192 THE MODERN HISTORY OF SILK. 



in 1765, yielded but 183 pfunds of wound silk, pro- 

 duced, in 1785, not less than 13,100 pfunds. This 

 branch of industry has not, however, proceeded so 

 rapidly since that time ; and the greatest yearly 

 produce which has been known was in 1801, when 

 the royal silk establishment produced 1 78 centners, 

 and those of private individuals probably about 30 

 centners. By far the greater part of it comes from 

 districts of the military frontiers, extending along the 

 south of Hungary. The culture of the Silk Worm 

 is not, however, confined to these limits, but private 

 establishments, both for rearing the worms and pur- 

 chasing the cocoons from the peasants, are found in 

 the Biharer, Bekeser, Pesther, Heveser, Weszprimer, 

 and Neutraer counties, and in the towns of Lombor 

 and Tyrnau. 



In the year 1802, Joseph Blaschkowitsch, who had 

 devoted attention to the subject, invited the land- 

 holders to witness a trial, instituted under the 

 encouragement of government at Ofen, of his improved 

 method of rearing the Silk Worm. The great objects 

 he proposed were to diminish the time that elapses 

 between the hatching of the egg and the obtaining 

 of the pure silk, so that it might not interfere with 

 the occupations of the agriculturist, and he found he 

 could reduce this period from nine to five weeks. 

 He likewise found means to feed the worms, produced 

 from half an ounce of the eggs, upon the leaves of 

 six mulberry trees, which before had required from 

 twenty to twenty-six. From every half ounce of 

 eggs he procured fifteen or twenty pfunds of cocoons 



