REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



359 



SILK-CULTURE. 



Until the middle of July of this year the work arid correspondence 

 relating to sericiculture were kept up by the ordinary force of the Bu- 

 reau. In response to applications, silk-worm eggs were sent in upwards 

 of twelve hundred packages to some two hundred persons, most of whom 

 were supplied with samples of six different races for comparison. 



Reports have been received from very few of these, so that it is im- 

 possible to say what the general result of their experience has been. 



In August^ 1883, it was found necessary to issue a fourth edition of 

 our Manual of Instruction for the Production of Silk (Special Report No. 

 II of this Department). Of the one thousand copies then printed, more 

 than nine hundred have been sent out in answer to applications from all 

 parts of the country. 



The work of the Bureau in the distribution of literature, silk-worm 

 eggs, &c, which has been maintained without any special Congressional 

 aid heretofore, can this year be more easily and extensively carried on, 

 owing to an act approved June 5, 1884, "for the encouragement and de- 

 velopment of the culture and raising of raw silk," which appropriated 

 S 15,000 for this purpose. Under this act, Mr. Philip Walker was ap- 

 pointed a special agent, and will, with the necessary clerical force, give 

 his entire time to the work of the Silk Division of this Bureau. 



The operations necessary to the manufacture of raw silk are being 

 studied as their importance demands, and it is our intention to estab- 

 lish a small experimental filature on the grounds of the Department in 

 order to advance the study of this subject. 



A most important feature in the successful raising of silk-worms, 

 and one which experience teaches should receive the attention of any 

 Government wishing to encourage the industry, is the production of 

 healthy eggs, for distribution among sericiculturists. The Mulberry 

 Silk-worm is subject to two diseases which at different times have 

 wrought havoc in Europe and the East. These are the pebrine and 

 the flaeherie. They are caused by the presence of minute parasitic 

 organisms, the nature of which was, for several years prior to 1870, 

 thoroughly studied by the French savant, Pasteur, under the direction 

 of the Academy of Sciences. While he has found no means of curing 

 these diseases once they have appeared, he has given us a method of 

 preventing their passage from one generation to another, and experi- 

 ence has shown that his methods are satisfactory. The methods set 

 forth by him and the rules laid down for the production of healthy 

 eggs are rigorously observed in all sericicultural countries of Europe, 

 although the eggs bring a higher price as the result of the great care 

 entailed by these processes. 



Feeling the importance of distributing only such eggs as are known 

 to be pure, and on account of the rarity of eggs produced in America 

 after Pasteur's processes, the eggs for distribution the coming winter 

 have been purchased from reliable French houses, and are known to be 

 of good stock. 



As bearing on the measures taken by other Governments in aid of 

 silk-culture, a report made to his chief by Mr. Agostini, secretary to the 

 consul-general at Paris, and relating to the French experimental sta- 

 tions, will prove of interest in this connection, and is reproduced farther 

 on. 



We would wish again to call your attention to a subject to which we 



