The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-03-26
SILK GROWERS.
BEWARE OF RAsnSEss.

EDITOR BULLETIN :--lIaNlng care
fully read the article concerning the
silk questionin your ycstcrday'sissue
| conclude: lst, that great many
persons seem to he getting inter
ested in this matter, n very healthy
vigor, provided it does not acquire
the character Of 4 craze, us it has
done before this in other countries
2ndly, that many do not appear to
realize the exact requirements
of silk culture and especially the
amount of TIME necessary for mere
preparations.
The silk industry must be divided
into two distinct phases, the grow
ing of the trees and the breeding of
the silk-worms. Now, if the latter
is the question only of hours and
degrees of temperature, on the other
hand mulberry trees cannot be ex-
pected, even if grown from cuttings
or rooted plants, to be fit for giving
good leaves and for successfully
resisting the picking or denuding
process, before several years of pre-
paratory growth. In Europe, il
multiplied from seed in nurseries,
the mulberry tree at the end Of ~
months is cut and transplanted the
next year it is ready to be grated,
and it is only four years later that it
can be transplanted from the nurs-
cry to the fields. Then three or
four years more are required to
shape the tree before the leaves can
be depended upon. Total from 8
to 10 years. If bought ready-grown
from the nursery and transplantcd,
it still requires 3 or years waiting
before the leaves can be stripped.
This much for those who suppose
that mulberry silk growing can be
improvised like potato or water
melon cultivation; and certainly,
even if great many isolated null
berry trees can now already be found
growing in different gardens of the
islands, there is nowhere q sufficient
quantity growing together to raise
half an ounce of eggs; the only in
formation that can be collected now
is that the tree will eventually thrive
in some places, if not everywhere.
But outside of this, great deal
must be depended upon practical
local experiments and the experience
of other countries can be of but
little avail in this, before we know
| positively how the mulberry tree will
behave itself here, when submitted
to the tortures of regular leaf-pick-
ing and branch trimming. Will it
support to have its leaves picked off
once or several times year? What
are the varieties which will thrive
the best, and give the greatest
quantities of leaves, good, tender,
silky, fit for the worms? There
are only two races of mulberry
trees, the black .-and the white,
one better fitted for cold climates
and giving coarse leaf but little
relished by the worms, the other
essentially belonging to warm eli
mates, and, moreover, each race
presents trees of different sexes,
male and female, the leaves of
which are of different value for the
worms. But the continual grating
and the growing of trees from seeds
gathered in places where the two
races exist together, have produced
such an hybridiZation of races and
sexes, that now quite a number of
different varieties are known, and
others can be produced at will, to
suit any climate or any quality of
soil but all this requires time and a
mans life is hardly sufficient for
obtaining decisive results.
| However, the question of knowing
whether the trees here will give
several crops of good and nutritious
leaves a year, is an important one,
for it commands the selection of the
variety of worm to be procured. The
BULLETIN yesterday seemed to ad.
vance that the mildness of the climate
here and the probable luxuriant
growth of the tree would facilitate
the management of the worms. But
this is not absolutely exact MOI
necessary, for there exist severa
varieties of mulberry silk
worms, and consequently those car
be selected to follow the growth O.
the trees and the requirements of thu
climate. We must select our worms
to suit the trees and not these fol
the worms. The races of worm.
can. be divided into two genera
classes, those which breed only ono
year like the old European varie
ties, generally with very large ant
very white cocoons, and those whicl
hatch naturally several times a year
called in Europe according to TIN
number of yearly breeds, cbi, hi
Quatri, voltini. To these belon!
the Japanese varieties with small
green cOcoons, and the Chinese witt
very deep yellow ones.
Now these repeated hatchers ar
failures in countries where tbe yeoe