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first to be considered, while proximity to population, so that 
women and children may be procurable, must not be left out of 
calculation. 
SERICULTURE. 
It must be something like 30 years since an enterprising Italian 
gentleman started near Lilydale a mulberry plantation on a 
somewhat pretentious scale, but it came to grief. If I remember 
rightly, Signor Martelli had not sufficient capital to keep the thing 
going, and at that period most of us were too busily engaged 
making money in other directions to tempt speculation in the 
slower art of silk growing. Since then several attempts have 
been made by Mrs. Bladen Neill, Mrs. Timbrell, and other ladies 
to establish this industry—Corowa, Albury (N.S.W.), Northcote, 
and other places were selected, but from some cause or other no 
good or lasting results have been achieved. I observed only two 
or three months since that another attempt was to be made, and 
I wish the “Women Silk Growers’ Association” (I think this 
was the name) every success. New Zealand has been planting 
mulberries extensively at her agricultural farms at Whangarei, 
the idea being to give employment to the Industrial Schools 
children. This is an industry which, above all others, requires the 
aid of women and children, and this only for a short period in the 
year ; but it-seems to me it should prove a paying one, provided 
always the persons engaged know how the worms should be 
managed and the silk manufactured; like everything else, the 
necessary knowledge and attention is required to make the thing 
profitable. 
Numerous plants afford food for the silkworm—the ailantus, 
the bombax, the ricinus, the maclura, or Osage orange, the 
Indian plum, and others ; but by far and away the chief is the 
mulberry, of which there are several varieties. The best appears 
to be morus multicaulis, or moretti; but in Europe they have kinds 
which are specially adapted for certain situations, The white 
mulberry, upon which the worms chiefly feed, will grow almost 
anywhere, provided the soil is fairly good and the site sheltered 
from high winds. The trees soon arrive at an age fit for the 
leaves being stripped. 
My friend Mr. Bosisto has drawn my attention to what came 
under his observation when travelling in Spain a few years ago, 
and which I think is not generally known. I quote his words :— 
“T noticed in the districts of Murcia and Miranda the morus alba 
growing in clumps and rows on lands belonging to the villagers; 
on inquiry I became acquainted with a novel industry, viz., the 
making of silken gut from silkworms fed on the mulberry leaves. 
This industry is carried on by villagers entirely in this part of 
Spain, and a trade is done to the extent of some thousands of 
