140 THE CALIFORNIA 



Besides what may be done with the silk, we have a 

 constant demand for eggs by the European culturists, 

 as there they have the disease, and to insure a crop 

 have to get their eggs from countries where the disease 

 does not prevail. By not using sound eggs their crop 

 is very much exposed ; but, besides all that, and all 

 they can do, in their best years their losses are gener- 

 ally twenty-five per cent., sometimes fifty per cent., and, 

 in very bad years, as high as seventy-five per cent. 

 Here we suffer none of these losses, and, as there is 

 nothing to cause disease, every worm makes a cocoon. 

 This also merits some reflection and consideration in 

 favor of the superiority of our climate. It would be 

 quite too long to enumerate every thing in. our favor, 

 but I cannot help remarking that the principal point is 

 that the mulberry tree grows here most luxuriantly, 

 and I believe, also, that our virgin soil produces leaves 

 of the best quality. In order that every one may be 

 able to raise his own mulberry trees, I have published 

 a treatise on the culture of that tree, both by seeds 

 and cuttings, in the California Farmer, and also in 

 the French paper. It is calculated that an ounce of 

 silkworm eggs contains forty thousand ; I have pro- 

 duced several millions of eggs this season, and they 

 were all sold at the rate of ten dollars per ounce to be 

 sent to France, and those for years to come are engaged 

 for the same house. If I had them by hundreds of 

 pounds I could sell them immediately. The eggs are 

 in great demand, also, for Mexico ; I had an order for 

 that country for five hundred ounces, but, of course, 



