july — sept. 1857.] The Culture of Silk. 



305 



a paste, and coated over slender sticks, of about two feet in length, 

 which are burnt as candles and never fail in driving the musquitos 

 from the room. Mr. Fortune added that the Artemisia, which is 

 a species growing wild on the Chinese hills, is employed to fumi- 

 gate bee-hives, in order to take the honey without killing the bees. 

 —Zoologist, 5644. 



The Mulberry -tree with reference to the culture of Silk. 



The art of rearing silk worms for the sake of the thread spun 

 by them had its origin we believe in China. About the 6th cen- 

 tury it was introduced into Greece, from whence several centuries 

 afterwards it was carried into Sicily and found its way thence into 

 Italy and Europe. It is now carried on very successfully in many 

 countries but particularly in the South of France, Italy and Spain. 

 East Indian silk comes chiefly from Bengal and is inferior in 

 quality to both]China and Europe produce. It is also made to some 

 extent in Mysore, Cuddapah, Pondicherry and various parts of the 

 Dekhan. 



As the mulberry tree plays an important part in the process of 

 silk manufacture, the following extract of a letter from the corres- 

 pondent of the Times, dated Paris 22d June, 1857, is inserted as 

 bearing on the conditions under which the culture of silk is most 

 successfully prosecuted, and pointing to the advantage which 

 might attend an experiment on some of the more elevated hill- 

 tracts of India, as the Nilagiris, Baba Booden, Pulney, Bella Bun- 

 gan and other ranges, where we believe it has never been tried. 



" The silk crop is sufficiently advanced in the south of France for the 

 growers to be certain that it will be more productive than last year. M. 

 Dumas, who was commissioned by the Academy of Sciences to investi- 

 gate the causes of the disease which destroyed so many silkworms last 

 year, and to discover a means of removing it, proceeded to Alais last 

 month for the purpose of minutely examining the state of matters. He 

 has since communicated to the Academy the results of his observations* 

 M. Dumas has discovered that all the reports relative to the leaves of the 

 mulberry trees being diseased are unfounded. The leaves throughout the 

 south this year are splendid, and where the eggs are sound the results have 



