202 THE MODERN HISTORY OF SILK. 



Theresa did her utmost to encourage the culture ; 

 and afterwards the Emperor Joseph constructed 

 buildhigs for the purpose, pUxnted mulberry-trees, 

 brought Italians into the country who had been 

 accustomed to the management of the worms and 

 their silk, and endeavoured to encourage the peasants 

 to rear them in their own cottages. By these means 

 the produce of silk was so much increased, that Hun- 

 gary, which, in 1765, yielded but 183 pfunds of 

 wound silk, produced, in 1785, not less than 13,100 

 pfunds. This branch of industry has not, however, 

 proceeded so rapidly since that time ; and the greatest 

 yearly produce which has been known was in 1 801, 

 when the royal silk establishment produced 178 

 centners, and those of private individuals probably 

 about 30 centners. By far the greater part of it 

 comes from districts of the military frontiers, ex- 

 tending along the south of Hungary. The culture 

 of the Silkwoi-m is not, however, confined to these 

 limits, but private establishments, both for rearing 

 the woi-ms and purchasing the cocoons from the 

 peasants, are found in the Biharer, Bekeser, Pesther, 

 Heveser, Weszprimer, and Neutraer counties, and 

 in the towns of Lombor and Tyrnau. 



In the year 1802, Joseph Dlaschkowitsch, who 

 had devoted attention to the subject, invited the 

 landholders to witness a trial, instituted under the 

 encouragement of govemment at Ofen, of his im- 

 proved method of rearing the Silkworm. The gi-eat 



