GENERA OF MOTHS PRODUCING SILK.— HINTS TO THE PEOPLE IN INDIA. 187 
On the authority of Mr. Winkworth. I 
state the number of persons employed in 
England in the silk trade in 1823 at 500,000 ; 
and at the present moment there are proba- 
bly 700,000 engaged in it. Leaving these 
details for the present, let us now proceed to 
the examination of insects producing silk.. 
The chief insects which produce silk are 
ichneumons, spiders, and moths. My friend. 
Mr. Stephens, will this evening exhibit to 
your notice a specimen of ichneumon-silk ; 
and as it is more likely to prove an object of 
curiosity than utility, I pass on to spider- 
silks. 
Several genera of spiders produce silk of 
various strength and qualities, such as the 
gossamers, and our domestic species, as well 
as many others. In France, Monsieur Bon 
had gloves and stockings manufactured of it : 
sufficient experiments, however, have not yet 
been made to ascertain the quantity and quali- 
ties of spider-silk. 
If in Rome the whimsically extravagant 
emperor, Heliogabalus, collected 10,000 lbs 
weight of spiders, as a vain display of power 
surely in this metropolis we might collect a 
sufficient quantity of cobweb to perfect any 
experiments on a silk likely to be as strong as 
that obtained from Bombyx Mori, and proba- 
bly less impervious to wet ; a silk, however, 
not likely ever to be much in vogue, from the 
natural antipathy which prevails against 
spiders from the difficulty and expense in- 
collecting the web, and the impracticability 
in breeding spiders in any numbers, arising 
from their voracious and predatory habits : 
but the cocoons might be gathered and un- 
wound. Abandoning our indigenous webs, 
such as float over the fields, as well as those 
which hang in dusky wreaths in garrets and 
in cellars, we may naturally expect to meet 
with exotic and tropical species which yield 
silk worth attention. It is probable that the 
cylindrical sacks of the gigantic Mygale may 
be advantageously collected, as the cocoons 
equal in size large walnuts, in one nidus of 
which 100 young ones have been discovered: 
it is reported, also, that some kinds of web are 
so strong that birds are entangled in the 
meshes, and that their webs oppose a certain de- 
gree of resistance even to man himself. In 
concluding my remarks on spider-silk, I 
would recommend that attention be directed 
to the silk obtained from Epeira clavipes, a 
spider abundant in Bermuda; fine specimens 
of its silken cocoon may be seen at the British 
Museum ; and other species of the same genus 
also are deserving ofattention. 
MOTH SILK. 
The principal moths producing silk belong 
to the genera Clisiocampa, Bombyx, and Tinea. 
The Bombyx Mori (the proper type of the 
genus) yields it in great abundance: this 
species has become naturalized in the fairest 
portions of the globe. 
As it appears from the statistical details that 
silk is so intimately connected with our com- 
mercial and manufacturing interest, it is evi- 
dently worth while, for the prosperity of those 
interests, to recommend its increased cultiva- 
tion j and really, if ever there was a period 
when its cultivation could be carried on with 
increased success, it is the present moment. 
Look at our Indian possessions in the full en- 
joyment of peace : the English, ruling these 
extensive territories, might induce the natives 
to grow (if I may use the term) any quantity 
of silk, sufficient to glut all the markets of 
Europe. In these regions there are generally 
eight successive silk crops; some authorities 
assert even more. Extending, moreover, our 
views to China, as the trade with that country 
is now thrown open to British capital, enter- 
prise, and industry, we may naturally expect 
that a stimulus may be applied there to its in- 
creased production. Abandoning for the pre- 
sent, however, foreign produce, it remains to 
state the possibility of growing silk in 
England, and this part of my subject requires 
a thorough investigation. Prussia, Bavaria, and 
even Northern Russia, whose climates are 
not superior to our own, grow annually large 
quantities ofsilk ; and why does not England 
do the same, the answer is, the price of labour 
is here too high ; secondly, the experiments 
tried have already failed. Notwithstanding 
these assertions, I think that it is possible to 
grow silk in England, and grow it even with 
success and profit. To meet these objections 
I would suggest, first, that we ought to breed 
silk-worms in hot-houses throughout the year ; 
and, secondly, that the Pavonia Moths of 
Europe and other countries, as well as the 
Atlas Moths of Asia, should be reared in like 
manner. It has already been remarked, that 
several corps are obtained in the East withiu 
the year ; and why may we not also expect 
in England several, by means of breeding 
the worms in hot-houses. In India the long- 
est period for a generation of silk-worms ap 
pear to be forty days : even allowing fifty days 
in England for a generation, we may then ex- 
pect seven crops of silk. If we only obtained 
four, that is double the number produced in 
Italy, where they annually rear but two. I 
need now scarcely add that four crops will no 
doubt repay the speculator for rearing silk. 
To reduce, however, his expenditure as much 
as possible, I would recommend him to feed 
the silk-worms with lettuce instead of mul- 
berry leaves ; first, as there is less expense in 
the cultivation ; secondly as, the lettuce can 
be grown cheaply in cucumber-frames during 
the winter months ; and, lastly, as the quality 
of the silk does not depend so much on the 
quality of the leaf as it does on the degree of 
temperature in which the worm is reared. I 
would strenuously recommend tbe lettuce. 
Should the food of the mulberry-tree, however, 
be preferred to the lettuce, we can still adopt 
the discovery of Ludovico Bellarde, of Turin. 
His plan consisted in giving the worms the 
pul verized leaves of the mulberry-trees, slightly 
moistened with water : the leaves were gather- 
in the previous summer, dried in the sun, redu- 
ced to powder, and then stowed away in jars 
for the winter food, or till the tree was in full 
foliage. Repeated experiments made by Bel- 
larde prove that the worm preferred this kind 
of food to any other, as they devour it with 
the greatest avidity. To reduce still further 
the expenditure, old men, women, and children 
might be employed in feeding the worms, as 
