REARING SILKWORMS. Ill 



SILK-CULTURE IN AUSTRALIA. 



In the year 1825 the Australian Agricultural 

 Company was organized. It was designed to 

 give encouragement to the production of silk, as 

 well as other products of the soil. Mulberry 

 trees were planted, and various attempts made 

 to establish the silk industry. Through a succes- 

 sion of years, and in different parts of the island, 

 different persons attempted to raise silkworms. 

 Trials and failures followed each other. The 

 causes of failure were a want of knowledge of the 

 best locations, as well as not knowing how to 

 care for the worms. The people were not edu- 

 cated on these special lines of agriculture. 



In or about the year 1862, Colonel Charles 

 Brady took up the matter of silk-culture in Aus- 

 tralia and spent many years and much capital 

 in experimenting on both the silkworms and the 

 mulberry tree. His continued intelligent labors 

 were, in one sense at least, fully rewarded. He 

 succeeded in producing the best races of worms 

 known to exist in any country, some of which 

 spun cocoons from which were reeled eighteen - 

 hundred yards of silk fiber.. 



At the time when the silk disease ravaged 

 Europe, he obtained some of the best breeds from 



