114 ON SERICICULTURE. 



sericiculturist, taking an average of good and bad seasons. 

 This third point is a greater stumbling-block than the two 

 preceding. Many experiments sufficiently solve the first 

 two points, but are of insufficient magnitude to apply to 

 the third. While it has happened that in attempting to 

 solve the third point first, assuming that the conditions im- 

 plied by the two first were fulfilled, an experiment on a 

 large scale, which at the onset promised well, broke down 

 utterly. 



Unless Government or Royal Societies interpose their 

 fostering care, it is quite impossible for individual experi- 

 menters to risk sufficient capital in solving the third point in 

 this country. And we must fall back upon the system 

 carried out in various parts of France, of collecting, en 

 })iassefthe cocoons produced, — here a few and there a few, — in 

 many farms throughout a large district, till sufficient are 

 obtained to be submitted to the reeling establishment. 



In conclusion, I shall be only too happy if travellers in 

 distant climes, desirous to assist these experiments, will sub- 

 mit to me any specimens of silk-producing insects that 

 appear hkely to prove of commercial value, or will correspond 

 with me as to the chance of introducing new^ species. 



The two following additional notices respecting Bomhyx 

 Yama-Ma'i may not be uninteresting. A correspondent, 

 C. Penruddock, Esq., thus writes from Compton Park, 

 Salisbury: — " May 17, 1868. I tried an experiment with 

 the young worms when they were hatching out, i.e., placed 

 some on an oakling out of doors, though under ^.n arcade 

 — the temperature being 30° and 43° F. at night. The worms 

 so treated remained stunted in theii' growth, ate very little, 

 and did not appear happy. Those I kept in my orangery, 

 under a * Brussels' net' canopy, throve amazingly, and are 

 now, I suppose, in their second moult, being an inch and 



