262 Silk Manujaclurc. 



er kinds of food: all were rejected; and another proof was afford- 

 ed, that the mulberry tree, which no other insect will attack, is 

 alone adapted to the natural desires of the silkworm. Mrs. Will- 

 iams records one peculiarity which discovered itself throughout 

 her investigation; by no means could the worms be brought to 

 touch any flower of roseate hue. Pinks, roses, sweet williams, 

 polyanthoses, were each in turn offered by this persevering lady, 

 and were all rejected without hesitation. It is proper to remark, 

 that these experiments of Mrs. Williams are not confirmed by 

 those of any other person, but, on the contrary, that Miss Rhodes 

 was unsuccessful in every endeavor to repeat them, and succeeded 

 only in reconciling her silkworms to the use of lettuce and spinach. 

 ' Attempts to discover a substitute for the mulberry are not en- 

 tirely abandoned even at the present time. It is recorded in the 

 Bulletin Universel, for 1829, that Madamoiselle Cogc of Epinal, 

 has used with success the leaves of the scorzonera (viper grassy 

 for the nourishment of silkworms. The silk produced by worms 

 fed on this leaf, is represented to be in no respect inferior to that 

 from worms kept on the natural food. 



'Notwithstanding, however, this last announcement, and the 

 partial success so frequently recorded as attending the substitution 

 of the lettuce, all practical cultivators of silk continue to be con- 

 vinced that it would be unprofitable to feed their worms on any 

 save their natural nourishment; and the most intelligent writers on 

 the subject, approve the practice of destroying, as useless, any 

 worms, which through ill management may be hatched before the 

 mulberry tree has put forth leaves sufficient for their support. 



' Recent attempts which have been made to rear silkworms in 

 England, do not offer much encouragement to the pursuit, except 

 as matter of amusement. Some pairs of silk stockings of good 

 quality are to be seen in the gallery of " The National Reposito- 

 ry," woven from silk of home production. The worms which 

 spun this were reared by Mrs. Allen of Wandsworth, the result of 

 whose careful observations on this subject has been obtained. 



' The difficulty of procuring a sufficient and continuous supply 

 of proper food was the reason why this lady was obliged to relin- 

 quish a pursuit in which she had taken much pleasure for four suc- 

 cessive years.' 



'Mrs. Allen's testimony strongly corroborates the necessity of 

 extreme cleanliness in preserving the health of the worms. The 

 most scrupulous attention seems to have been paid by her to this 

 particular, as well as to the dryness of the leaves, and the temper- 

 ature of the apartment wherein the insects were reared and set to 

 spin; and yet a very great mortality was always experienced 



