433 
1. That the White Mulberry-tree is the only one that will produce Silk. 
The quotation, page 191 , in your tenth volume, of Mr. Hanway’s Travels, a 
man of known veracity, I can assure to be true, by what X have heard of 
a gentleman who lived many years at Astrachan, and had connexions with 
the Armenians, who are the principal traders with Persia and Persian Silk, 
an article increasing yearly, for the use of the manufactures at Moscow. The 
Persian Silkworms, as those in Italy and the south of France, feed most 
certainly on the White Mulberry leaves alone. This is confirmed by the 
ingenious and indefatigable Mr. Arthur Young, in his Travels in the south 
of France and Lombardy, as quoted by Mr. Swayne, which X have read in 
his works; and Mr. Bertezen affirms the same; while what he gives as his 
own opinion is evidently fallacious, if not set forward on purpose to mislead. 
No doubt the Worms will live on the Black, but will not thrive, nor give 
any other but indifferent Silk. X therefore think, that for a complete esta¬ 
blishment and producing Silk, this being the laudable aim of the Society, 
the White Mulberry alone should be raised, using the Black, existing of old 
in England, for its fruit, only as a necessitous nourishment, degrading the 
quality and value of the Silk. As a further proof X must add, that the 
Oragazine Silk, the best Europe produces, owes its excellence to the par¬ 
ticular kind of White Mulberry-trees, of which the branches are grafted on 
those raised from seed. X remember to have heard, and even read some¬ 
where, that they get, by way of smuggling, the branches to France, to graft 
the trees in Provence, Dauphine, and Languedoc: premiums will bring them 
as certainly to England, 
2. That the White Mulberry-tree will thrive most certainly in England 
and Wales, and even in Scotland as far as Edinburgh, as a middling standard- 
tree. The Black and the White will do, though this less flourishingly, as 
far as the most northern coasts of Scotland, perhaps not as a standard-tree, 
but certainly as a large bushy shrub, as my old trees are here. My trees, 
from sucklings and seeds, are trained as small standard-trees, the stem or 
trunk only four or three feet. To judge by the latitude, the White Mulberry 
will thrive in Ireland as well as in England; but the seeds should not be 
taken from France nor Italy, nor any warmer clime. I would propose to 
get them by Stetten from Pomerania, and from Berlin; nay, X have been 
assured some may be had from Koningsberg in Prussia: care must be taken 
to distinguish the two sorts. The White one may be got too from Dresden 
5 e 
