418 APPENDIX. 



than one hundred pounds of leaves thus fed, being found amply 

 sufficient for the production of a pound of silk. The cocoons thus 

 formed will be large and heavy, the thread or filament substantial 

 and strong, not liable to break in reeling, thus causing neither 

 trouble nor waste. And eight pounds of cocoon of this superior 

 size, will, with careful and skilful reeling, produce a pound of raw 

 silk ; and in the manufacture of this silk the waste will be exceed- 

 ingly small. 



The silk which is produced by the silk-worm is formed wholly 

 from the excess of food suddenly consumed, over and above what is 

 necessary to sustain life, as is also the fat of animals ; and the same 

 principles, in regard to feeding, are alike equally applicable ; in both 

 cases the true economy and great profit being the result of full and 

 constant feeding; a certain amount of food and liberal supply, and 

 this rightly administered, being indispensably requisite completely 

 to fatten the stall-fed ox during the accustomed period of a few 

 months. But if this same quantity of food were parsimoniously 

 given to this same animal, as its only subsistence, even during one 

 whole year, the effect would be lost, and the animal, thus ill fed, 

 would, at the end of this prolonged period, still remain the same 

 lean beast as before. In the former case, the profit from feeding, to 

 the owner, might indeed be very great, but in the latter case, quite 

 the reverse ; as, independently of the great loss of time, the whole la- 

 bor of feeding is also lost, and all the amount of food thus bestowed. 



The days devoted by the silk-worms to sleep are those of their 

 moulting, or changes ; and except they sometimes pause for a few 

 moments, at all other times their sleep must be but transient, if, in- 

 deed, they ever sleep at all at any other time. In its native condi- 

 tion, the fresh leaf of the mulberry becomes its permanent abode. 

 From the first dawn of their existence they eat almost continually, 

 except only on those particular days, and until they begin their 

 cocoons, when they eat no more, but work incessantly during three 

 days and three nights, until, this their last work being finished, they 

 no longer work any more, but, entering the chrysalis state, they 

 slumber profoundly for a season. 



CHAPTER IX. PROFITS OF THE SILK CULTURE IN 

 FRANCE AND ITALY. 



The profits of a crop of silk are usually indicated by the size and 

 quality of the cocoons. If the cocoons are very large, like the 

 products of the well-cultivated and highly-fertilized fields, it por- 

 tends a profitable and abundant harvest. 



One of the most celebrated of all the English writers on the use- 

 ful arts, and on manufactures, is Dr. Andrew Ure j and on agri- 

 culture, one of the most distinguished is M. Puvis, president of the 

 Agricultural Society of Ain, in France; the subject of silk having 

 been fully investigated by both, both writers being especially of 

 the latest day, and both having in their remarks a particular refer- 

 ence to France. " In a great part of that country, the soil and cli- 



