1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



445 



Bv this accidental loss to the owner, a inost im- 

 portant gain has been made l)y the public; for, in 

 this mannner, perhaps fil'iy or more individuals, 

 who would not otherwise have thought of feeding 

 worms, have been induced to make experiments. 

 Nor were these experiments confined to this 

 neighborhood; for the hatching worms were car- 

 ried to points nearly 100 miles apart. So far as we 

 Iiave heard, (and carei'ul inquiry has been made,) 

 every person who experimented in feeding these 

 worms, and other parcels from home-laid eggs, 

 (wiih a single exception which will be hereal'ier 

 named,) was successful in the rearing, unless with 

 such gross neglect, or bad treatment, that success 

 was impossible. And on the other hand, of all 

 the many previously designed, and mostly more 

 careful and better conducted rearings, from northern 

 ggs bought in, or for this town, not one has been 

 uccesslul, so far as we have learned; and there 

 are but ftjw that may not be considered equivalent 

 to total failure. The great difference has been in 

 general if not universal healthiness and hardiness 

 of worms of southern stock, and general and 

 sometimes universal feebleness, disease, and final- 

 ly death, of the northern broods. Such likewise 

 have been the general results elsewhere that we 

 have heard from, but with some few exceptions of 

 healthy and good products fioni particular feed- 

 ings of northern worms. 



In the various cases under our own observation, 

 or derived from neighboring gentlemen with 

 whom we have frequent intercourse, these results 

 have been the more striking, because in some in- 

 stances the same individual was eminently suc- 

 cessful with worms of southern stock, and as 

 eminently unsuccessful with northern. Sometimes 

 ihes;^ difTerent results were found in different 

 broods hatched at the same time, kept in the same 

 apartment, and throughout treated alike. We 

 could stale particulars of many such experiments, 

 on the most unquestionable auihorit}', which 

 would fully sustain these general statements; but 

 it would be an unnecessary extension of this arti- 

 cle, and is not called for, unless the statements 

 should he qu'^siioned. Upon the whole, it may be 

 safely asserted, that if the rearings hereabout 

 had been made altogether, (as they were mostly,) 

 from northern eggs, and if there had been no other 

 experience to show different results, that all con- 

 fidence in the culture would have been lost, and 

 every new beginner would have been discouraged 

 and disgusted, and probably would have abandon- 

 ed all thought of prosPciMing the business. Jiut 

 luckily, there were enough, though smaller and 

 less careful trials, from home-raised stock, to show 

 entirely different and highly successful results; and 

 more especially was it fortunate for the cause of 



silk-culture, that (he accidental hatching of what 

 seems to be the most hardy and valuable stock, 

 should have spread that stock, and established its 

 value, through an extensive region of our coun- 

 try. 



One of the most careful and best provided of all 

 the new culturists, T. S. Pleasants of Bellona, 

 was one of those who obtained, and reared with 

 entire success, eome of these southern eggs; and 

 he has since lost totally, by disease, the worms of 

 three ounces of eggs, ("mammoth-white,") of 

 northern product. In communicating this and 

 other such facts to us, and slating his concurrence 

 in our opinion as to the general worlhlessness of 

 eggs received here from the north, he expresses 

 his astonishment at the strangeness of the facts, 

 and asks whether the change and difference of 

 climate can produce the effects. We think not. 

 Our opinion is, as before stated, that to have a 

 healthy brood of worms, it is essential that the pa- 

 rent Slock should have been healthy; and we in- 

 fer that the northern eggs, sent here, produce un- 

 healthy worms, not merely because they come 

 from the north, but because they are generally also 

 the product of feeble or diseased parent stocks. 

 Deeming the climate of Virginia to be much bel- 

 ter for silk-worms than that of the slates north of 

 Maryland, W'e should expect that eggs of the same 

 kind, and the broods treated alike, would produce a 

 better progeny, and better eggs from them, here 

 than there. But that would be but a trivial circum- 

 stance compared to others which probably are of 

 very extensive if not general operation. Every 

 rearing of worms, even if among the most heal- 

 thy and productive in general, has many individ- 

 uals comparatively feeble, which spin cocoons of lit- 

 tle or no value, and scarcely worth the attempting 

 to reel. Being fit fornothing elsp, it is probable that 

 these worst cocoons are usually selected to furnish 

 eggs for sale; and that to this mode of selection 

 llie southern purchasers fi-om northern dealers are 

 indebted for the general worlhlessness of the eggs 

 obtained. And if the toorst stock is chosen to 

 fiirnish eggs, we may be supplied with worthless 

 eggs even near home, without resorting to the 

 north. Even if such selection of the worst and 

 most diseased has not been actually made by de- 

 sign, it is certain that the recent and present great 

 demand for eggs, has caused the worst as well as 

 the best of every brood to be suffered to produce 

 eggs for market; and thus if a parcel of eggs 

 contained any that were from good and suitable 

 stock, it also necessarily contained a large propor- 

 tion of the worst description. 



The applications of these facts is obvious, and 

 should by no means be neglected by any one who 

 hopes for success. After obtaining a first stock, 



