180 
producers of silk will only have to send the cocoons to the 
Silk merchant without any previous operation, which will 
greatly facilitate the production of the raw material, by 
reducing the labour to merely rearing and feeding the Silk- 
worm, until it has perfected its cocoon. 
The effect the cultivation of silk in England, supposing it 
to succeed to a considerable extent, will have upon the Cotton 
Market is another point of importance, since the enormous 
sums now paid to America for cotton would be diminished, 
if the Bicinus Silk is brought into competition. Professor 
Dieterici, in a statistical work on the Manufactures of 
Germany says, " Cotton fabrics are daily assuming more 
importance, and superseding, or at least entering into serious 
rivalry with those of linen, the chief reason for which is 
the continually augmenting production of the raw material, 
and he conceives the same reason will bring the Bicinus Silk 
into general use. It is estimated that America, Asia, and 
Africa produce annually nearly four million bales (each of 
300 or 4001bs. weight) of cotton, and this is continually 
increasing. Of this quantity by far the largest proportion 
is worked up in Europe, and chiefly in England, which 
requires a weekly supply amounting in value to one and a 
half or two million dollars. Dieterici estimates the value of 
the cotton yarn manufactured in England and Scotland in 
the year 1858, at nearly 165 million dollars. In the 
Zollverein this manufacture is yet far from being on so exten- 
sive a scale, but it is gradually and steadily progressing, as is 
plain from the fact that on the average of the years 
1849 and 1853 the importation of raw cotton had risen 136 
per cent, above that of 1837, while that of foreign yarns 
had only increased about 35 per cent, above that of the same 
year. Proceeding in his calculations he shows that a sum 
of 33 million thalers is annually expended within the 
Zollverein upon cotton manufactures ; and, admitting that a 
