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

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APRIL 25 1851.
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LONDON

N°.18,280,1

ATIONAL LOAN FUND LIFE AND
EQUITABLE FIRE INSURANCE COMEANIES
26, CORNLIILL, LONDON.
DIRECTORS.

LAMI. E MURRAY, Esq., Chairman.
*W. A. B. Bennett, Esq. *John Rawson, Esq.
*Hugh Croft, Esq. *John Shaw, Esq.
tElliotson, M. D„ F.R.S. t*Edmund S. Symes, Esq.
*Ralph Co
Esq. t*Clentent Tabor, Esq.
M. C. Maher, Esq. t Joseph Thompson, Esq.
*John Moss, Esq. rAugsstus Vigne, Esq.
AUDITOR.
tProfessor Wheatstone, F.R.S.
pISISICIAN.
Elliotson, F.R.S„ 37, Conduit-street.
SUMMON.
VPE, S. Symes, Esq., 77, Grosvenor-street, Grosvenor-square.
ACTUARY.
t*W. S. B. Woolheuse, Esq., F.R.A.S., &C.
SECRETARY.
*D. T. Lyons Clanchy, Esq.
SUPERINTENDENT.
*jr. A. Hawkins, Esq.
BANszas.
f*Mesirs. Glyn, Hallifax, Mills, and Co., 67, Lombard-street.
sow:Snow,
fMears. Sutton, Ewengo Omma.nney and Prudence, 6, Basinghall-
Street.
IW. Tatham, Esq., 22, Throgniorton-street.
NATIONAL LOAN FUND LIFE OFFICE.
CAPITAL-503.0001-
The WITHDRAWAL TABLE of be Society affords to the As-
sured the greatest possible present and prospective advantages that
can be conferred by Life Assurance. On tWs Table the Assured is
entitled, at any time, to receive at interest an immediate advance,
to the extent of one-half the amount of the paid annual Premiums,
without security, personal liability; or deposit of the Pol, but by
simple endorsement thereon ; or the half Premium mayley De with-
held during the whole continuance of the Policy. Also,i in the
event of the Assured at any time not requiring' to continue thee
Policy, on its surrender one-half of the annual payments will
returned by the Society.
Lapsed Policies may be renewed without fine, on proof of health
and payment of arrears of Premium without interest.
Notices of Assignment of Policies registered and acknowledged,
so as to make them available as securities in the hands of
third parties.
Na Entrance Foes or any other charge beyond the Policy Stamp.
The present nnual income of the Society from Premiums _is
63,000/.; tne amount covered by the Policies of the Society is
1,781,5801.; and the reserved profit, applicable to future benus to
the Assured, amounts to 82,4541. ss. 6d. At the last annual inves-
tigation, reported in May, 1850, the bonuses declared to the As-
sured were, the option of a return of 15 per cent. on their Premiums
in cash, or a reversionary addition to the original sum assured by
each Policy varying from 20 to 65 per cent.
EXAMPLES OF BONUSES ALREADY DECLARED.

,
I 4 •An P
.., nun! Iol• IcT Bonus in roma-
nent Re
tge.i ofj Pre- I taken ; addition Bonus in ,duction of
a:, . mirm. 'slit in' to s,um Cash. Annual
I—.-- Assured.
£s. d. £a d. P.43rem:umd..
. 1837 292 6 9 139 16 9 22 13 1
1838 267 11 4 126 17 2 19 19 7
I ' 1839 241 18 6 113 17 7
117 8 8
£(£ s.d. 1 1840 193 12 6 93 16 8 40 10
I
50 11000,74 8 4 1841 189 12 6 89 510 13 811
! 1342 162 16 8 76 18 4 11 8 3
8 1 1
111 1343 115 10 12
0 55 10 10
38 15 10 5 9 110
1184544 7676
11: 0
u 44 10 0 4 10 1
-----_

Age;

Extensive Travelling Leave granted without extra Premium
Moderate extra Premium for Residence in Tropical Climates.
EQUITABLE FIRE OFFICE.
Capital-500,0001.
(Incorporated under 7 and 8 Vict., cap. 110.)
The leading principles of this Office are —Moderate and equitable
Rates of Premium for each class of risk—Annual division of Profits.
the difficulty of collecting the elements on which to proportion
'remium to risk in I.nsurance against Loss by Fire has been so
-treat, that the rates at present charged are more the result of guess
than calculation.
It has been found by experience, that the total annual losses of the
,J,ifferent Established Companies have not been proportionate to the
Amount of annual Premiums received by each.
It is of the highest importance, both to the Insured and Insurers,
that such an anotaaly should cease, and an approximation to the
true risk be made. To secure this object the Equitable Fire Insu-
rance Company is established.
the true rate of Premium for Fire Insurance can only be ap-
,roached through Classification and Average, which has not hitherto
been sufficiently acted (at. or systematically applied.
Whatever be the nominal rate, the bonus or return periodically to
the Insured will determine the true Premium equitably payable, as
;,..curity against loss for so great a calamity as fire, and the Insurer
's largely interested in this Question, and will consult his interest by
supporting a system where, by a careful combination of Classifica-
tion and Aver+ge, the Premium will be proportioned to the risk.
The Equitable Fire Otlace will, by a constant anal, of its own
experience, from time to ti- e, adopt such rates of Premium as the
eature of the risk may justify, and will decline to enter into arrange-
ments as regards tariffs with other offices.
With this view an annual investigation will be
cemade into each
class of risk, and a return of one moiety, or flay per nett
excess will be made to all classes of Insurers whose Policies have
been in force for three years.
Insurances against Loss by Fire are effected by this Company upon
every description of Pronerty on moderate terms.
Farming Stock insured at 3s. per cent, without the Average Clause.
Prospectuses, and every information may be obtained, on applica-
tion at the Office, or to any of its Agents.

t National Loan Fund Life Assurance Society.
* Equitable Fire.
t* Both Offices.

ONE PAYMENT FOR THE WHOLE OF LIFE.
THE RAILWAY ASSURANCE COMPANY,
for granting Assurances upon Payment of a Single Premium
against Loss of Lite or other Personal Injury arising from Railway
'Accidents. Incorporated under the Act of rarliament, 7 and 8 Vie.
cap. 110. Capital - One Hundred Thousand Pounds. Offices, No. 5,
St. James's-street, London.

PROVIDENT CLEI
ASSURANCE ASSOCIAT
Established in

Thomas Baring, Esq., M.P.
Thomson Hankey, Jun., Esq.

£787 10 0
112 10 0
157 10 0
157 10 0
22 10 0
78 15 0
45 0 0
11 5 0

Just Published.—Price One Shilling,

_ .
j]G AT EXHIBITION.
A MORAL AND RELIGIOUS GUIDE THERETO,
By the Rev. J. A. EMERTON, D.D.

Published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 39, Pater-
noster 'tow, and may be had of ill Booksellers.

Two Giant Plates-150 Summer Fashions—View of the Exhibition—
Paper Models of the Ext&tion Mante'et.
..HE LADIES' GAZE'rIE of FASHION for
a. MAY, price Is., contains extra,r,iinary Novelties, given in no
othr ork —all the Paris Fashions—Two Giant Plates—Paper Mo-
dels--20 Cloaks-30 Walking Drcsses-40 Bonnets—several Ball and
Children's Dresses, -with Descriptions—Large Steel View of the
Exhibition—Guide to London, &c. t'ost free, six stamps extra.
London: G. Berger, Holywell-street; t-itrand ; and all BooksellerS.

NEW WORK ON STRICTURE AND SPERMATORRIREA.
Just published, 8vo.; in cloth, price 3s. 6d., by post (free), 45.,
ATREATISE on the CURE of STRICTURE
of the -URETHRA ; containing the True Reasons why that
Disease so often assumes such an intractable character; with Rules
and Instructions for the successful Treatment of every Form of
Urethral Contraction, based on the results of extensive and pro-
longed experience. To which is added, Practical Observations on
the Treatment of Spermatorrhcea by Cauterization.
By F. B. COURTENAY,,M.R.C.S.L.
" Those who complain most loudly are those only who know not
how to use the common instruments. • : . • . . The prac-
tice of surgeons has been marked with all kinds of violence, and in-
difference about the simple cure of diseases, and a passion for
operations, and all the excesses and horror of surgery."—John Bell.
H. BaWiere, 219, Regent-street, London.

LAURENT'S GRAND CASINO,
Licensed by Act of Parliament.

ARGYLL-ROOMS, GREAT WINDMILL-
STREET, ST. JAMES'S.
(Sole Lessee, Charles Emile Laurent, jun., 57, Brompton-square.)
OPEN EVERY EVENING,
With LAURENT'S UNRIVALLED BAND.
• Principal Cornet-a-Pistons, M,Boulcourt.
. .

Doors open at Hitlf-past Eight o'clock—Dancing to commence at
sine and terminate at Half-past Eleven o'clock precisely.

—......
Admission, One Shilling.
N.B.' Mr. LAURENT'S BENEFIT will take place on the Even-
ing of THERiDAY, May 22.

THE. FIRST SPRING HOLIDAY,
Fled now the sullen murmurs of the north,
The splendid raiment of the spring peeps forth;
tier universal green and the clear sky
Delight still more and more the gazing eye.
iILoomPtELD.

The vernql equlnox,-which ushers in the "first spring holiday," is
welcomed by all with feelings of lively emotion ; and it is not a little
interesting to notice the p 1 using changes and .various preparations
which attend on this season of universal festivity.
In the'Gregorian, as in the Julian year, Easter is regarded as a
favourite festival; and the approach of this Malay diffuses life and
activity in every direction.
We cannot proceed trirough the public streets without noticing
the changes attendant, nor can the most apathetical observer refrain
from a participation in the impulses to which the " first spring holi-
day" gives rise. While private residences present a re-decorated
appearance, in garden and frontage ; and display in their windows
hyacinths, crocuses, and other spring flowers, the more public tho-
roughfares display marks of renovation and re-embellishment.
The trading estahlishments appear under " brighter colours," and,
externally and internally, show pleasing signs of preparation. The
season of Easter is a "commonwealth" of festivity—to share in
which the Senate itself suspends for a term its important delibera-
tons. It is particularly interesting, at this season of the year, to
notice the various preparations for public recreation and amusement.
Hoardings are placarded with immense posters, calling attention, in
colossal characters, to excursion trains, steam-vessels, concerts,
theatres, fairs, and numerous other sources of enjoyment, and wher-
ever we look we can discover indications of the "spring holiday."
Among the many customs appert dning to. this season, is that of the
adoption of new attire. Winter clothing is now cast off, and articles
more befitting the change of weather are assumed.
iIYAM and Co. feel confident that their present spring stock will,
on examination, elicit a large share of public approbation. A strict
conformity to the prevalent taste in fashion— a development of
imprwements entirely original—a solidity and beauty of material
—an excellence of workmanship which cballenges the most minute
inso' ction, and a general suueriority, coupled with a positive reduc-
tion ix price, are the recommendations which Hyam and Co. have
to urge on the attention of the public.
There is no mistaking the system of T-Tyarn and Co., who, while
saying what they do. take °spectra care to do what they say. Hyam
and Co. are no friends to a " sliding scale " system in prices ; nor
are the proprietors in the practice of advertising articles "from"
one price to another.
" One fixed price for one description of garment," is the rule upon
which they go, and from which they have never once diverged
during the long period of their Lading career.
Hy= and Co., before conchiding this notice of their Spring pre-
parations, would make pointed allusions to their article in juvenile
attire.
The br'ef vacation which occurs at Easter will afford an opportu7
laity to parents and others. having, the charge of youth, to jud;e of
the neatness, beauty, durability, and cheapness of this description of
Hyam and Co.'s stock.; and the proprietors trust that their offers in
this (as well as in every other branch of their business) will be met
with a ready acceptance.
lIYAM and CO., Tailors, Clothiers, and Manufacturers.
West-end Establishment, London ••.•• • • • 86, Oxford-street.
City Establishment, Lon,i on ......36, Gracechureh-street.
Provincial Establishments.,
Manchester —63, King,-street. Hull-17, Market-place.
Manchester —26. Market-street, Bristol-42, Wine-street.
Liverpool-63 & 65, Lord-street. Glasgow-48, Argyll-street.
Birminghatn-23, New-street. Dublin-30, Dame-street.
Leeds-4'i, Briggate.

13 it. CULVERWELL'S NEW WORKS.
To be had of Sherwood, 23, Paternoster-row ; Carvalho;
.4i, Fleet-street; Maim, 39, Cornhill ; or direct from the author ,
o.ce One Shilling each ; by post,
ENJOYMENT OF LIFE.
"health, Recreation, and rational Use of Time."
CONTENTS:—Early Rising—Spring and Summer Mornings—Ex-
sursions about the Environs of London—The Parks, Lanes, Hills,
Forests, Fields, high-roads, and other pleasant places—Country
Grips and Ramisles—The Sea—London at Night—Evening. at Home
—Music—The Drama—On Eating, Drinking, Sleeping, Bathing, Air,
%est, Ease, Occupation, &c., &o.
• --- - • IX.
FRAGMENTS FROM TBE mOUNTAMS. Two Volt. • -
Vol I.
A VISIT TO TILE L&KES; sKETcH_OF EDINBURGH, &o.

Vol. 11.

THE LAKES OF KILLA
BLINRNEY ;
&c REDILNISCENCES Or
DU, .
. .

WHAT TO EAT, DRINK, AND AVOID.
"That three score years and ten our course may rim."
A popular review of almost every form (cause and cure) of ner-
?Cagy-debilitated health and enfeebled constitution, that harasses
the yonng, besets the man of pleasure, business, or study, and cm_
sitters old age, with tables and rules for the diet and physical regn-
ation of every-day life.

IV.
THE PASSIONS.
" What passions hurt the bcdy—what improve,
Truths as refined as Athens ever heard."
strasicT : -Life's pilgrimage, from infancy to old age. The advent
of the passions. Chastity and its infringements. The casualties o.
doentiotwes3 and dissipation, with illustrations, graphic, narrative,
ind remediative. Advocacy of early marriages..
V.

THE MARRIAGE. STATE.
" To be or not to be, that is the question."
X aonigreca :-14817Z and obligations of nature, society, and re-
agien regarding marriage, to be observed by either sex. Time and
:hoice, on both sides, as to age, temperament, complexion, sad
figure, to secure healthy offspring, with the art of rearing them.
ehysical defectiveness and its removal. Sterility and its conversion.
Oases, &cc.
By R. J. CULVERWELL, M.D. (1841), (1827), L.S.A.
1814). Twenty-five years Medical and Forensic Referee in these
x,ettetp, Renee3,-.:-;” boors idly till flve. Evening's. seven till nine.
10 A.ravll-eluce. Recent-street.

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 compattteemen. 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 up'n 200 shares
each was beceuse, when the panic ensued, the n3ern-
bars 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.. par share on 200 shares.
He 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 feltconfident that that ground
would be quite sufficient to induce the Master to place
them upon the lint, but he was prepared to prove their
aceptance of the 200 shares each, and the payments
thereon. After some conversation the sitting was ad-
journed.
EASTERN COUNTIES JUNCTION AND SOUTHEND
RAILWAY.--Yesterday another meeting was held before
Master Sir William Herne, 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. 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. Tue further proceedings were then ad-
journed.
CONTINENTAL TRAFFIC —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 whole journey in eleven
hours, two hours only being occupied in the sea passage.

THE VALLEY OF THE RHONE.
THE MULBERRY AND THE SILKWORM.;
(From the Chronicle.)
I write from the centre of the sill:-making district of
France—from the banks of the Rhone, about half-way
between Avignon and Lyons. Hereabouts, near the
little town of MODl6llinar, the mulberry was first planted
in Frensh soil. The event took place as early as the
close of the fifteenth century. An old' French agri-
cultural writer attributes it to the journey made by
Charles VIII. to Naples. Some few gentlemen
of the royal suite, remarking the richness arid
klossiness of the Italian silks determined to
try whether they could not introduce at
home the creation of equally splendid fabrics. Accord-
ingly, says the old rural chronicler, *when the wars of
Italy were finished, they sent to Naples for mulberry
slips, which they planted in Provence, the slight differ-
ence between the climate of southern France and that of
central Italy favouring the speculation. The experiment
—whim, in fact, of the gay noblesse of the French
Court—attracted probably little attention at the time,
and the planters of the white mulberry trees near Mon-
tamer had, in all likelihood, but a ' faint idea of the
grand element of wealth with which they were enrich-
ing their country.. I am told that old men still living
have seen the crumbling trunks of these, the first
French mulberries. One very ancient tree still sine
vines, near a village called -Itousaet. The date of its
plantation is unknown, but a species of not ungraceful
homage is paid to the vegetable patriarch by the pea-
santry. It still produces a few leaves, but they are never
gathered, for fear of exhausting the feeble remnants of
sap contained in the grey old tree. The seeds or roots
imported by the cavaliers of Charles VIII. flourished
there bravely, and the mulberry tree now forms a very
important part of the rural riches of the south of France
—abounding in a greater or lesser degree from Lyons,
or thereabouts, to Toulon, on the tight hand, and Tou-
louse on the left, and being partienlatly Iniuriant along
the valley of the-Rhone and its tributaries. The mulberry
is comparatively a hardy tree. It has been grown, and
male annually to produce a crop of leaves, as far north
as Stockholm, and it stands out stoutly against
frosts which ruin the almond tree for the season,
and the olive for ever. It mingles and flourishes with
the willow and the oak of the north, as well as with the
spice and oil trees of the south. The warmer parts of
Europe are never visited with frost on the one hand, or
heat and drought on the other, intense enough and long•
continued enough to kill it. Of the south of France,
however, the district comprised by the departments of
the DrOnie on one side of the Rhone, and the Ardeche
on the other, may be said to form the head-quarters of
the mulberry tree. There not a field exists unplanted
with silk-worm fodder, and the rearing of the insects,
and the first stages of preparation of their produce, fur.
nish most important items of agricultural industry. In
the department of the ElOaao alone, the number of mul-
berries is computed to exceed 3,ooo,ooo—and this inde.
pendently of a great quantity of dwarf trees of the-
sama class, reckoned" as equal to about 300,000 more.
The plantations are said to increase at about the rate of
two or three per cent. per annum. The quantity of
silkworm eggs annually hatched is stated to amount
to about 60,000 ounces; and each ounce, in prosperous
years, is computed to produce no less than from 50 to
60Ibs. of silk. The average price of a pound of cocoons
is about 111 f. The average price of a pound of -pm.
silk is about 241 c. each 131 b. of cocoons producing about.
11b. of silk. The total benefit computed to arise to the
department by the sale of cocoons is about 5,000,0001.
The sums paid for spinning the silk in the department
amount to about 700,000 f,, and for performing other
processes connected with the manufacture to about
1,100,000 f nearly 7,000,000 f. annually gained
for the district by the labours of its silkworms.
Few readers will require to be told that operations
connected with the silk worm last at the utmost for oul)
two months of the year, ranging from the beginning of
April till the end of June. The breeding or " educa-
tion" of the insects is curiously universal. The formers,
the peasantry, the rural irthabitants of the villages and
small country towns, and to some degree the populatior
of the faubourgs of the large towns, aro all, when the
season comes round, silkworm breeders. Every man, in
fact, who has a patch of land, plants it with mulberry
trees, and almost every man who has mulberry trees
rears worms, and either spins the silk in his household
or sells the cocoons. A trifling minority of farmert
may content themselves with rearing the mulberry tree
and selling the leaves; but the profit of producing the
thread is so great, and the trouble comparatively so
small—falling, in nine cases out of ten, on the females
of the family—that the production of the valuable fibre
is all bat universal.
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 ntagnannaries—so these places are called—duly
ventilated, and prepared expressly for the reception and
convenient breeding of the worms. Berns, lofts, lumber
geirrets-h-or whati-ver outbuilding, so, thatthere 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 efficieat for actual working
perposes that it can be cheaply come by and easily
knocked up. Travelling through the district in the win-
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
get juicily ripe, the eggs are hatched—more anon of
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 by
the river banks. These are cut, split open, and attaches
together, so as to form long cane beds, about 2f feet
broad, called dales. Ranges of these couches are then
stretched thelvewise from one end of the barn to the
other, upon a rude system of framework easily erecteo
—two or more passages, according to the breadth of the
chamber, being lett longitudinally for the attendants
to traverse. The dairy 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 of timber, and traversed by narrow pas-
sages from end to end. The worms as soon as they are
hatched, are strewed along the claies, and the mulberry
!eaves at the proper moment 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
dales. In some of the better class of establishments,
however, a different and superior arrangement is
adopted. The &cies 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 or
shelves rise and tell; and are transferred from side to side
at the pleasure of the attendant. Brisk currenet of
air are thus made to play amid- the silkworm beds—
a good fresh atmospheric supply being usually
that which the insects suffer 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 are furnished 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 elate, 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, anti if there be a sufficient
number of women in the establishment, the spinning of
the fibre commences; if not, the coebens are sold to the
events of the spinners and throwsterk, a 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 the dales, providing fresh masses of
leaves, regulating the temperature by means of the
stoves and air holes, and removing the dead, sick, or
dying worms. The creatures have always to be tended
the last thing in the evening and thesfirersetvinenthveismitoerdnianngd.
Where great pains are taken, they
arranged during the night. This labour, in general,
falls upon the women. "There is little sleep for 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 are 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 hundredk arrive every year
to undertake the silkworm tending in the principal
terms. They take the whole char e of the operation,
from the hatching of the eggs o the production
of the cocoons, and are paid about two francs per day.
The women do not gain above 24 or 25 sous, 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 dales and their supporting
framework are carefully piled up in any out-of-the-
way corner, ready for the requireenents 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 very u sole.
I have stated that, through tte. principal silk-pro-
ducing districts of France, almost ithe entire face of
the country is planted with ;thin indispensable ,tree.
Sometimes it is arranged in regular plantations, the
corn or grass beneath being a secondary consideration;

sometimes it is planted in long double or single liner,
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 seedlings are''
growing. The tree upon which all these pains are ex-
pended, and which brings in so rich a return, is a sufli-
cieetly ugly and unpicturesque-looking affair, scrubby
and moppish like the olive, and so regularly cut and
twisted, and pruned as to destroy any thing like indi•
riduality about each distinct specimen. Its principal
visible peculiarity 'And the result of the mode of
culture employed, is that the tree generally pre-
sents the appearance of a trunk, sending forth half
a dozen stumps of thick branches, out short near the
body of the tree, and each garnished withea more or
less plentiful and thriving crop of vigorous twigs about
a yard in length, upon which the precious leaves are
produced.
The mulberry is generally reared from the seed.
When a plantation is to be formed, the seed is gathered
in June and July from old trees which have been left
for that purpese 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
levelled. 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 being 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 many branches, and
the ground is very carefully cleared from weeds. Very
generally, the young mulberry is. improved and quick-
ened by grafting. The ungrafceci slips, called sauva-
geons, 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 leaven, 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 are dug up from the plan-
tation to be set in their places in the field; as yet 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 effected, its leaves in such situations
turn yellow, and afford but a small and unwholesome
supply of food to the insect for whose behoof it is reared.
The 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-
war, at all events tekeu never to allow the latter to be
wershacled by any higher-growing trees. The mul-
eerry 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
mice as quickly and to twice the size of one less favour-
,bly situated. This being the case, the relative distance
,t 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 ;
the species used for hedge-rows, and set in a straight
line, not more than a few 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 96.
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
Fairly planted, the mulberry groves receive two plough-
trigs per annum. In the smaller exploitations, hand
labour is employed instead, care being always taken that
he operation shall 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, and the time at which it is to be laid down.
Ile more compost used, the quicker the tree comes to
maturity, and the sooner—so think many cultivators—
it dies. Some mulberry growers manure the trees every
third or fourth year. Others leave longer spaces of time
notween 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" es they are recommended
end 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. Mel-
ierry farmers indeed appear to be possessed with the
idea that they can improve upon nature in arraeging
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
it 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
clips, 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
Al larch. Then the tree is said to sleep, and the opera-
. .

'ion to be far less hurtful than when the advancing
spring has set 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 dales. 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
lge of the tree. After some study of the subject,
I confess I can see little diversity in principle iu

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 scanner of branching of various spe-
cies, the activity of the sep at various seasons in various
Luc lides, and sundry other similar circumstances, into
which I need not enter. Suffice it to say that the best
faille 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 moee 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.
The pruning operations, like these relating to the olive
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 for feeding in
the second year of its growth; but it is held to be very
desirable to permit its leaves to shoot and fall midis-
curbed until the tree attains double that age. Dwarf
mulberries are commonly stripped in their third season
—the intermediate class in their fourth—and the largest
trees, called " plein vents," in their fifth summer. The
leaves are gathered by the hand, and some pains 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 said, when,
as is generally the case, silkworms are bred bathe farm,
the person attending to them strips the trees as the food
is wanted. When the mulberries are cultivated only
fur the purpose of selling the leaves, the harvest is
gathered in gi3 soon and by as many hands as possible,
tend dispatched to the large 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 the gathering of the second harvest should be post-
poned until as late es possible. The produce of the mul-
berry, like that of the olive, is very various. From three
to ,six quintals of leaves may be taken as the ordinary
range, although trees exist capable of producing ten
quintals. The price of the harvest in a great measure

depends upon the general degree of success with which
the silkworms have been hatched and bred. From three
to five francs per quintal may be taken as including the
average rate.
So much for the production of the food of the silk-
worm. Let me now attempt some detail of the main
points of the process of breeding the insect itself.
According to the progress of the mulberry tree is fixed
the epoch at which the eggs of the silkworm, carefully
preserved daring the winter in folded cloth, are vivified.
In its minutia. the process observed differs in different
districts. but the general mode of proceeding is the
same. • The cloth containing the ova is first soaked, the
more easily to separate the eggs from their resting place,
the former aro then scraped off—frequently in the Ar-
deche, by rubbine• one portion of the texture against
the other—and heaped in a basin into which clear water
is poured. This detaches the eggs from each other, the
stale or spoiled ones floating to the surface. Sometimes
wine is poured over the good ones after they are taken
from the basin. The next process is drying the eggs,
usually taking about two days, spread either upon a
brieken floor or elaies of osiers. The eggs are now
ready to be subjected to the warm temperature which
hatches them. To manage this part of the process the
rude expedient in some cases adopted is, as I have
said, for the operator to go fairly to bed with the ova,
and hatch them by the natural heat of the body. Closets,
well warmed by stoves, are, however, more often re-
sorted to, and the eggs are ranged round in small boxes
upon shelves. The insects make their appearance in
from three to five days, more or less, according to the de-
gree of heat kept up. The warmer the eggs have been
kept during the winter, the more readily they vivify in
spring. A common practice is to place sheets of paper,
pierced, with numerous holes, over the eggs, as they
begin to show signs of life; through these holes the
worms crawl up. Leaves of the mulberry, or small
branches of the tree, are laid upon the paper, and to
these the insects speedily attach themselves, beginning
from the very first to cat greedily. By the help of the
twigs in question, they are carried to the dales prepared
for them, in what I may properly call the breeding-room,
and the " education" begins. The dales do not always
consist of the split osiers I have described. In some of
the best establishments well-stretched sheets of canvas
are used instead. At first a small space of claie or shelf=
room only is required, but with each change of skin the
quantity must he enormously increased. A silkworm,
'luring its brief life of little more than a month, increases
in weight upwards of one thousand-fold, four distinct
-kins bursting in the process, and being supplied by
wider and roomier integuments. We are now, there-
fore, to suppose that the little newly-hatched creatures
are distributed on their shelves, either fixed or immov-
able, in the breeding-room. The more easily to convey
a definite idea of the space and the quantity of food re-
quired, we shall suppose that the breeder intends to rear
the produce of five ounces of eggs—a quantity requiring
a large atelier and a very considerable stock of mulberry
leaves. The space at first allotted to the worms ought
to be from 36 to 40 square feet. It is of importance that
the creatures should not be crowded. The first day they
consume four meals of leaves, the whole consisting of
about nibs. of the substance, selected from the tenderest
and juciest shoots of the tree, end cut very small. A
space of six hours intervenes between the repasts, and
as a general rule the quantity of each is to be succes-
sively augmented. The number of worms supposed to
be now feeding is about 200,000, but great numbers die
off, even under the most careful superintendence. Those
who eat less than the average quantity become weakly,
do not increase in size, and soon perish. Generally
speaking, the worms devour their allowance of leaves in
en hour and a half, and then lie almost motionless till
the next meal. The second day the allowance is in-
creased by one-half—six pounds of leaves well cut up
being served out to the insect guests. The third day the
quantity is again doubled, that being one of the periods
of their life when the insects eat voraciously. All this
time it is to be noted that the attendants keep spreading
the insects out more and more, removing the , sickly or
the dead, and watching the length of time the healthy
take to eat; since, if the meals are devoured with more
tlian average rapidity, a proportionately greater quan-
tity of leaves must bo supplied, and less time allowed to
elapse between their repasts. The reader will thus have
a notion of the continued, harassing, fidgety species of
the work required. 'The nest light-handedness of
women renders them generally more fitting than men
for the task.

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 7lbs. The size of the
worms has now visibly increased, and the attendants
take great pains to keep them from overlaying each
ether. I need hardly remark that at this, as well as at
the latter stages, the atmotphere ought to be kept as pure
as possible. Holes for ventilation are commonly estab-
lished 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. rudiscountry concerns, the atmospheric conditions
necessary to perfect success are often neglected. A daMP
fuagus-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
ontthe fourth day that the first symptoms of the 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
coshes gradually on, and by evening many of the worms
lie motionless, waiting for the change. On the
fifth day a very small quantity, about one
pound and a half of leaves, is distributed
in the vicinity cf 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-
tulness 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 tour 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 '
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 magnannerieof M. Giraud, the pro-
prietor of the fine old feudal castle of Chateaubourg,
one of the most striking objects upon the right bank
of the Rhone in nearing Valenco from Lyins. The
contrivance consisted in sheets of pierced pasteboard,
fitted to the size of the &ties.' 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 claies ; the process being repeated at the next
age, while the sheets successively soiled, being thus de-
serted, are easily freshened and cleaned, and made tit
for further use.

The first day of the second age the worms must bo
ranged upon a square, comprehending about 74 feet. A
gentle movement of the head is the signal that they aro
up, stirring, and ready to resume their career of mul-
berry• leaf 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
as possible equal. When an undue concourse of insects
to any particular point takes place, the surplusage is
lifted upon twigs and set down iu more thinly inhabited
parts of the claie. The third day of the second age the
worms eat about 33Ibs. of leaves. In the morning they
are ravenous, and devour the greater proportion of the
quantity. Towards evening their appetite falls rapidly
off, and symptoms of torpidity begin lapin 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 thousand's;
end; as in the case of the first change, they burst their
skins for the most pars in the night. The
w
now'six lines in length. After the first change,orra 3,240
weighed weighed an ounce. Now 610 suffice to balance the
weight. As these changes take place the
m
more matter, and require more air at a lowwoerrtse‘mxpcerreate.
ture. The ventilation therefore is, or ought to be, care-
fully attended to.
Upon attaining the third age, the space to be allotted
to the insects is about 174 square feet,
they are thoroughly wakened up It is a sign that
they move their
heads and bodies, in curioustundulating sweeps, when
breathed or blown upon. T
notnenon is held to be the symptom occurrence of this phe-
of their entry upon
the active period of their age. The first day 1.51b5.1
of leaves, and as many of tender young twigs, are sup-
plied. The assistants now wear baskets suspended from
their necks, containing
carefully over all the ca t
ies. F '
During f'ood whtiheeh
daythey
as
muchdistrib asute
60Ibs. of leaves are distributed, and the worms increase
in size very fast, their dimensions becoming visibly
greater every hour. The second day they eat 901bs. of
leaves, the greater proportion being given in the evening.
The attendants must now be busy enlarging the space
which the worms occupy, and separating each as much as
possible from its fellow. Tee third day nearly 1001b5. 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-
ing, their bulk continues to increase steadily. The fourth
day 521bs. of leaves suffice. By evening many of the
insects ere asleep; those which still show symptoms o£
a desire for food are fed, little by little, h sprinkled
handfuls of leaves—a tedious and harassing operation.
they
Fur the fifth day Villas. of.leaves are necestshaisryt.imOe
On
sixth day all the worms are torpid. By
have increased to the length of twelve lines' and small
legs and claws have developed themselves. Daring the
lamer part of the third op, the pattering of their little
claws upon the leaves, as the insects climb upon them to