30%  Obstécles to the rearing of Silk-worms in England. INov. ly 
hzed man may, in this respect, conde- 
scend to take a lesson from savage and 
animal life-or, in other words, from 
pure nature. 
For the present, T am content with 
having, through your Magazine, submit- 
ted these ideas to the world, and I leave 
it to the leisure, opportunity, patriotism, 
or benevolence, of others, to apply them 
to all their beneficial purposes. ; 
Common SENSE. 
N.B. It concerns me to observe, by the 
records of mortality in your Magazine, that 
numerous females were burnt to death during 
the last winter, notwithstanding I pointed 
ent an infallible means of avoiding such ac- 
cidents in 2 former paper. As thuse means 
cannot too often be published, I shall remind 
your readers that they consist simply in the 
party /ying down, as soon as the clothes are 
discovered to be on fire. A lady’s muslin 
dress, which might take fire at the skirt, 
would burn from top to bottom, and produce 
a fatal density of flame in half a minute, 
while she is standing upright; but if she 
were instantly to He down, even though she 
took no pains leisurely to extinguish the 
flames, ten minutes would elapse before her 
dress could be consumed, and the flame would 
be such as might, at any instant, be extin- 
guished by the thumb and fingers. Is it not 
then most afflicting, that fatal accidents 
should arise frum a eawse so easily averted ? 
- To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
* SER, 
NF. of your correspondents in your 
last Number, states the great ob- 
siacle in the way of rearimg siik-worms 
in this country, to be the difficulty of 
retarding the hatching of the eggs until 
the late period at which mulberry leaves 
appear. It may be useful to him, and 
to such of your readers as are tclined 
to amuse themselves with breeding these 
insects, to be inforined that the exciusion 
of the eggs entirely depends upon the de- 
grce of temperature to which they are ex- 
posed, and may be regulated at pleasure. 
in the East Indies they hatch in a week 
or two; here not for some months, com- 
monly six or seven. By inclosing them 
inadry phial, tightly corked, and kept 
in a cellar, they may be preserved in a 
dormant state for a much longer peried ; 
aud may be hatched at any time ina 
few days by exposure to the sun. There 
is no reason to doubt that if placed in 
ais ice-house, their exclusion might be re- 
turded for upwards of a year. 
Tiough your correspondent is miss 
taken on this head, be is quite right 
jw coming to the conciusion that silk- 
worms are never likely to be bred with 
profit in this country. Not on account 
of the climate, which is even more fa- 
vourable to them than that of Italy or 
India, but from the impossibility ofsupply 
ing theny with suitable food except at an 
enormous expence. Other trials con- 
firm Ins experience, that the mulberry is 
the only plant upon whosé leaves they 
thrive. At present so few/of these trees 
aré in existence in Britain, that perhaps 
no district of twenty miles in circumfe- 
rence could furnish leaves for the worms 
necessary to spin five pounds of silks 
‘But more might be grown?” True, 
but not profitably, as a very short cals 
culation will shew. The silk spun by a 
Single silk-worth weighs on the average 
less then three grains. A thousand 
worms therefore are necessary to furnish 
a pound of siik, worth, we will say, thirty- 
five shillings. Buta mulberry-tree capa- 
ble of supplying food fer so many must. 
be of at least seven or eight years’ growth, 
When, therefore, we take into account 
that these trees require a good soil; that 
the cost of planting them would be con- 
siderable, while little or no return would 
be received during the above period, 
and that the expence of attending the 
worms, preparing the silk, &c., would 
not be trifling, it is clear that no profit 
could attend the speculation. This is 
not at all to be iamented. He is quite 
right in condemning that rage which na- 
tions have for producing every thing at 
home; which, if it could be realized, 
would prove the destruction of com- 
merce, and put a stop to the progress of 
civilization. In this view many of the 
premiums of the Society of Arts have al- 
ways seemed to me injudiciously directed. 
Why should we be desirous of growing 
madder, producing silk, &c. &c. when 
we can procure those articles so cheap 
from our neighbours, and get them in 
exchange for our own manufactures? If 
we could succeed in our wishes, we 
should find, like those notable housewives 
who boast of having “ every thing within 
themselves,” that our madders and our 
silk would cost us twice as much as if pur- 
chased in the markets of Holland and 
Ttaly. Happily nature has put a check 
"to these vagaries, in rendering different 
countries dependant on each other; and 
whatever may be the boasts of the Mo- 
niteur, we may safely predict that 
Buonaparte’s grape-sugar and endive- 
root coffee will share the fate of 
the siik speculations of our James I. 
at Chelsea. PaMpuILa. 
Le 
