7 
especially in the south of France and Italy, the climate of which 
is much like that of Victoria. I have seen some samples of 
silkworms in this colony; where they came from is more than 
I can say, but one tiling is certain, whenever they were well 
treated, they were thriving very well, and the silk was of a very 
good quality. 
3rd. Want of Capital. We have seen how the common fanner 
is at present forcibly prevented from embarking in this new 
industry : besides the obstacles already stated, there is another : 
we have seen that the silkworm industry may be exercised either 
separately or cumulatively: now let us suppose a farmer quite 
conversant with the planting and training of mulberry trees: 
he will plant and train them; but to whom shall he sell his leaves 
if there is no breeder to buy them ? Or another would start as 
a breeder; but wherewith shall he feed his worms, if there are no 
mulberry trees, or how can he have his cocoons reeled, if there is 
no reeling factory? Or another again might have the whole 
apparatus of a reeling machinery; but of what avail will it be to 
him if he has no cocoons to reel ? It- is therefore obvious 
that, until the industry has spread over the country, and has 
become popular and familiar to the farmers, it can be undertaken 
only with its three branches cumulatively, and they require a 
capital, the amount of which frightens the bravest, especially 
when they consider the slow return. 
These two obstacles, again, may be overcome only either by a 
public institution or by a company, the members of which, 
venturing each a small investment, might wait patiently for the 
result, however slow it might be, with the prospect, earlier or 
later, of a highly remunerative return; and also because the 
expenses always weigh comparitively less on a larger establishment 
than on a smaller one. 
4th. Slow Return. But would the return be so slow as is 
generally thought? No! in France a mulberry tree begins to 
be stripped of its leaves when five years old. In this colony it 
grows so rapidly, so luxuriantly, that it might be stripped in the 
third year; but let us take a medium and say four years; it 
would "be still slow. But let us look at our different enterprises, 
at the return of the viaicole industry, for instance : has not the 
vine grower to wait four or five years for any remuneration of 
his labor and outlay ? Why should it not be the same with the 
silkworm industry ? If we never begin we shall never have it; 
it is precisely because it is slow that wc must set to work 
without delay. 
We have seen that we should have to wait four years; but if 
