250 Silk Mamtfactiire. 



substitute which was ofl'ered, and thriving upon it satisfactorily. 



' While the hope still remained of naturalizing the silkworm in 

 England, the means of procuring a suflicient supply of appropriate 

 food, was considered as one of the greatest obstacles to its suc- 

 cess; and the attention of such persons as interested themselves in 

 the pursuit was consequently engaged, in ascertaining by experi- 

 ment whether other leaves than those furnished by the mulberry 

 tree, might not be favorably substituted. 



' Among others, the Rev. Mr. Swayjie exhibited much anxiety 

 for the success of this object, with the praiseworthy desire of pro- 

 viding profitable employment for such of the poorer classes as 

 might be too feeble for manual labor; most of the duties required 

 in attendance upon the silkworm being such as can easily be fulfill- 

 ed by women, children, and aged persons. 



' This gentleman made various trials as to the relative merits of 

 different kinds of nourishment. For this purpose, he placed equal 

 numbers of newly-hatched worms in three different boxes, which 

 he numbered 1, 2, and 3. The contents of number 1. he fed en- 

 tirely with leaves of the white mulberry; the insects in number 2. 

 were nourished with those of the black mulberry; and the worms 

 in number 3. were furnished widi lettuce leaves until their first age 

 was passed, and thereafter with the black mulberry leaf. These 

 last worms were of a paler color, and grew more rapidly than the 

 others. The result, however, seems to prove that, although let- 

 tuce leaves may yield bodily nourishment to the insect, they con- 

 tribute Httle towards the secretion of that pecuhar matter which 

 constitutes its value. When the spinning had been completed, 

 twelve of the finest cocoons were chosen from each of the three 

 divisions, and were found to be of the following weights: — 

 Cocoons of No. I. weighed 7 dwts. 2 grains. 

 Ditto - No. 2. - 6-3 

 Ditto - No. 3. - 6-0 

 None of these results were very encouraging to the cultivator, but 

 the experiment clearly evinced the superiority of the white mul- 

 berry over the other kinds of nourishment. 



•• Many communications upon this subject are to be found in the 

 volumes recording the Transactions of the Society for the Encour- 

 agement of Arts, <^c. A letter from Miss Rhodes relates, that in 

 the summer of 1785, she subsisted several thousand worms entire- 

 ly on lettuce leaves during three weeks, and that for the remaining 

 short term of their lives, she afforded theui their natural food. At 

 the end of a month from their first hatching, they began to spin, 

 and eleven ounces of silk were procured from four thousand co-, 

 coons. After repeated trials, this lady had become convinced that 



