igO THE MODERN HISTORY OF SILK. 



of that summer, exactly half a pound of silk, all of 

 one uniform colour and height of gum. She had, 

 besides, of the waste silk with which the cones are 

 surrounded, somewhat more than a quarter of a 

 pound, which she had carded and wove into stock- 

 ings at Nottingham. 



From the statement given by Miss Rhodes, it 

 would appear that it requires thirty thousand to 

 produce five pounds of silk ; and she found that ten 

 mulberry-trees, absolutely stripped, were barely 

 sufficient to supply the wants of ten thousand cater- 

 pillars. She tried to feed worms on all the different 

 leaves of a large and variously stored kitchen-garden, 

 but they would not eat any but lettuce and spin- 

 age, and they perished on these in a very short 

 time, owing, she imagined, to their moisture and 

 coldness. 



The criterion to judge of the goodness of silk is, 

 by the height of the gum ; and that of Miss Rhodes, 

 in that respect, outstripped Italian silk. She account- 

 ed for it in this way, that in Italy the chrysalis soon 

 bursts, and the imago is destroyed to prevent them 

 eating their way out of the cone, in which case they 

 are sure to injure the silk ; and, to effect this, they 

 are placed in heated ovens. In Britain, where 

 progress is slower, there is sufficient time to wind 

 off the silk, without killing the chrysalis. Miss 

 Rhodes frequently wound the cones out of boiling 

 water, placing them afterwards on dry paper, and 



