146 ON SERICICULTURE. 



Hope, if not totally absent, it prevails but little; that an 

 abundant ventilation, a somewhat cool temperature, from 

 70° to 80° Fahrenheit, an hygrometer at about 80°, coupled 

 with great cleanliness, seem the chief desiderata for success, 

 all which conditions are easily attainable in the southern 

 third of Gieat Britain. 



Owing to the formation early in the present year of a Silk 

 Supply Association (on the same principle as the Cotton 

 Supply Association) by merchants and manufacturers directly 

 interested in the production of silk, who invited silk-pro- 

 ducers and men of science to co-operate with them, a great 

 impetus has been given to Sericiculture ; a collection of 

 statistics and useful information has been made with re- 

 ference to the production of various countries, their method 

 of culture and of reeling; specimens of silk and of cocoons 

 have been obtained, and ai'e deposited at the offices, 3, Castle 

 Street, Holborn, for insj)ection and comparison by those 

 interested in the subject ; a silk supply journal will very 

 shortly be produced, and a shilling pamphlet has been pub- 

 lished as a guide to the treatment of the worm, giving in 

 brief all necessary information. Foreign countries and our 

 colonies have been stimulated afresh; China, Japan, Egypt, 

 Syria, India, California, New Zealand, Australia, the Cape 

 of Good Hope, &c., are all working with increased zeal to 

 send their produce to European markets. The producer and 

 the silk-spinner are now for the first time brought into close 

 contact, so that the necessary information respecting each 

 other's deficiencies and requirements — the lack of which has 

 hitherto acted as a serious check upon all improvements — 

 is freely imparted, and the course of a few more years will, 

 according to piesent promise, result in an abundant harvest 

 of silk produce, and a great increase in quantity as well as 

 of quality. 



