420 



APPENDIX. 



Four hundred thousand pounds of silk of superior quality was 

 raised in Cevennes in 1832, and since that period, this quantity has 

 been greatly increased ; as, among all employments of capital, none 

 is so productive as the mulberry tree. It was yielding, at the above 

 period, from fifteen to twenty per cent, profit to the intelligent agri- 

 culturist. Thus states Dr. Ure. 



There is a description of white silk, which is produced in the 

 department of the Upper Ardeche, which is of a quality so su- 

 perior, that it is purchased by the lace manufacturers of Nor- 

 mandy, for more than fifty francs ($9,20) a pound. But a few years 

 since, it commanded a price as high as 150 francs a pound, (equal 

 to $27,60.) 



The pound of silk, when well reeled, is capable of being con- 

 verted into sixteen yards of the ordinary quality of Gros de Na- 

 ples, or into fourteen yards of the first quality, and worth its weight 

 in silver. 



The expense of reeling the excellent silk of Cevennes, which is 

 but of four to five cocoons to a thread, is, according to Dr. Ure, 

 but three francs and fifty centimes per Alais pound, which is equal 

 to ninety-two one hundredths of a pound English, for reeling silk of 

 this superior quality. This is about equal to sixty cents per English 

 pound. In Italy, and during June, July, and August, a woman at- 

 tending the kettle, and a girl to turn the reel, they work sixteen 

 hours in a day, and then they wind a rubo, or ten pounds' weight of 

 cocoons, which yields from one fifth to one sixth of their weight of 

 silk, when their quality is good ; the whole expense of reeling 

 amounting to 2s. Qd. sterling per English pound, (equal to sixty 

 cents.) Such are the statements of Dr. Ure. There, as in France, 

 one person attends the pans, while another is employed in turning 

 the reel. 



In most agricultural operations, and in manufactures, there is great 

 saving, both of labor, of time, and of all things else, when these are 

 managed on an extensive scale : silk is by no means an exception to 

 this general rule, as this same system of M. Beauvais most fully 

 proves ; so also the Comte Dandolo had taught before. That silk may 

 be cultivated to profit on every farm and domestic establishment, 

 however small, is a truth now established beyond dispute. Those 

 distinguished masters have also proved, that, when skill and science 

 have come in aid, the silk business may be carried on to profit far 

 greater in large establishments and on an extended scale. 



CHAPTER X. SYSTEM OF M. CAM1LLE BEAUVAIS. 



At the Government Establishment, or experimental silk-farm, 

 near Montgeron, in the north of France, M. Camille Beauvais, the 

 superintendent, has adopted, with signal success, the more complete 

 system of ventilation and of warming the apartments, invented by 

 M. D'Arcet. 



By this system, a high temperature being at all times preserved 

 the silk- worms are fed twenty-four times a day, for three days, during 

 the first age , eighteen times a day during the second age ; twelve 



