126 COMPLETE INSTRUCTION IN 



healthy worms, and the better food, as well as the 

 manner of feeding. Worms raised in our health- 

 ful climate do not require such constant care as 

 in other countries. This man was the real 

 pioneer of silk-culture in California. He did 

 much to encourage silk growing and manufacture 

 for a number of years. He wrote, and talked, 

 and labored very enthusiastically, and accom- 

 plished much more than at first he dared to hope 

 for. Full of hope for the future of this great 

 industry, he went back to France to secure a 

 large invoice of the choicest eggs to be had there. 

 But, alas! he was taken sick there, and died. 

 And thus it happened that the silk business was, 

 as it were, left without a head, and the attention 

 of horticulturists was diverted to other channels 

 of profitable labor in California. 



At that time cocoons sold in France for $1.30 

 to $2.30 a pound. M. Prevost had in one mul- 

 berry orchard twenty-five thousand trees, and he, 

 during one season, raised one hundred thousand 

 silkworms without any assistance. 



Joseph Newman also did much in those early 

 days to seek to establish the silk business per- 

 manently. He tried faithfully to get the atten- 

 tion of Congress on this subject, and to show 

 them where they showed great injustice to the 

 people by passing a law allowing reeled silk to be 



