SILK GROWER'S MANUAL. 139 



one may understand it. It is easy work, and can be 

 done by quite young persons, either male or female ; 

 the ladies, therefore, may have the pleasure of raising 

 their own silk. 



It will be a great pleasure to me to have contributed 

 something towards the retention in our State of the 

 millions of dollars that are paid out for the single im- 

 portation of silk. Not only may we raise silk for our 

 own consumption, but we can, in California, raise silk 

 for the world, and export it. This article must increase 

 in value ; this year it is increased twenty-five per cent, 

 in price in Europe. It is an article in which we need 

 not fear competition ; we need not be afraid to see our 

 neighbor raising it, because, if nearly everybody was 

 raising it all over the State, it would not lower the 

 price two cents per pound. This year, when the price 

 of fruits is exceedingly low, allows us to show the advan- 

 tage of the mulberry over fruit trees, as the fruit must 

 all be consumed within a certain time or it is lost, 

 which is very far from being the case with the silk. 



I have been engaged in my experiments in Califor- 

 nia silk culture three years, and this year raised over 

 one hundred thousand cocoons. 



Several gentlemen have made large plantations, so 

 as to pursue this business hereafter on a larger scale. 

 Among them I can name Mr. A. Packard, and also 

 Mr. Q. Goux, of Santa Barbara, who have planted 

 three thousand mulberry trees, and Mr. Glessing of 

 San Joaquin Valley, whose plantation dates from last 

 year. 



