429 
The trees which are designed to feed silkworms, should never be suf¬ 
fered to grow tall, but rather kept in a sort of hedge: and instead of 
pulling off the leaves singly, they should be sheared off together with their 
young branches, which is much sooner done, and is not so injurious to 
the tree. 
It is surprising that this precept of Mr. Miller’s has not been attended 
to, not only in England, but in many of the southern parts of Europe, where 
making silk is of some consequence, since the practice is followed in the 
East, and is in itself perfectly rational. Father Loureiro informs us, that in 
Cochinchina they root up the plants every third year, and make fresh plan¬ 
tations of the cuttings, because the young shoots afford a more delicate food 
for the worms, and produce a finer silk. Sir George Staunton relates that 
in a part of China through which the Embassy passed, Mulberries were cul¬ 
tivated and reared with the greatest care; and planted in rows, ten or twelve 
feet asunder, in beds of a moist, but not inundated loamy earth, thrown 
about a foot high above the surface. The trees are frequently pruned or 
dwarfed, in order to make them produce a constant succession of young 
shoots, and tender leaves.* Our planters recommend a dry soil for the Mul¬ 
berry ; but it appears from the authors just quoted that in China and Cochin- 
china, it is cultivated in a very moist one, by the sides of rivers, or where 
rice is grown in trenches between the rows of trees. 
There yet remains a hope, that the cultivation of silk may be successfully 
introduced into these realms. 
The thanks of the Society of Arts were given to Mr. Sievers, of Bauen- 
hoff, in Livonia, the Author of the following Paper, on the manner of 
rearing and treating Silkworms in the northern parts of Europe; and the 
Society, in consequence of this communication, elected him one of their 
corresponding Members. 
Sir, 
The principle that induced me to trouble you with this letter, will, 
I hope, serve for an apology, and gain your indulgence. 
Not till late in this autumn the thirteen volumes of the Transactions of 
the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, 
came to my hands. I perused them with so much the more pleasure, as 1 
* Vol. II. p. 420. 
5 Q 
