148 ON SERICICULTURE. 



periments, his 3Iagnaniere* is most admirably kept, and his 

 arrangements for the culture of the worm are perfect and yet 

 simple; he has fully proved the quality of his produce and 

 waits but one year more to test the quantity by actual proof, 

 before publishing his statistics, but he assures me that he 

 estimated the value of the crop, after all expenses are paid, 

 at a clear profit of £10 per acre. He has had no disease 

 among his worms, and his cocoons are remarkable for their 

 beauty, size and firmness. I cannot in these limits enter into 

 details of his experiments. I can only assure my readers 

 that they have been thoroughly and practically worked out, 

 and in the minds of all who have investigated these expe- 

 riments, no doubt is left, that silk of excellent quality may 

 and will, before many years are past, be an acknowledged 

 article of British production. 



I would specially therefore press upon the notice of all 

 intending colonists in Australia, New Zealand, the Cape of 

 Good Hope and other English settlements, upon those also 

 who have friends already settled in those parts, the value of 

 Sericiculture. Wherever the mulberry-tree thrives, there, as 

 a rule, its foliage may be converted, through the operating 

 medium of the silk-worm, into a beautiful and precious 

 fabric. Of all tissues, of all agricultural productions, silk is 

 the most valuable ; when rightly managed, the cost of labour 

 necessary for its production is very trifling. As regards its 

 bulk for carriage, weight for weight it is infinitely more 

 valuable than any other raw fabric— a bale of silk being 

 worth nearly TOO/. 



These considerations, together with the facilities now 

 off'ered by the Silk Supply Association for obtaining inform- 



* The French term for a room or building fitted up for the cultivation 

 of the silk-worm. 



