The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-25 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON, PORTSMOUTH, AND CHICHESTER RAILWAY.
—Yesterday Mr. Hassis, who appeared for the official
manager Mr. Wryghte, asked Master Richards to place
eight gentlemen on the list of contributories as
managing commttteemen. The grounds upon which the
application rested was stated to be that those gentlemen
had acted in the above-mentioned capacity, and had each
been allotted and had paid upon 200 shares. This latter
allegation was disputed, and Mr. Mogonie, the registered
solicitor of the company, and who represented Mr.
Mountague, one of the gentlemen whom it was now
sought to fix, was examined relative to the matter. He
said that the book now produced. called the " Allot-
ment Book," was, he believed, a fair copy, made up
under the directions of the secretary, and consisted of
the names of persons whom the latter assumed to have
accepted shares. The reason why Mr. Clarkson and
other members of the committee of management ap-
peared as having accepted and paid upon 200 shares
each was because, when the panio ensued, the mem-
bers of the managing committee deemed it right,
as an example to the provisional committee, to make
contributions towards the expenses that had been
incurred, and which contributions they thought
proper to fix at the rate of 10s. per share on 200 shares.
Ho did not consider these contributions to have been paid
under any letters of allotment, and there were some
thousands of shares upon which the public had paid 10s.
each anterior to the contributions of the committee of
management. Mr. Harris said that if the case of the
official manager rested alone upon the fact of those several
gentlemen having acted, he felt confident that that:ground
would be quite sufficient to induce the Master to place
them upon the list, but he was prepared to prove their
accptance of the 200 shares each, and the. payments
thereon. After some conversation the sitting was ad-
journed.
EASTERN COUNTIES JUNCTION AND SOUTHEND
RAlLWAY.—Yesterday another meeting was held before
Master Sir William Horne, for the further arrangement
of the contributory list, but only one case was entered
into, and this was eventually postponed. The former
secretary of the company, Mr. R. H. Causton, was in-
terrogated at some length by Mr. Williams, who ap-
peared for an alleged contributory. This witness de-
posed that he had been one of the original promoters
of the scheme, but that on his being appointed
to the office of secretary, his interest as such had
ceased. He also stated that there had been no allotment
of shares to him; but upon the production of the com-
pany's deed, his signature appeared .as the holder of
shares to the amount of 1,250/. The Master commented
upon this apparent discrepancy, and required an expla-
nation of the circumstance from Mr. Causton, who said
that, before trusting further to his memory, he wished
Mr. Smith, the solicitor of the company, to be examined
on this point. The further proceedings were then ad-
journed.
CONTINENTAL TRAFFlC.—lmportant facilities are
about to be given to the travelling public by the South-
Eastern Railway Company, who have entered into ar-
rangements with the Northern of France and Boulogne
and Amiens Companies, for a regular direct service
daily each way between London and Paris, by special
trains, to suite the_tides. ' Among the many advantages
secured by this arrangement, we may mention that pas-
sengers will be enabled to Leave London in the morning
and reach Paris in the evening of the same day, without
the inconvenience of embarking or disembarking in
small boats, performing the who le journey in eleven
hours, two hours only being occupied in the sea passage.

NEW METHOD OF FIXING LEECHES.—Dr. Rennes,
member of the French Academy, states that the moat rapid
way of setting leeches is to immerse them for a minute in
very weak wine and water —it should be warm, however, as
this produces the greater stimulus. In the Hotel Dieu, at
Paris, a somewhat similar plan has been practised for some
time, namely, steeping a handkerchief in pure wine, and
placing the leeches in it, pressing them tightly, and then
applying them to the part.
AMERICANISUER.—The New York Herald informs
ns that one Adam Dame, convicted of murder at St. Louis,
has been sentenced to seventy-five years of imprisonment. If
he outlives hie imprisonment, he will be as " old as (his
namesake) Adam."

There are few or no regularly or scientifically con-
structed silkworm breeding places, although the writers
on the subject are continually recommending the erec-
tion of magnannaries—so these places are called—duly
ventilated, and prepared expressly for the reception and
convenient breeding of the worms. Barns, lofts, lumber
garrets—or whatever outbuilding, so that there be a fire-
place in it, which comes handiest—is used; and the ap-
paratus with which the place is for the nonce fitted up
is, perhaps, none the less efficient for actual working
purpcses that it can be cheaply come by and easily
knocked up. Travelling through the district in the ie in-
ter, the only actual vestiges of silkworms which I saw
were the stores of eggs for next season, commonly stuck
upon folds of cloth, and looking very like assortments
of small beads, but carefully folded in multitudinous
wrappers of towels, and laid by in the warmest nooks of
the kitchen cupboards. When the early summer time
begins to vivify the world, and the mulberry leaves to
got juicily ripe, the eggs are hatched—more anon Cl
the several processes employed—and the barn, or stable,
or hayloft to be employed is cleaned out and the appa-
ratus arranged. The latter, as it is commonly used, it
easily described. I have alluded to the huge bamboo-
like canes or rushes which grow in the swamps and be
the river banks. These are cut, split open, and attached
together, so as to form long cane beds, about 21 feet
broad, called dales. Ranges of these couches are then
stretched shelvewisc from one end of the barn to the
other, upon a rude system of framework easily erected
—two or more ptnsages, according to the breadth of the
chamber, being left longitudinally for the attendants
to traverse. The doles are arranged one above
the other, the lowest about eighteen inches from
the floor, the others at like spaces up to the ceiling.
if necessary. The place thus presents the aspect
of a great barn-chamber, completely filled with long,
narrow cane-work shelves, resting upon a rough extem-
pore framework elf timber, and traversed by narrow pas-
sages from end to end. The worms as soon as they are
hatchet!, are strewed along the claies, and the mulberry
leaves at the proper morneat sprinkled over and among
them. Precautions are generally taken to ensure some-
thing like an equality of temperature. Holes are cut in
the floor and walls to allow the entrance of air, and
stoves are used if the nights prove cold. The attendant
makes use of a short ladder to ascend to the higher
claies. lii some of the better class of establishments,
however, a different and superior arrangement is
adopted. The dales are ranged so as to hang from the
circumference of large wheels placed at each end of the
apartment. By -turning these wheels the ranges of
shelves rite and fall, and are transferred from side to side
at the pleasure the attendant. Brisk currents of
air are thus made to play amid the silkworm beds—
a good fresh atmospheric supply being usually
that which the insects sufler most from the want of—
while the operator can bring each system of shelves
readily to his or her hand, for the necessary cleaning
and feeding of the worms. At the proper moment the
creatures aro furnFahed with due facilities for spinning
the valuable nest in which they enclose themselves and
their eggs. Hedges, or fences so to speak, composed of
the cuttings of brushwood or some such substance, are
stuck erect in long lines adown each claie, supported be-
tween the shelves, and bristling with tough twigs and
tiny forked branches. Up these the worms climb, and
in them they lay their eggs and spin their cocoons. The
whole structure of framework and shelf is then pulled to
pieces, the brushwood hedges extracted, and the little
bunches of silken film picked carefully out from amongst
the twigs. The worms inside are killed by the applica-
tion of steam or boiling water, and if there be a sufficient
number of women in the establishment, the spinning of
the fibre commencee; if not, the cocoons are sold to the
agents of the spinners and throwsters, as ho proceed from
farm to farm, gathering in the silken harvest of the year.
The labour of attending to the silkworms during the se-
veral stages of their short existence is a very trying and
harassing one. The operator must be continually on the
alert, cleaning th dales, providing flesh masses of
leaves, regulating the temperature by means of the
stoves and air bole s, and removing the dead, sick, or
dying worms. The creatures have always to be tended
the last thing in the evening and the first in the morning.
l~heie great pains are taken, they are even visited and
arranged during the night. This labour, in general,
falls upon the women. " There is little sleep fur us in
silkworm time, said a buxom old lady who was show-
ing me her stores of eggs in a poor-looking Ardeche
farmhouse. Sometimes, however, the peasants of the
Cevennes, who aro esteemed the most skilful silkworm
breeders in France, descend from their hills at the
proper season, and are employed in the larger estab-
lishments. In the department of the Drome it is cal-
culated that about six hundred arrive every year
to undertake the silkworm tending in the principal
farms. They take the whole charge of the operation,
from the hatching of the eggs to the production
of the cocoons, and are paid about two francs per day.
The women do not; gain above 24 or 25 souse although
they do the work just as well as the men. The person
who performs the duties of the magnannarie has also to
strip the mulberry leaves for food for his or her charge
—so that the office is, as may be conceived, no sinecure.
The cocoons secured, the claies and their supporting
framework aro carefully piled up in any out-of-the-
way corner, ready for the requirements of the follow..
ing season, and the barn or loft returns for the rest of
the year to its proper employment.
After the above general sketch of the manner of silk-
worm rearing in France, the reader will probably be
willing to accompany me through some more minute de-
tails as to the culture of the mulberry tree, and the
principal steps in the curious process of the education
des vers ¢ sole. . _

I have ctVatFd that, through the principal silk-pro-
ducing districts of France, almost the entire taco of
the country is planted with this indispensable tree.
Sometimes it ia arranged in regular plantations, the
corn or grub beneath being a ascoodary consideration;

sometimes it is planted in long double or single lines,
cutting the fields into narrow stripes. The regular
hedges and paths, and the main and cross roads, are in-
variably planted with the shrub, and few farm-houses
are unprovided with a sheltered corner, in or near their
gardens, in which colonies of the precious seeilings are
growing. The tree upon which all these pains are ex-
pended, and which brines in so rich a return, is a suffi-
ciently ugly and unpicturetque-looking affair, scrubby
and mopping like the olive, and so regularly cut and
twisted, and pruned as to destroy anything like incli •
eiduality about each distinct specimen. Its principal
visible peculiarity and the result of the us:de o
culture employed, is that the tree generally pre-
sents the appearance of a trunk, sending forth half
a dozen stumps of thick branches, cut short near the
body of the tree, and each garnished with a more or
less plentiful and thriving crap of vigorous twigs about
a yard in length, upon which the precious le eves are
produced.
The mulberry is generally reared from the seed.
When a plantation is to be formed, the seed is gathered
is Juno and July from old trees which have been lefi.
for that purpose unstripped of their crop of leaves.
The germs thus obtained are flung into the water; those
which float are thrown away—those which sink are
saved for use. The destined spot for the plantation—
the more sunny and sheltered the better—is either
ploughed repeatedly, or the soil well loosened by hand
labour. Manure is applied, and the ground carefully
lsvelled. The seed is sown in May, generally along
shallow furrows, about six inches broad, and covered
with a thin layer of earth. Weeding and watering are
not neglected during the summer and autumn, and dog-
grass, which an old French farmer told me he cordially
hated, is very carefully rooted out. As the slips shoot
up, the most thriving of them are pulled from the
ground by the hand, after the fashion of radishes, and
replanted in another patch of well-stirred, manured, and
loosened earth—care bei,g taken that the roots of each
Seedling are well and solidly covered by the soil. As
the shrub increases in size, it is regularly pruned, to
prevent it from throwing out too m any branches, and
the ground is very carefully cleared from weeds. Very
generally, the young mulberry is improved and quick-
ened by grafting. The uegrafied slips, called sauva-
geonc, are said to live the longest, but the grafted
mulberries produce by far the heaviest crop of
leaves. The harvest yielded by the sauvageon, from
the smallness of the leaves, is tedious and expensive
to gather, while the leaf of the grafted mulberry is
said to weigh nearly three times as much as that
of the sauvageon. As the trees grow up, the soil
is ploughed or otherwise worked every August, and the
young shoots are pruned, so as to concentrate the sap
as much as possible, and prevent the seedling from being
weakened by an over-rapid growth. About the fourth
or fifth year, the mulberries aro dug up from the plan-
tatiou to be eat in their places in the field; as vet they
have yielded nothing, the scanty crops of leaves having
been permitted to grow untouched. As to soil, the mul-
berry is by no means difficult to please. As a general
rule, the fields in which the tree is planted thickly are
the most middling parts of the domain. Marsh land
is the only species of soil in which the tree makes no
way—its growth is affected, its leaves in such situations
turn yellow, and afford but a emall and unwholesome
supply of food to the insect for whose behoef it is reared.
Tin- mulberry is often planted along with the vine,
Although the propriety of the practice is a mooted
point, some cultivators maintaining that the two plants
thrive best in .brotherhood, others that the mulberry
ought always to be reared alone. As a general rule,
however, it is held in the south that where the vine
flourishes the mulberry will also do well. Care is, how-
ever, at all events taken never to allow the latter to be
overshaded by any higher-growing trees. The mul-
berry loves the sun, and languishes if the golden light
be not lavished upon his leaves and branches. A tree
well exposed to the solar influence will, it is said, grow
twice as quickly and to twice the size of one less favour-
ably situated. This being the case, the relative distance
at which the trees may be most profitably planted be-
comes an important object of consideration. Average
mulberries, planted at two metres or seven feet dis-
tance from each other, will have—so a great autho-
rity upon the subject calculates—not more than
fifteen years of useful life. The statement, of course,
refers to a superficial plantation, and not to single or
even double rows of trees. The distances which ought
to be kept depend, however, necessarily, in a great mea-
sure, upon the size of the tree ; and mulberries are of
many species, growing to many different dimensions.
The largest trees are sometimes planted as much as 28
feet from each other; the next largest at from 14 to 17
feet; the dwarf or coppice variety at from 6 to 8 feet ;
{.he species used for hedge-rows, and set in a straight
line, not more than a leer inches apart. In localities
exposed to the Rhone fogs, the spaces are advantage-
ously left larger. The trees are generally planted in
regular squares and it is held to be of importance to
surround the field thus laid out by a species of zone or
border sown with oats, barley, or rye, which is very
generally cut down green for the cattle. Grass may be
grown among the mulberries, but the plan is not
recommended, and in a thoroughly well managed
plantation corn is never thought of. Planting each
tree at the distance of 14 feet from its neighbours,
a hectare of land will contain about 720 ; at 23 feet,
it will contain 230; at 36 feet it will contain about 9tl.
Previously to the trees being set in their positions, the
earth is well broken up, and the sujets are planted along
ditches dug to the necessary depth, or sometimes formed
by large ploughs drawn by a strong team of oxen. Once
early planted, the mulberry groves receive two plough-
ings per annum. In the smaller exploitations, hand
labour is employed instead, care being always taken that
she operation *hall not be performed during periods of
intense heat and drought. Different opinions exist as to
the quantity of manure which ought to be applied to the
mulberry, aed the time at which it is to be laid down.
Cho more compost used, the quicker the tree comes to
maturity, and the sooner—so think many cultivators—
it dies. Some mulberry growersenanure the trees every
third or fourth year. Others leave longer spaces of time
between the operations. The compost is ordinarily the
usual stable litter, and is mingled with the ground
either by manual labour with the hoe, or by the help of
the plough.

•
The most difficult and delicate portion of the task of
the mulberry grower is the pruning of the tree, so as to
cause it to produce each year the greatest quantity of
the richest and the juciest leaves. So far as I can under-
stand, there seems to exist a great deal of pedantry in
the various systems of " taille" as they are recommended
and practised by different cultivators. In almost every
district you will find some conventional shape, which it
is held necessary to give the tree, and without which it
is believed the produce would be very inferior. Mul-
berry farmers indeed appear to be possessed with the
idea that they can improve upon nature in arranging
the development of the branches, just as the old-
fashioned nurses held their swathings and bandages to be
necessary to give infants a " fine figure." The more en-
lightened growers cut and prune the tree with a different
end in view, contenting themselves with thinning the
occasional over-luxuriance of the branches, clearing
away languishing boughs in favour of the neigh-
bouring vigorous shoots, and always aiming
at the introduction of as much air and light as possible
into the body of each tree. As a general rule, also, the
object is to prevent the development of thick branches—
upon which, of course, leaves do not immediately grow
—and to encourage the abundant shoot of fresh, young
slips, which summer will see clothed with the richest
foliage. The pruning season in the most skilfully ma-
naged plantations is in the early spring, February and
March. Then the tree is said to sleep, and the opera-
tion to be far less hurtful than when the advancing
spring has sot the juices in active motion. Occasion-
ally, however, the pruning process takes place in sum-
mer—principally for
,the sake of economy in hand la-
bour—the leaves upon the cut-down branches serving
for the food of the worms or their claies. The methods
of pruning are very multifarious. There are different
tallies pursued in almost every district, by almost
every proprietor, and for every different species and
age of the tree. After some study of the subject,
I confess I can see little diversity in principle in
these numerous methods; and the reasons by which
each cultivator recommends his system as commonly
founded upon purely and minutely technical grounds,
connected with the manner of branching of various spe-
cies, the activity of the sap at various seasons in various
localities, and sundry other similar circumstances, into
which I need not enter. Suffice it to say that the best
taille is that which combines the richest harvests of leaves
each year with the method tending most surely to hus-
band the resources and lengthen the life of the tree. A
late improvement, only partially introduced, and adopted
for the most part only by the more extensive growers, is
to leave every year either a third or a fourth of the trees
unpruned and unstripped—the untouched proportion
thus enjoying a rest for which the amplitude of its yield
in the following season is said amply to compensate.
['he pruning operations, like those relating to thei l o ve
tree, give well-paid employment to a great proportion of
the labourers of the district, 40 sous being a common
daily wage for a tolerably expert hand.
The mulberry may be made available fir feeding in
the second year of its growth;tobusthiotoits
and
dd
ftaolibennvdeirsy.
desirable to permit its leaven
turhed until the tree attains double that age. Dw ;rf
mulberries are commonly stripped in their third season
—the intermediate class in their fourth—and the largest
trees, called " plein vents," intheirfi
somefdisu painsmmer. and The
leaves are gathered by the hand, and _
skill are necessary to glean the harvest satisfactorily.
Careless stripping is one of the faults which a mulberry
grower has most to guard against in his servants. The
leaves ought to be gently removed, and not a twig is, if
possible, to be broken. As I have already
bredlready in the farm,said, when,
as is generally the case, silkworms ar
the person attending to them strips the trees as the food
is wanted. When the mulberries are cultivated only
for the purpose of selling the leaves, the harvest is
gathered in as soon and by as many hands as possible,
and dispatched to the largo worm-breeding establish-
ments, which buy it. The second crop of leaves is, as I
have also stated, invariably used, either green or dried,
as fodder for the cattle. It is reckoned of importance
that shosalhering of the second harvest should be
possible.post-
svelrylvearieus. From three
produce of the mul-
berry,p,)ned
that like l as l
thelate as as
olive,
i
to six quintals of leaves may be taken as the ordinary
range, although trees exist capable of producing ten
quintal& ',Liao price of the harvest in a groat measure

On the fourth day the appetite of the creatures falls
off as suddenly as it augmented, and the allowance is
diminished to between 6 and ;lbs. The size of the
worms has now visibly increased, and the attendants
take great pains to keep them from overlaying each
other. I need hardly remark that at this, as well as at
the latter stages,the atmophere ought to be kept as pure
as possible. Holes for ventilation are commonly estab-
hiked both in the floor and roof; and the fires which are
kept constantly burning night and day tend to increase
the activity of the circulation of air. Still, however, in
the rude country concerns, the atmospheric conditions
necessary to perfect success are often neglected. A damp
fungus-like smell broods in the dark interior, and, after
their month of labour is over, the breeders come forth
pale, emaciated, and out of order. To continue. It is
on the fourth day that the first symptoms of tie first
change of skin or mue become evident to the practised
eye of an experienced " educator." The creatures keep
moving their heads, and the skin, from its strained con-
dition, takes a shiny appearance. Then the torpid state
comes gradually on, and by evening many of the worms
lie motionless, waiting for the change. On the
titth day a very small quantity, about one
pound and a half of leaves, is distributed
in the vicinity of those worms who appear
not to be so far gone as their companions. The
exact proportion of food given must depend upon the re-
quirements of the insects, ascertained by the close watch-
fulness of the attendants. In the night the change of
skin frequently takes place, many of the worms appear-
ing in their new garbs next morning. The creatures
are now about four lines in length, and of a dark ashen
colour. The next important process, and one which is
repeated at each of the four changes, or commencements
of ages, is to transfer the worms to fresh and larger
beds—of course cleaning the couches which the animals
have already occupied. There are different modes of
accomplishing this process. One much in vogue is to
spread branches of mulberry over the creatures, which
cling and stick to them. The loaded twigs are trans-
ferred to little trays or platforms, the operation being
conducted as gently as possible, in order to avoid hurting
the insects, which are then deposited upon fresh leaf-
strewn dales, 'and the twigs which served for their re-
moval taken away. A newer and better method has,
however, been adopted by a few of the most skilful
breeders of the Ardeche. I saw the apparatus employed
in the beautifully-fitted magnannerie of M. Giraud, thepro-
prietor of the fine old feudal castle of Chateaubourg,
one of the most striking ()Wets upon the right bank
of the Rhone in nearing Valence from Lyons. The
contrivance consisted in sheets of pierced pasteboard,
fitted to the size of the dales. These, covered with
leaves, are placed over the worms; the creatures climb
to the upper surface, and are carried away, to be laid
upon new dales ; the process being repeated at the next
age, while the sheets successively soiled, being thus de-
serted, are easily freshened and cleaned, and made fit
for further use.

The first day of the second age the worms must be
ranged upon a square, comprehending about 74 feet. A
aentle movement of the head is the signal that they are
up, stirring, and ready to resume their career of mul-
berrylecif devouring. A meal is accordingly served out
after they have been about an hour and a half on their
new shelves. During the day the creatures eat about nine
pounds of leaves, and are usually brisk and lively in their
movements. On the second day of the second age the al-
lowance of leaves is increased at once to thirty pounds,
administered as usual in four repasts, with six hours
interval between each ; great care is taken that the
quantity consumed by each worm shall be as nearly
us possible equal. When an undue concourse of insects
to any particular point takes place, the surplusage is
lifted upon twigs and set down in more thinly inhabited
parts of the claie. The third day of the second age the
worms eat about 331bs. of leaves. In the morning they ,
are ravenous, and devour the greater proportions of the
quantity. Towards evening their appetite falls rapidly
off, and symptoms of torpidity begin again to appear,
the worms lying listlessly upon the leaves, holding their
heads erect, and refusing aliment. Next day—the
fourth of the second age-91bs. of leaves] provide for the
wants of those insects which have not already become
torpid. During the day they fall asleep by thousands' •
and, as in the case of the first change, they burst their
skins for the most part in the night. The worms are
now six lines in length. After the first change, 3,240
weighed an ounce. Nov 610 suffice to balance the
weight. As these changes take place the worms excrete
more matter, and require more air at a lower tempera-
ture. The ventilation therefore is, or ought to be, care-
fully attended to.
Upon attaining the third age, the space to be allotted
It to the insects is about 174 square feet is a sign that
they aro thoroughly wakened up if they more their
heads and bodies, in curiously undulating sweeps, when
breathed or blown upon. The occurrence
phe-
nomenon is held to be the symptom of this
eir entry upon
the active period of their third age. of their
The first day 151bs.
of leaves, and as many of tender young twigs, are sup-
plied. The assistants now
we
their necks, containing the(r)
food which
suspended from
owhich they distribute
carefully over all the ci les.During the day as much as
6 01b. S.
of leaves are distributed, and the worms increase
in size very fast, their dimensions becoming visibly
greater every hour. The second day they eat 90lbs. of
leaves, the greater proportion being given in the everting.
The attendants must now be busy enlarging the space
which the worms occupy, and separating each as much as
possible from its ft llow. The third day nearly 10011 es. of
leaves are consumed, the greater quantity during the
morning. Towards night the insects are relapsing again
into their periodical time of stupor, but, sleeping or wak.
inn, their bulk continues to increase steadily. The h I
day 52Ibs. of leaves suffice. By evening many of the
insects are asleep;
those which
bsytilliittsthe,owwistyhmspptroimnksleodf
a desire for food are fed, little
handfuls of leaves—a tedious and harassing operation.
For the fifth day 271bs. of leaves are necessary, On the
sixth day all the worms aro torpid. By this time they
have increased to the length of twelve lines. and mall
legs and claws have developed themselves. Dunne'' the
latter part of the third age, the pattering of their little
claws upon the leaTc4, as the 1115%t5 climb upon them to