SKIRRET. 



281 



of jarring interests at home, setting at defiance, in the 

 course of time, the subtle calculations of the, most accom- 

 plished statesman ; but the prosperity which is founded upon 

 a perfected agriculture, that combines with intelligence the 

 abilities of the soil and climate, so as to naturalize, by in- 

 dustry, rich crops of products, unknown to its original situ- 

 ation, is a prosperity not liable to changes ; it becomes in- 

 herent and lasting. Of the great results of a rich cultiva- 

 tion upon the circumstances and ability of a people, Italy 

 affords a convincing illustration : although groaning under 

 bigotry and priestcratt, without foreign commerce, and with- 

 out foreign navigation, yet, at various periods, three or four 

 years of peace, with good crops of silk and oil, (silk is the 

 richest,) have filled the country again with competence, 

 after the dreadful devastations of vv^ar. 



There is a certain order in society, the members of which, 

 although not united by the bonds of corporate privileges, 

 although unknown to, and unacquainted with, each other, 

 yet move on with a steady and harmonious step to one com- 

 mon end, — the prosperity of their country, the welfare of all 

 its inhabitants; to them, the powerful Bearers of Light, re- 

 spectfully, we would recommend the consideration of the 

 object of these lines, and if their judgment joins in accord- 

 ance with our own, we invite them to endeavour to accel- 

 erate its completion, and to save it from a lingering course 

 ^.hrough'«jne or two generations. The knowledge of the 

 /earing of silk was imparted, in the course of about six 

 hundred years, by Greece to neighbouring Italy, and in about 

 three hundred and forty years more, it was communicated 

 across the line between Italy and France ; thus the progress 

 was slow indeed ; but such are the miserable results of ig- 

 norance and bad policy. 



We would repeat, that the first step is to .prepare an 



1 abundance of food for the silk-worms by stocking our 

 warm, light lands with white mulberry-trees ; accordingly, 

 wherever there are now white mulberry-trees bearing fruit, 



! the fruit should be carefully collected, when fully ripe, and 

 the seed should be washed out, dried, and prenerved ; it 



' will be much wanted, and it is both the duty and the inter-^ 

 est of the owners not to suflfer even the smallest part to go 

 to waste. 



SKIRRET. — Sium sisarum. — "The skirret is a perennial 

 tap-rooted plant, a native of China. The lower leaves are 

 pinnated, and the stem rises about a foot high, terminated 

 by an umbel of white flowers, in July and August. The 

 24^ 



