AILANTICULTURE — ITS HISTORY AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS. 403 



by visiting the department which M. Gaerin-Meneville has fitted up in the 

 French Court (No. 837) at the side of that of the Societe d' Acclimatisation 

 de Paris. This new textile material, superior to cotton, and almost at the 

 same price, can be there examined ; and certainly, though M. Guerin- 

 Meneville has but a small, he has a most interesting portion, in the Great 

 Exhibition of the Industry of Nations, valuable above all things as a point 

 of comparison, as an aggregation of efforts to introduce the new, the best, 

 and the most beautiful. 



The Ailanthus silkworm may be bred in the open air, and at a very 

 trifling cost. Its product, Ailantine, is a textile substance, more beautiful 

 and much stronger than cotton, and may be regarded indeed as intermediate 

 between silk and wool. 



The Ailanthus glandulosa is a hardy tree, possessing great vitality, and 

 may be grown anywhere, even in the most arid and unfruitful soil, where 

 neither cereals, nor herbage, nor succulent plants can be made to grow. 



The Ailante silkworm (Bomhyx Cynthia) is as hardy as the plant it feeds 

 upon. No severity of weather can detach it from the leaf to which it ad- 

 heres, nor hinder it from spinning its cocoon. 



Both the Ailanthus and the silkworm have been already extensively 

 introduced with great success in various parts of Europe, Africa, America, 

 and Australia. In very warm climates the Bomhyx Cynthia gives two crops 

 a year, but in colder regions only one. 



In the temperate portions of Europe, where the climate, as in England, 

 parts of France and Holland, will not admit of the growth of cotton, the 

 Ailanthus may be cultivated so as to yield the following results. Taking 

 a French hectare, equal to about 2^ English acres, as the basis of calcula- 

 tion, the outlay to be incurred would be : 



£ 



Purchase of 2-| acres of poor land 8 



Total cost of planting the Ailante therein, and interest . .12 



Total . ,£20 



While the annual produce commencing on the fourth year may be safely 

 reckoned at from 12Z. to 167., that is from 51. to 61. per year; a plantation 

 of Mulberry trees yielding the same ratio of produce usually sells in France 

 at from 4001. to 480Z. the hectare, equal to about 1601. to 1901. per acre. 



It appears that cotton from Sig, in Algeria, was sold in March last at 

 Liverpool, from 2s. to 2s. 2d. per lb. Now, although the present price of 

 Ailantine is but a trifle higher than this quotation, the intrinsic value of 

 the material is quadruple that of cotton, as regards strength, durability, and 

 beauty. Moreover Ailantine can, as we have already stated, be cultivated 

 anywhere, and in the poorest of land, whilst it is well known that the cotton 

 plant can only be grown in warm climates and in well irrigated fertile 

 soils. 



More than a million of these trees were planted in France in 1861, and 



