IV 
PREFACE. 
This prayer His Majesty’s government 
were pleased to accede to ; and one of the 
first acts of the company has been, to 
publish the following translation of the 
late Count Dandolo’s Essay on the Cultiva- 
tion of the Silk-Worm ; a work universally 
acknowledged to stand unrivalled, as at 
once combining theory with practice. 
The mass of argument and facts 
which it will be found to contain, are, 
perhaps, amply sufficient to justify the 
most sanguine expectations of the success 
of the scheme, if judiciously prosecuted. 
As, however, that work was peculiarly 
addressed to climates wherein this culture 
is known to have flourished for a long 
period, a few pages will not be misapplied 
in putting the reader in possession of 
several other accredited facts, which bear 
strongly upon the merits of the plan, but 
which, from its nature, the following work 
cannot be expected to embrace. 
The success of rearing Silk-Worms in 
any country depends on two circum- 
stances, the healthy state of the insect 
