41 



relations, particularly to experiments and efforts to take advantage 

 of our brilliant atmosphere, and of various food grown in this 

 climate, to introduce and breed superior races of silkworms, and 

 especially to free them from the dire disease which now for so 

 many years has all but destroyed an industry yielding annually 

 more than thirty millions of pounds sterling to the present culti- 

 vators of Southern Europe. 



My experiences have been most conclusive and satisfactory, 

 and it is proved that the importance of our proceedings here is 

 not unappreciated in England by persons capable of forming an 

 estimate of their value. 



1 am well aware that the public mind is prepossessed with the 

 idea that the growth of silk in Australia must prove unremune- 

 rative on account of the high relative price of labour in the 

 Colonies, but I have never met with even one person who had 

 investigated the subject, or qualified himself in any way to form 

 an opinion, who held this idea ; in fact, there not only is nothing 

 to prevent silk being raised as cheaply in Australia as in France 

 or Italy, but there is very good reason to believe that, favoured 

 as we are by climate and cheap land, we may be in a position to 

 undersell any country in Europe. 



When I first engaged in this enterprise I own I myself enter- 

 tained some misgiving about the cost of labour. It was this very 

 circumstance which set me to work to contrive means to obviate 

 what might prove a serious obstacle to a commercial success in 

 silk growing in these Colonies, and I devised the plan of multi- 

 plying the number of crops obtainable in a single season. In 

 every country besides this the most valuable worms (being annual 

 only) give but one brood or crop a year, and this occurring at 

 the most unsettled and precarious period is attended with great 

 risk, and frequently with serious expenses and casualties, it 

 occurred to me to profit by our long season of clear weather, 

 repeatedly to take advantage of our opportunities for providing 

 sustenance during many months continuously for the worms, and 

 by managing to have worms to consume the food at such times as 

 the many different varieties of mulberry are severally in per- 

 fection. This is done by employing cold and moisture as well as 

 warmth in the preservation of the grain, and also by having many 

 varieties of mulberry silkworms adapted by their nature to thrive 

 on the different varieties of food plant. 



To thoroughly carry out my plan I imported at great expense 

 mulberry plants of every country, the quality of which at all gave 

 hopes of obtaining useful sorts ; and I also, at even much greater 

 cost, and after many and repeated failures, succeeded in intro- 

 ducing and rearing in this Colony and in Queensland, all the 

 most celebrated and choicest breeds of silkworms from every silk- 

 growing country. A large number of these have, after years 

 of severe labour and close attention, become thoroughly accli- 



