96 ON SERICICULTURE. 



submitted to acclimatization, with what success, and in what 

 climes? 



With regard to B. 3Iori: the European silk farmers, 

 finding their own races fail, have, by the advice of M. 

 Guerin-Meneville and others, reverted to the old sources 

 for new stock, under the idea that the present race was worn 

 out. Only, however, fi'om Japan have they been able to 

 procure in any quantity a race whose progeny was able to 

 resist the disease; these also, in the second generation, 

 failed to produce a crop. Hence a great demand has arisen 

 for healthy eggs ; that is, eggs produced from parents who 

 have never exhibited any sign of malady. The price of eggs 

 has greatly risen, and it has become a question of some im- 

 portance, whether in England we could not make a good 

 pi-ofit by the sale of English reared eggs of J3, Mori. I have 

 had sent to me, for the last two years, eggs of the Japanese 

 varieties of the B. Mori, and expect more this winter; 

 and I trust some of my readers may be willing to make the 

 experiment with me of trying to cultivate this race with a 

 view to the sale of the eggs thus produced.* A lady cor- 

 respondent writes to me— '* This year (1868) I reared from 

 eggs given me, 1,500 worms of the ordinary kind {B. 

 Mori'jj and kept them in our greenhouse, fieeding them on 

 the leaves of the ordinary English mulbeny. The eggs pro- 

 duced by these worms I sold to a gentleman for the Italian 

 market for the sum of 21. Ss., at 6s. per oz. I hope (d.v.) 

 to keep three or four times the number next season, as I 

 wish to give the money for charitable purposes."! 



* I have hitherto refused to experiment on B. Mori, as a silk pro- 

 ducer in Great Britain ; but as an egg producer the case is quite dif- 

 ferent, and I think worthy of trial. 



f In 1865 the price of Japanese eggs was 15 francs the oz., i. e. per 

 card in France. 



