5 
Is. 6d. per 11)., total £9. 30,000 worms will have consumed 
2,000 lbs. of leaves, say £2 10s. worth, and thus the breeder will 
have a gross return of £6 10s. per ounce of seed. 
3rd The reeler clears one pound of reeled silk out of 12 lbs. 
of cocoons, for which he has paid about 18s., and we have seen 
that reeled or raw silk sells at from £1 2s. to £1 0s. per lb.; 
then lie has a gross benefit of, from four to eight shillings 
per lb. of raw silk. (1) 
If each of the three distinct branches realizes such satisfactory 
benefits, we may easily calculate what the total benefit must be, 
when they are combined in the hands of one person, or one 
company, as is often the case. 
Now, what hinders us from benefiting ourselves and the colony 
by such advantages as those afforded by the silkworm industry ? 
raauy causes operate, most of them however rather seeming than 
real: These causes are; 1st ignorance; 2nd prejudices, or diffi¬ 
culties arising from ignorance; 3rd want of capital; 4th slow 
return; and 5th dearness of labor. 
1 Ignorance. As silk is not, and never has been, produced in 
any of the three kingdoms, very few british subjects have a 
distinct idea of the method and advantages of silk growing : 1 
happened to meet with some amateur silkworm breeders in this 
colony, and I eoidd not help smiling at their utter ignorance of 
the matter, both theoretically and practically : one of them was 
speaking to me in pompous terms of his sericicole establishment, 
and, when I asked how many thousand worms he had, he stared 
at me, quite bewildered, and answered lie had 72 (not 72,000} 
but as 40 died, he had only 32 left. 
And when enquiring how he treated the cocoon and the 
chrysalis, I learned that he unmercifully stripped every chrysalis 
of its silk, thus exposing those intended for seed, to perish before 
the transformation, or to be transformed into weak crippled motbs, 
incapable of rc-production !! A very promising establishmenl.(l) ' 
Another, with a paternal solicitude, worthy of better success, 
endeavoured to persuade his moths to take some food, which they 
obstinately refused to do, and lie had the grief to see them die 
suddenly and simultaneously, of self-starvation, as he thought, 
and without leaving any posterity behind them, as the good man 
had thrown away the eggs, which he had mistaken for dung. (Ill) 
(I) Let U3 not forgot thu French and Italian raw silk sells at not loss than £1 lus.. that 
is to say, about one sixth more than the above price. 
(I) The cocoons intended for reproduction should bo kept, entire. The silk worm is 
lost m regular silk but is used us floss, as will bo seen hereafter. 
(Ill) The moth of the silk worm docs not oat: it lives only a few days, sometimes only 
a few hours, and dies almost immediately ufler tho reproduction. 
