238 APPENDIX. [March, 



— and it still affords us a net profit of $108. This last, I am persua- 

 ded, will be found more nearly to correspond with actual results. If 

 the price of the silk is more than |4 59 per lb., and the cost of 

 production less than $2.25, so much the better for the culturist. 

 But the above results, very nearly, are produced in another way. The 

 amount of help necessary to attend to one acre, or to 100,000 worms, 

 would not exceed the value of two females, 12 weeks each, and one 

 male, the same time — indeed, I do not believe it would require so much 

 help — but admitting it should, the maximum average value of this help 

 would be, here, $3 per week, including boarding — and then, the 

 cost of producing 48 lbs. of silk would be $108. And the value of 

 that silk being, as above stated, $288, the net profit would be $180 ! ! 

 Or the value being only $4.50 per lb., or the gross amount of $216, 

 still the net profit would be $108 per acre — exactly tiie result before 

 stated — and this, let it be observed, is just $4 more than the result 

 shewn by my experiment of last year. I believe, therefore, I have 

 demonstrated, not hy fgures and on paper only, but by the actual 

 production of the silk, that every prudent culturist may safely rely on 

 realizing a net profit of at least $108, the first year, or $180 while the 

 price of raw silk continues what it now is. And I ask, is not this suf- 

 ficient! ought not any reasonable man to be satisfied with this? I 

 wish, indeed, I could have made the profits a little larger, but / could 

 not do it. 



Much is said in various quarters respecting the different varieties of 

 mulberry trees as food for the silk worm. By some it is confidently 

 asserted that the Multicaulis is inferior to the broad-leaved Canton, to 

 the Broussa, and to the hundred and one other varieties for which 

 names are invented. Others go still further, and assert that the Multi- 

 caulis is itjferior to all other species, the paper mulberry alone ex- 

 cepted, which the worm will not eat at all ; and that good silk cannot 

 be made from the Multicaulis, that it is the least hardy of all species 

 of the mulberry, (which, however, has never been proved,) and that 

 the quality of the silk will always be in proportion to the hardiness of 

 the tree from which it is made. 



Other species of the mulberry may be good, as 1 have no doubt 

 they are ; they may even be better than the Multicaulis for any thing I 

 know to the contrary. One thing I do kmw. the worms devour the 

 Multicaulis leaves with great avality — grow well — continue healthy — 

 make good silk, in sufficient quantities to yield a net profit per acre of 

 $108 to $180. This they have done for me two years in succession. 



