258 



of necessity, add to the weight of the paro- 

 chial taxes. I am fully of opinion that it 

 would be the foundation of a permanent 

 reduction in the poor-rates, which must con- 

 tinue to augment, unless employ be found 

 equal to the increase of the population. It 

 is worthy of notice that the trees, which 

 are planted for the feeding of the silk-worms, 

 are seldom suffered to grow to a height to 

 injure the land ; but they are kept as shrubs 

 or espaliers. The great nurseries of mulberry 

 plants, in the plain of Valencia, in Spain, are 

 produced from seeds obtained by rubbing a 

 rope of esparts with ripe mulberries, and then 

 burying the rope two inches under ground. 

 As the young plants come up, they are drawn 

 and transplanted ; the trees are afterwards set 

 out in rows in the fields, and pruned once in 

 two years. 



It is now 2,143 years since wrought silks 

 were first introduced into Greece from Per- 

 sia ; and about forty-nine years afterwards 

 the Grecians obtained them from India. 



In Rome a law was passed by the senate 

 in the reign of Tiberius, forbidding men to 

 debase themselves by wearing silk, as being 

 fit only for women. 



Heliogabalus was the first Roman that 

 wore a garment all silk, which must have 



