among the most expensive 

 and rare ornaments of women ; and in the reign 

 of Tiberius, the law required "that no man should 

 dishonor himself by wearing silken garments." 

 Heliogabalus was the first of the emperors who 

 used silk robes ; and his doing so was deemed &n 

 offence so great, as to be enumerated among 



* See the curious old poem, or rather string of dog;- 

 grel rhymes, on this subject, dated 1652, and re-publish- 

 ed in the first volume of the Farmers' Register, p. 734. 



t See extracts from this volume at pp. 228 and 353, 

 vol. vi, of Farmera' Register. 



