SERICULTURE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 505, 17 May 1881, Page 3

SERICULTURE.

To the Editor. Sir,—ln putting a question to Signor Federli at the meeting held in the Library the oilier da)' in reference to the possi bi ity of the" silkworm if introduced here, being eubject to the disease so fatal, to it in Southern Europe, I fear from what I hoar (hat Mr Federli misunderstood ir>y question, find that the answer had reference to a possible disease of the mulberry tree. I respectfully think that the committee should have" the fullest possible particulars as to the nature and possibility of the disease of the silkworm whatever it inftv be spreading to Now Zealand. The introduction of the silkworm to the South of Europe Is comparatively a modern niatier. compared with the cultivation of silk in China which dales (o about B.C. 2600. So far as is known to Botanists the mulberry tree is not subject to any specific blight, but the question of Uie poeeibil'ty of the silkworm (Boinbyx tnoii) being capable of tho disease, of its fellows of Italy and France, here is a matter, which should receive the careful consideration of the committee before making any recommendation to their fellow colonists to plant the true mulbery (Morus alba). a. i. McGregor.