31 



Silk Culture.* 



" At last, after many unsuccessful trials, we liave had the good fortune to see the 

 chrysalides hatched in Turin. Our correspondents, persuaded that will is power, were 

 not deterred from the task, but by renewed exertions and successive attempts, have 

 succeeded in their object of importing from Bengal to Turin the precious silkworm of 

 the Indies. 



" Our colleague Signer S. Giseri, so skilful in the rearing of silkworms, charged 

 especially by the Royal Academy of Agriculture, writes us the following: — 'The 

 cocoons delivered to us by you on the 19th of March last, were placed in a dark room, 

 where the mean temperature was kept at 20 centigrammes. I began to despair when 

 I saw a month pass without any result, as at an equal temperature the cocoons of our 

 country take only from 12 to 15 days to bring forth the moth; still the state of the 

 chrysalis was not yet hopeless. The new insects just now come to life are very fine, 

 with large and full wings, of a tawny colour, and having yellow oblong spots. I have 

 already two pairs, which came forth two days since, and three males, which came forth 

 yesterday, and am impatiently waiting for the appearance of their mates. The delay 

 above mentioned was, to say so, providential, as the nourishment of the future worms 

 was not yet ready; the young plants of the Ricinus {Palma-Christi) being only as yet 

 furnished with their hard primitive shoots, although we had planted the seeds during 

 the previous winter. I trust now we shall be able to rear up this new insect, which 

 with so much anxiety, perseverance and outlay, has been brought over alive to 

 Piedmont.' 



" In the meanwhile we have received the intelligence that the Governor of Malta 

 has successfully brought up a brood of them at Valelta. 



" Sir W. Reid informed us, in his last, that he hoped to overcome the difficulties 

 of unwinding the silk from the new worms, by using water slightly alkaline, and, what 

 is perhaps better, water with a small quantity of soap, as the soda might perchance 

 weaken the silk, and also injure its spinning quality. 



" His Excellency Sir James Hudson, the English Minister in Turin, assures us 

 that when at Rio Janeiro, two years ago, he had heard that a Lombard had come there 

 for the purpose of attempting, on a large scale, the rearing of the Palma-Christi worm, 

 as both this insect and the Palma-Christi thrive well in Brazil. 



" Mr. Piddington writes us from Calcutta, on the 17th of March last: — * I have 

 read with pleasure the various notices of the Bombyx Cynthia inserted iu the ' Official 

 Gazette' of Turin. I know that these silkworms thrive at Malta, although they have 

 been somewhat affected by the cold. I have written to our common friend, the 

 Governor of Malta, to inform him that the temperature of Assam varied from between 

 57" and 40* Fahrenheit, the temperature being 68" F. (20 centigrade, 16" R.), and that 

 the north and north-east winds blowing there are very cold. The seed I have for- 

 warded to him came from Bogorah (?), half-way between Calcutta and Assam, where 

 the cold is very intense. There is a great quantity of ice in winter in the plains at 

 Hoogly , distant about 25 miles north of Calcutta, by reason of the evaporation of water 

 in porous and shallow pans. I have also brought up in the winter many of those silk- 

 worms (unc couvee de vers), which I had not hitherto attempted, and I have seen many 



* Translated from the 'Piedmontese Official Gazette.' 



