38 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1899. 



hundred years ago is an interesting one. Silk was at that time 

 brought from China and was worth its weight in gold, pound 

 for pound. Some Christian monks who had JDeen for many 

 years resident in China came to the court of the Emperor Jus- 

 tinian claiming that the eggs of the silkworm might be imported 

 safely. Commissioned by the emperor to undertake the enter- 

 prise, they departed on their long journey and returned after 

 several years with the eggs concealed in a hollow cane. Mean- 

 time mulberry trees had been planted and soon the industry was 

 started, which has lasted until the present day. 



The implements of husbandry are very simple and primitive. 

 The ox-yoke is made of two straight pieces, one above, the 

 other below the neck, the top piece alone being hollowed. Two 

 straight pins serve instead of the yoke to inclose the neck, a 

 strong trunnel in the middle taking the place of staple and ring. 



The plow is absurdly ridiculous. Take a pole about ten feet 

 long, four or live inches diameter at the butt, and by mortise 

 and tenon unite this at a slightly acute angle to another piece of 

 about equal size, sharpened and shod with iron to plough the 

 earth, and variously provided with some sort of handle for the 

 plowman's hand, and you have an Oriental plow. It does not 

 turn a furrow, it simply scratches the earth to the depth of four 

 or five inches, and then the ground must be cross-ploughed in 

 order to secure anything like an adequate preparation for the 

 sowing. European plows, to which several pairs of buffiiloes 

 were attached, have been introduced at various times, but were 

 soon given up on account of the difficulty of finding animals 

 strong enough to draw them. The hope of success lies in the 

 improvement of the breed, but there is something beyond this, 

 for the best breeds introduced soon degenerate from lack of 

 nourishment. The country must be better governed, property 

 made more secure, before farmers will find it to their advantage 

 to give their cattle more than the scanty grass they can pick up 

 here and there on the parched hillsides. The improvement of 

 implements will follow as a matter of course. The same thing 

 is true of the ordinary horses ; barley and straw alone, and the 

 treatment received through many generations, has produced the 



