The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1567.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 290, 7 December 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1567.

An attempt was made some time ago, iv the columns of our contemporary, the Examiner, to illustrate not ouly the benefits, but also the great profits to be realised by the., cultivation of the silkworm, but we are uot aware that the discussion of the subject gave rise to any practical results, although several residents in this neighborhood, among whom we may mention especially Mr Batchelor, of Wakapuaka, have proved beyond question the facility with which the experiment may be carried out. We learn from Sydney that it has been decided to show, in a practical manner, that the cultivation of the silkworm can be. carried out with advantage. A gentleman, named Brady, who has already brought the subject very prominently forward in the local journals, is about to teach the inmates of the Kandwick Asylum, a very extensive institution for the nurture and education of children, in the immediate vicinity of Sydney, the method of rearing these worms and of obtaining the silk from them. The work is such that it can be performed by the smallest child, and as there are some hundreds of children in this establishment, it will be a great service to them if they can be taught this useful art, which may prove of great benefit to them in after life. The ailanthus silkworm, it appears, is the particular sort •which. Mr Brady cultivates. It is very easily reared, and its food can be easily obtained, so that it only requires a general interest to be taken in its culture in order that silk may be produced in paying

quantities. It is not perhaps generally known that Italy derives from this source infinitely more wealth every year than we obtain from our goldfields. The, annual value of the silk she produces is between eight or nine millions sterling, which the consumption of textile fabrics manufactured from this beautiful material is constantly increasing. The supply of the raw material scarcely keeps pace with the demand, and men of science are busily occupied, in the discovery of substitutes. Our own soil has been proved to be so favorable to the growth of the mulberry tree, our own climate so propitious to the

rearing of the silkworm, the process of preparing the raw silk for exportation so simple, and the cost of shipment to the European markets so infinitesimal, as compared with the value of the commodity, that no excuse need be offered for calling attention to what might become an important branch of agriculture and v valuable article of export ia this colony. The value of land and labor in Italy differs so widely from that of the same commodities in this colony, that it is evidently difficult to arrive at a correct estimate of the payable nature of the cultivation of the mulberry tree in New Zealand from Italian data. In Lombardy it is considered to be a highly lucrative pursuit; and in that part of Italy which was until lately known as Piedmont, the . net profit accruing from a hectare of land, laid down for the growth of cereals, is computed to be something less than £4 per annum, whilst a like quantity of land devoted to silk husbandry is estimated to yield an annual profit of about £11 sterling. One advantage connected with this branch of industry is, that the rearing, feeding, and nurture of the silkworm can be attended to by women aud children, that every small farmer may have his mulberry orchard and his magnaniere or nursery, and that six weeks in the early summer constitutes the whole period during which silk husbandry is prosecuted; and accordiug to the testimony of the late Count Cavour, there is no more efficacious means of strengthening domestic ties in the household of the yeoman or the peasant, than by encouraging the rearing of silkworms. Even as a pastime and as au interesting study, the occupation might be pursued with pleasure; and by easy and inexpensive experiments it might soon be ascertained whether it could not be c.irried out upou a large scale with very considerable profit. The results already attained by amateurs point to the fact that there can be no doubt that success would attend the experiment. The attempt to which we have alluded as about to be made at the Randwick Asylum, near Sydney, is the first of any magnitude which has ever yet been essayed iv this group of colonies, and we shall watch, the success of the experiment with no small interest, since there is no doubt that it might be imitated with equal success in this province. To Australia and New Zealand Europe is now indebted for the finest wools employed in British and French manufactures; from Australia the cottoumills will eventually derive a considerable portion of their supplies of the raw material they consume; and we see every reason to justify us in the belief that to Australia and New Zealand the silkthrowsters and ribandweavers of the mothercountry may at no distant date look for their choicest organzine and floss.