Silk Manufacture. 109 



of quicker sound. It is, perhaps, too much to say, that we have 

 borrowed all our music from birds ; but some of it is evidently 

 a plagiarism. 



The cuckoo itself has done more for our music than 

 musicians may be willing to allow, but it is no more than just 

 to a despised bird to say, that from it we have derived the 

 minor scale, whose origin has puzzled so many, — the cuckoo's 

 couplet being the minor third sung downwards. 



CABINET CYCLOPiEDIA. 



SILK MANUFACTURE. 



NO. IV. 



Mode of rearing Silk Worms in China. ' Before enter- 

 ing upon any description of the methods practised in Europe 

 for rearing silk worms, it appears desirable to give a brief 

 account of the means employed for that end in China. It 

 will be seen, from this sketch, how superior, in many respects, 

 were the arrangements of the Chinese cultivators; and that in 

 departing from the course so long pursued by them, Europeans 

 made choice of modes less rational and simple for attaining 

 the desired result. The inquiries and experiments of later days 

 have brought us back from the confused procedures, which so 

 long imparted uncertainty, and so frequently led to disappoint- 

 ment, and have introduced, instead, judicious and methodical 

 arrangements. 



' In those parts of the empire where the climate is favorable 

 to the practice, and where alone, most probably, the silk worm 

 is indigenous, it remains at liberty, feeding at pleasure on the 

 leaves of its native mulberry tree, and going through all its 

 mutations among the branches, uncontrolled by the hand and 

 unassisted by the cares of man. So soon, however, as the 

 silken balls have been constructed, they are appropriated by 

 the universal usurper, who spares only the few required to re- 

 produce their numbers, and thus to furnish him with successive 

 harvests.^ 



' This silk, the spontaneous offering of nature, is not, how- 

 ever, equal in fineness to that which is spun by worms under 

 shelter, and whose progressions are influenced by careful 

 attendance. Much attention is, therefore, bestowed by the 



* For the description of the silk worm, see Naturalist, Vol. I. 



