144 



FARMERS REGISTER. 



[No. 3 



France, from all I can learn, and I have taUen 

 some pains in the inquiry, it is not exiended fur- 

 ther north than the banks of the Loire, thoutrh it 

 has been attem|)led in Normandy, and otiier niore 

 northern parts of that coimlry. in Italy, it is car- 

 ried on as well in the entensive valley of the Po, 

 as south of the Appenines ; but this lertile region 

 is fenced from wintry blasts by the lofty ramparts 

 of the Alps, lor its whole length from east to west, 

 and its climate is much more temperate in winter 

 than ours, and the length of sunnner greater. 



"If a mild temperature were the only re(]uisite to 

 preserve the lile of the worm, this object might be 

 attained by artificial means ; and, with due atten- 

 tion, the proper warmth of the apartment in which 

 they were hatched, might be maintained through 

 the cold season, at the proper point, though not 

 without much care and cost ; but the worm cannot 

 exist without food as well as warmth, and a con- 

 stant supply of green leaves is absolutely necessary 

 for its sustenance. Although attemps have been 

 made to substitute other veiretables, I believe none 

 have been found to succeed on a large scale, but 

 the mulberry, son)e varieties of which are said to 

 be much prelerable toothers. The mulberry being 

 a deciduous tree, can afford no supply ol' iood 

 during the cold season, as indeed is the case with 

 all other trees or plants, that have been recom- 

 mended as substitutes. It is true, that the insect, 

 while in the egg, or in the chrysalis state, does not 

 consume any: and it may be possible to preserve 

 the eggs unhatched during the winter in a north- 

 ern climate, and indeed, it must be so to a ceriain 

 degree, or the culture of silk would fiil entirely in 

 Connecticut. But on the other hand, its want of 

 success in a suiRcient degree to make it an object 

 in the south of Germany, the climate of which is 

 Eot n)uch colder than ours — in England, where it 

 is milder, and this witli the advantage ol direct 

 encouragement from the public authorities, by 

 high premiums, &c. and in the more northern part 

 of France, while it succeeds further south — leads 

 to a strong, I may say a necessary presumption, 

 that silk cannot be produced as a general object of 

 cultivation in the northern states, or even so fiir 

 north as Virginia. You will readily suppose that 

 these views are not oriirmal. If they were, their 

 value would be less. They are the result of iiiior- 

 mation that I have collected from various respect- 

 able sources, and among others, from Youno-'s 

 ♦Travels in France,' a work of great and acknow- 

 ledged merit, which is probably in your possession, 

 or within your reach. If not, you may find it re- 

 printed in Pinkerton's Vovages, &c. "in chapter 

 23d, "0/ the culture of silk in France,'''' Pinker- 

 ton, vol. 4, p. 5G9 to 580, are notes on the culti- 

 vation of silk in different localities, generally in the 

 south of France. The vvhole miirht take up too 

 much space in your Register, but if you can find 

 room (or the passage on ^'Normandy,'''' in pages 

 671, 572, and for the latter part of the chapter be- 

 ginning at page 577, ^'Languedoc,'''' &c. both you 

 and your readers will find a detail oi' it in facts, I 

 doubt not, an accurate one, relating to this ques- 

 tion, and a course of clear and forcible arfrument 

 that will deserve your consideration, and 1 think, 

 satisfy you, that silk can never bpcome an object 

 of general cultivation. For myself, I am fully jjer- 

 suaded, that it would never answer on a large 

 scale in our climate, even if the wages of labor 

 were not so high as they now are, or are likely to 

 be, for generations to come." 



The copy of 'Young's Travels,' in our posses- 

 sion, is the first edition, 2 vols. 8 vo., printed in 

 Dublin, and is certainly entire. Yet there is no 

 such cha[)ter as that above relijrred to; and it is 

 only very recently that we have been enabled to 

 find, in the 2nd edition, 4to, in the state library, 

 and probably the only copy in Virginia, that there 

 is this chapter on silk-culture therein, and also sev- 

 eral others, which are not in the earlier edition. 

 Not supposing that there could be so strange and 

 unaccountable a defect in the only edition then 

 known, we had inferred that our correspondent, 

 well-informed as he was, had mistaken for Young's, 

 some other article in Pinkerton's compilation, by 

 a difJerent author. Nor could we find that com- 

 pilation, until very recently. The chapter which 

 has at last been found, has been re-published in 

 the foregoing pages, as introductory to this article. 

 [t was by a previous publication of opinion from 

 the pen of this same able writer whose views 

 we have just presented, on the climate of the 

 United Sta'.es, (see pp. 599 to 604, vol. iv, Far. 

 Reg.) iliat we were first forcibly impressed with 

 the fact of the remarkable similarity between the 

 climate of China and that of the United States ; 

 and the difierence of both from the climate of the 

 western coast of Europe and the western coast of 

 America, in the same latitudes, or even where the 

 mean temperature was nearly equal. But from 

 ihe same premises, in which we acknowledge him 

 as our instructer, we arrive at a very difterent con- 

 clusions ti'om this writer, as to silk-culture in this 

 country. For while showing it to be conducted 

 under great disadvantages in France, he infers 

 that of course it must be much worse in this coun- 

 try ; and on the other hand, from the difierence of 

 climate, we derive hope, and indeed assurance, of 

 success here, from the very facts of these disadvan- 

 tages of France. The grounds of this conclusion 

 will be next presented. 



IV. The poiiiis of resemblance in climate between 

 China and the United States, and of the differ- 

 ence of both from that ofivestsrn Europe. The 

 circumstances which make a climate favorable or 

 adverse to silk-culture. 



It is true that the mean temperature of Europe 

 is considerably higher than in the same latitudes 

 in the United States ; anil in the difl'erent latitudes 

 where the mean temperature is nearly the same 

 on these opposite siuesof the Atlantic, tJiiai iheEu- 

 ropean teinperatare is more equable and mild and 

 the extremes of heat anfl cold much nearer than 

 in the United States. Hence, the warmer parts 

 of Europe, as Italy and the south of France, are 

 more delightful lo the feelings, and less hazardous 

 to health, (under like circumstances in other re- 

 spects,) than any region of this country, where 

 the extremes of heat and cold are so mucii great- 

 er. This reirion of the most delightful climate of 

 Europe, has also been that in which the silk-cul- 

 ture of Christendom is exclusively carried on with 

 the greatest improvements of art, and wiih the 

 most profitable returns; and the opinion has thence 

 been derived, which has passed without denial 

 or even doubt, that the warm and mild regi- 

 ons of Europe had the best climate for silk-cul- 

 ture ; and that -the best climate for that purpose in 

 the United States, must be far less favorable, be- 

 cause more variable, and more cold. It is this 

 opinion which I confidently oppose as erroneous j 



