177 
Sig. Grisari states his intention of trying to rear for the same 
purposes the larvae of Pavonia major and minor, which feed 
upon various plants, and produce a good but coarse silk. 
In the neighbourhood of Halifax the latter species used to be 
plentiful, and I have no doubt all the osier cars in the 
"West Biding will also produce this insect in abundance. 
Whatever may be the ultimate result of the introduction of 
the true Silkworm (Bombyx Mori) into Britain, there 
appears little doubt that the rearing of the caterpillars of 
the Bombyx Cynthia may be accomplished ; for as this has 
been successfully done in Germany, why not in England ? 
The Castor Oil plant, however, upon which it feeds freely, 
will not bear a Northern winter without protection, and, 
therefore, fresh plantations must be reared annually, which 
would be an objection. But Kaufmann has found, very 
fortunately, that the caterpillars will thrive equally well 
upon the common teazle, which is a most important dis- 
covery, inasmuch as, while one plant would have to be 
cultivated exclusively for the insect, the other is already 
an article of extensive cultivation, solely for the sake of its 
heads in the dressing or fulling of cloth ; and the remainder 
of the plant being worthless, is left for manure. Now, 
the leaves and barren branches would supply an abundance 
of food for a large number of worms, and hence the 
produce of a crop of the teazle would realize, with a very 
small extra outlay, a double revenue. It appears to me, 
therefore, that, in a clothing district like the "West Riding 
of Yorkshire, where the cultivation of the teazle is so 
extensive, either the growers of the teazle themselves might 
employ some of the labourers' children to gather the leaves 
and attend to the worms in buildings erected expressly on 
the spot, or that it might be a source of remuneration to many 
cottagers to cultivate the teazle as a crop, instead of potatoes 
or other vegetables ; as in a small building, like a summer 
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