144 THE CALIFORNIA 



thunder without any -shock of electricity ; in fact, 

 nothing to trouble the silkworm : on the contrary, any 

 amount of sunshine, that causes the mulberry leaves to 

 be of the first quality. This contributed largely to their 

 health, as healthy food makes healthy worms. 



Having no other room that I could use in 1860, 

 when I raised the first silk in California, I had to 

 'do it in a little green-house a very bad place to raise 

 silkworms, as they nee'd to be in as even temperature 

 as possible ; but in no other place does it vary so much 

 as in a green-house, as you have a suffocating heat 

 during the day, and it is very cold at night. From 

 what cause have I succeeded so well in such a place ? 

 Our climate ! 



For two years I have raised them in my garret. It 

 is well established that the silkworm needs plenty of 

 air; there .1 can give hardly any. Why then have 

 they succeeded so well there also ? From the climate. 



Another fact, in which all the silk-growers are 

 agreed, is that the room in which you are to raise your 

 worms must be free of smells, and particularly the 

 smell from the kitchen ! Mrs. Sauffrignon, in San 

 Jose', raised worms in her kitchen near her large stove, 

 on which she has to cook for a large family ; and there 

 she had large, strong, lively and healthy worms, who 

 made the finest and best cocoons that we had on exhi- 

 bition at the Fairs this year. How is it that she had 

 such a result in a kitchen ? The answer is, from our 

 climate. The worms, eating fresh mulberry leaves 



