THE TECHNOLOGIST. [April 1, 1865. 



430 



Stirattfit Jta. 



New Silkworm. — The disease which, has attacked the Mulberry 

 Silkworm has for some time past attracted the attention of the Govern- 

 ment and of the learned societies in France ; and the discovery of a 

 new silkworm in Senegal has been one of the results of the inquiries 

 instituted to remedy the distress caused by the disease. A note on this 

 insect, the Saturnia bauhinia of Guerin, has recently been presented 

 to the French Academy of Sciences by M. Guerin-Meneville, who 

 proposes to found thereon a new sub-genus under the name of Faid- 

 lierbia, in honour of General Faidherbe, the commander of the French 

 military expedition in the district of the Senegal, through whose instru- 

 mentality the silk-producing qualities of the insect have been made 

 known. Specimens have been sent to Europe ; and from a ret ort 

 addressed to the Academy, it appears that the Senegal silkworm will 

 live in France, and that the silk produced by it is much more rich than 

 that produced by any silkwofln hitherto known. A cocoon spun by 

 one of these silkworms contains 633 milligrammes of silk, those of 

 the common mulberry silkworm containing only 290, and those of the 

 silkworms of the Ailantus and Kieinus only 255 and ] 75 respectively. It is 

 proposed to introduce the cultivation of this new silkworm into Algeria. 



Paper in California. — The local paper manufactories are totally 

 insufficient to supply the large amount of the article consumed in the 

 country, there being only three paper-mills in existence there, without 

 any prospect of a speedy increase of their number, while the call for 

 paper is becoming daily more pressing. Of the three paper-mills, one 

 makes paper for journals and for packing, the second only makes straw 

 paper, and the third has only just begun, but, cannot work all the year 

 round for want of a sufficient supply of water. The San Francisco 

 newspapers alone absorb 350,000 dols. worth of paper per annum, and 

 nearly all the paper used on the coast of the Pacific, from Mazatlan to 

 Victoria, and including the whole of California, Oregon, Nevada, and 

 the Sandwich Islands, is sent from San Francisco, which generally gets 

 it from New York and Boston, where it is very dear. Now, China and 

 Japan manufacture an incalculable quantity of paper, which might be 

 easily sent over to San Francisco at much less cost than it could come 

 from New York. Chinese paper, though different from that of America, 

 is very good, smooth, and strong, taking the impression of types beau- 

 tifully and not transparent. Its greatest defect is its not being very 

 white, owing to its being made of the fibres of the bamboo and mul- 

 berry-tree. Again, its size is too small, a serious drawback in the case 

 of newspaper printing, especially in America. But if European paper 

 machines were introduced into China, as some speculators are talking 

 of doing, the supply that might be drawn from that country would 

 amply suffice for all present calls and those in the future for many 

 years to come. 



