The YOtfHG HATURAUST: 



A Monthly Magazine of Natural History. 



P^et 103. JULY, 1888. Vol. 9. 



SILK AND SILK PRODUCERS * 



By JOSEPH CHAPPELL, Manchester. 



rriHE Chinese are said to have been the first people who applied themselves 

 JL to sericiculture, and written documents are said to be preserved tending 

 to prove that silkworms were reared there 2700 years before the Christian era. 

 Silkworms passed insensibly into Persia, India, and various parts of Asia. 

 They were then conveyed to the Isle of Cos, and in the sixth century they 

 were introduced into Constantinople. They were successively cultivated in 

 Greece, Arabia, Spain, Italy, Prance, and in all places where any hope could 

 be entertained of their succeeding. 



In Russia, the cultivation of the silkworm was established about 1820, in 

 a latitude as far north as 54°, and with such success as to warrant the 

 establishment of manufactories for working the silk. In Germany and 

 Bavaria it has been cultivated, also in America and Australia. In the 

 early part of 1825, certain individuals, after a careful investigation of the 

 subject, came to the conclusion that the culture of the silkworm might be 

 carried on successfully in climates of as high northern latitude as that of 

 Great Britain. Consequently, these individuals laid before several persons, 

 distinguished for rank and talent, the arguments upon which their conclusions 

 were founded, and, having met with a favourable reception, presented a 

 petition to His Majesty, praying that a charter might be granted them for 

 the purpose of incorporating a company with the power of raising such 

 capital as might be deemed necessary for carrying into execution the cultiva- 

 tion of silk in Great Britain, Ireland, and colonies. Great numbers of young 

 mulberry trees were planted in various localities in Great Britain, of which 

 the bulk were destroyed by frost in the course of a few years. At Edgerton, 



♦Read before the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society, Liverpool, April, 

 j888. 



