SILK CULTURE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 511, 7 June 1881, Page 2

SILK CULTU RE.

As this Mil'jfct is now great'y interesting (lit , ivs'ii!i;nls in 'lie Peninsula, llic.following extract Irmi: a work lately published in Sydney ly liaion yon "'Millier, K.O.M.C. limy not be. without in;crest, The woik purports to treat of " Select I'hcira -tropica l Plants readily eligible for Iniliihtii.'il Culture or Nnt utilization." The following extract refers to the mulberry: —

"Morns alba, Linne. The white mulberry, China. This tree in seveial varieties provides (he food for the ordinary Chinese silk insect (Boinbi/x mori). Silk was piodiuoil in It ily GOU j'ears ago, and there this branch of industry has nourished ever since. In China, siik has been reeled for 4500 years, j'his may demonstrate the permanency of an industry which we wish to establish hero extensively under a similar sky. " One pound, of tilk is worth its weight is: Mlver, and tin's pound mny be produced (so far as the food of the toinbyx is concerned) from thirty pounds of mulberry .'caves, or from a single tiee ; which may thus lie brought to yield aniiniihy the niateii d for 10 yards of Gros de. Naples. ,, The white mulberry tree is of extremely easy growth from cuttings, also readily raised raised from well natuml seeds. ° * The planting , of mulberry trees has recently ass? umed enormous dimensions in California, where, in 1870. betweon seven and eight mil I ions were planted. The process of reaiing the silk insect is simple, and involves no laborious exertions. The cocoons after they have been properly steamed, dried, and pressed, readiy find purchasers in Europe, the price ranging according to quality from 3s to Gs per pound. The eggs of the si.k moth sell at a price from 16s to il'2 per ounce, and in 1870 Japan had to provide two millions of ounces of silk ova for I'Airope, where the worms had extensively fallen victims to disease. Instances have been recorded in California whi.ro eight tons of leaves were gathered in the first year from the mulberry trees of one acre, and o0 tons in the noxc year. As an example of the profit thus to be realised, a (Jiiiit'ornian fact may be oiled, according to which ,£7OO were the clear gain from 'Sir acres, the working expenses having been £!).'>. The Commissioner of: Agriculture of the United States, has estimated that under oidiuary circumstances an aero should support from 700 to 1000 mulberry trees, producing 50001b of leaves lit for food when Jour years old. On this quantity of leaves can be reared 140,000 worms,from which ova at a net profit ranging from £80 to £240 per acre will be obtained by the work of one person. Mr C. Brady, of Sydney, thinks the likely proceeds of silk ciilUho to be from .fh'O to £150 for the acre. The discrepancies in calculations of this kind are explained by dilierences in clime, soil, attention, and treatment."