Cheraw gazette and Pee Dee farmer. [volume] (Cheraw S.C.) 1838-1839, 1839-08-16
IMPORTANCE OF PROPER SELECTION OF SILK.
WORMS EGGS. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN

IMPORTANCE OF PROPER SELECTION OF SILK.
WORMS EGGS. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN EGGS.
In the last number, We stated that it was
Of great importance to successful result in
rearing sk.worms to have eggs of good
and healthy stock, and especially Of home
or southern, in preference to a northern
source ofsupply. Later and numerous facts
have so much confirmed that opinion, that
we deem ii proper 10 repeat and 10 en- eavor
to enforce it.
The recent and new demand for silk.
worms eggs in this region, induced sundry
orders to be sent 10 The north. the poin: 10
which our coun.rymen send for every thug
wanted, even when little search might pro.
vide better articles nearer home. The sup
plies OF northern eggs were furnished to Pc.
tersbarg. ard herce 10 the adjacent coun-
try, from sundry different Sources, through
different channels, and were Of different va.
rie;ies of worms. There were also several
small parcels Of Virginia eggs, and larger
stock from East Tennessee. Ten ounces
Of the latter stock ha cc'l prcma,urcly (be.
gnning on April l3'h,) and being uGsalable,
the eggs were given away to all persons who
would take them, for rails of rearing. BY
this accidental loss TO the owner, q most
important gain has been made by the pub.
he; fo-. in this manner, perhaps fifty or
more indi, iduals, who would not otherwise
have thought of feeding worms, have been
induced to make experiments. Nor were
these experiments confined TO this neigh.
borhood; for the haichIng worms were car
:ied to points nearly 100 miles apart. So
far as we have heard, (and careful inquiry
has been made,) every person who expert.
melted in feeding these worms, and other
parcels from home lad eggs, with single
exception which will be hereafter namsi,
was successful in the rearing, unless with
such gross neglect, or bad treatment that
success was impossible. And n the other
hand. of all the many previously des'gned'
and mostly more careful and better conduc.
ted rearings, from northern eggs bought 10,
or for this town, not one has been success.
fol. 50 far as wo have learned; and there
are but few that may not be considered
equivalent to total failure. The great dlt-
ference has bren in general if not universal
hcaItllinessand hardness Of worms south
ern stock, and general and sometimes uni
yersaI feebleness, disease, and finally death,
of the northern broods. Such likewise
have been the general results elsewhere that
we have heard from, but with some few ex-
ceptions of healthy and good products from
particular feelings Of northern worms.
In the various cases under our own OBJ
servaion, or derived from neigIboring gen.
tlemcn with whom We have frequent inter
course, th:se results have been the more
striking, because in some instances the
same individual was eminenly successful
with worms of southern stock, and as emil
nently unsuccessful with northern. Some
times these diff; rent results were found In
different broods halchcd at the same time
kept in the same apartment, and through
out treated alike. We could state particu.
lars Of many such experiments, on the most
unqucstionable authority, which would fully
sustain these general statements; but j!
would be an unnecessary extension OF this
article, and is not called for, unless the state.
ments should be questioned. Upon the
whole, 1t may be safely asserted, that if the
rearings hereabout had been made aItogeth.
er, (as they were mosly,) from northern
eggs, and if there had been no other expe.
renee to show different results, that all con.
fideDce in the cul ure would have been lost
and every new beginner would have been
discouraged and disguised, and probably
would have abandoned all thought of prose.
cutting the business. But luckily, there
were enough, though smaller and less care.
ful trials, from home-raised stock, to show
entirely different and highly successful re.
suEs and more especially was it fortunate
for the cause of silk-cul;ure, that the accl'
deutal Matching of what seems to be the
most hardy and valuable sock, should have
spread that stock, and established lis value
through an extensive region of our country
One of the most careful and best proVi'
ded of all the new cullurists, 1. 5. Pleas
ants of BrlIona, was one Of those who 90.
ia ned, and reared with entire success, some
Of these southern eggs; and he has since
lost totally, by disease, the worms OF three
ounces of eggs, ("mammolh.whte OF