ON THE CULTIVATION OF SILK IN TASMANIA. 399 



are growing, and growing well, in a cold stiff clay. It seems, in fact, as 

 if in any soil, good or bad, the trees would thrive, and it grows so 

 rapidly that Mr. Abbott tells me he thinks that the leaves may be used 

 for silk as early as the third year. Some particulars relating to the 

 Ailanthus are contained in a letter from Sir H. E. Young to the Governor, 

 published in the ' Agricultural Journal.' 



Passing from the Ailanthus to the mulberry silkworm, the remarks 

 which I have the honour to lay before the Society this evening are not 

 intended to apply to the abstract question of the cultivation of silk and 

 its adaptability to Tasmania, so much as to notice briefly what has been 

 actually done in the twelve months which have elapsed since the subject 

 was first publicly mooted. The amount has not been much, but of that 

 nature which justifies us in detailing it to a body whose peculiar mission 

 it is to utilize science. The profitable cultivation of silk in Tasmania 

 depends upon the four conditions of (1) the management of the insect, 

 (2) the cultivation of the tree, (3) the manufacture of the silk, and (4) 

 the amount, quality, and cost of the labour employed. I shall have 

 chiefly to solicit your attention, on this occasion, to the second subject 

 — viz., the progress in the cultivation of the mulberry. With respect 

 to the first, the silkworm itself, there is very little to be said, as the 

 management of the insect is so extremely simple that no one who has 

 attempted, or will attempt it in Tasmania, is likely to encounter any 

 real difficulty until he came to deal with it in very large numbers — say 

 50,000 to 100,000. The enormous rapidity of its increase renders it 

 practically indestructible, as may be conceived from the fact that the 

 offspring of a single pair will in less than four years greatly exceed the 

 number of human beings living on the globe. For example, I received 

 from Mr. Morton Allport, last year, 500 eggs, and although a good many 

 insects were destroyed in the cocoons, I have already given away more 

 than 12,000, and have a great many on hand. If the eggs of only a 

 portion of these are preserved, there will be many more silkworms 

 round Hobart Town next year than all the present mulberry trees can 

 support. As far as I have seen last year, and this, tbe insects are 

 peculiarly healthy, and the loss among them almost none. On Italian 

 silk-farms a loss of 20 per cent, is rather a low average. So far, there- 

 fore, the Tasmanian climate suits them peculiarly. The degree at which 

 they hatch in Hobart Town is 62. They remained in my room for some 

 days with the thermometer standing steadily at 60 without one of them 

 appearing, but at 62 some hundreds came out at once. 



The temperature at which they thrive best, as proved by experiment 

 here, is from 64 to 70 - This appears to be about 5 degrees above the 

 average temperature of November, in Hobart Town, and therefore sup- 

 posing they are kept in quantities of 100,000 and upwards, it would be 

 economical to keep up a fire of incessant warmth to a certain point, as this 

 quickens their growth. They will, however, live healthily at 60, but 

 require a week longer before spinning than at 65. They should be 



