THE MODERN HISTORY OF SILK. 191 



Considerable pains have been taken to rear the 

 Silk Worm, and to encourage the manufacture, at 

 Perlac, a small town of thatched houses in Lower 

 Hungary. The manufacture was formerly in the 

 hands of the proprietors of the island, but the comi- 

 tatus has now purchased it. The Silk Worms are 

 reared by the peasants, who bring the cocoons to 

 Perlac, where they are paid for them by the agent 

 of the comitatus. Mulberry trees, which have been 

 planted as the common property of the neighbour- 

 hood, grow on each side of many of the roads. 

 Upon the whole, however, the cultivation of Silk 

 Worms does not flourish. The quantity of cocoons 

 has sometimes amounted to fifty centners, which 

 yield, under proper management, about one-ninth 

 part of good silk ; but even this is above the present 

 produce. 



Many attempts made in other parts of Hungary to 

 rear these insects have been attended with some 

 success. They were first introduced into the Banat by 

 Count Mercy, about the year 1 734 : but the Turkish 

 war breaking out in 1 739, forced him to relinquish 

 the pursuit. In 1765, the Empress Maria Theresa 

 did her utmost to encourage the culture ; and after- 

 wards the Emperor Joseph constructed buildings 

 for the purpose, planted mulberry trees, brought 

 Italians into the country who had been accustomed 

 to the management of the worms and their silk, and 

 endeavoured to encourage the peasants to rear them 

 in their own cottages. By these means the produce 

 of silk was so much increased, that Hungary, which, 



