Bombyx Mori — Part 2

Bombyx mori

Images coming soon.

From the time of Justinian onward the growth of silk-culture in Greece and Asia Minor was rapid. It was introduced into Spain by the Saracens at the beginning of the eighth century. It found lodgment in Sicily and Naples in the twelfth century, and in the next century was taken up in Genoa and Venice. It was not begun in France until the latter part of the sixteenth century, but in the seventeenth century it made great progress in France, as well as in Belgium and Switzerland. The weaving of silk had begun at an earlier date than this in France, Germany, and England. Attempts made to introduce the culture of the mulberry-tree and of the silk-worm in Great Britain have always signally failed. The climate appears to be against the industry. James I, who had failed in his attempts to foster sericulture in England, undertook to plant the industry in Virginia in 1609. But the eggs and mulberry-trees he sent out were lost by shipwreck. In 1619 and the years immediately following the attempt was renewed, and the raising of silk-worms was enjoined by statute and encouraged by bounties. In spite of every effort, little came of the attempt, the colonists finding the growth of tobacco to be far more profitable. In Georgia and the Carolinas similar attempts were made, and from 1735 to 1766 there were exported to England considerable quantities of raw silk from these colonies. From 1760 onward the industry declined. Sericulture was at this time taken up in Connecticut and flourished there more than anywhere else for many years, though the raw silk was not exported, but woven on the spot into various fabrics. The production of raw silk in Connecticut for many years amounted to a sum of not less than $200,000 annually. In 1830 an effort was made to introduce into the United States the so-called Chinese mulberry (Morus multicaulis). A popular craze in regard to this plant and the profits of silk-culture was begotten. Fabulous prices were paid for cuttings of the Morus multicaulis, as much even as five dollars for twigs less than two feet in length. Hundreds of people came to believe that the possession of a grove of these trees would be the avenue to fortune. But in 1839 the bubble burst, and many persons who had invested the whole of their small earnings were ruined. It was discovered that the trees would not with-stand frost and were practically worthless, as compared with the white mulberry (Morus alba). "Colonel Mulberry Sellers" remains in American literature a reminder of those days, and of the visionary tendencies of certain of our people.

The manufacture of silk thread and of silken fabrics was begun in the United States at an early date. Machinery for reeling, throwing, and weaving silk was invented, and the importation of raw silk was begun. The industry has steadily grown until at the present time silk-manufacture has come to be an important industry, in which nearly a hundred millions of dollars are invested. The annual production of silken goods amounts to a sum even greater than the capital employed and gives employment to seventy-five thousand persons. So much for the industrial importance of one small species of those insects to which this volume is devoted.

"It was brown with a golden gloss, Janette,

It was finer than silk of the floss, my pet;

'T was a beautiful mist falling down to your wrist,

'T was a thing to be braided, and jewelled, and kissed--

'T was the loveliest hair in the world, pet."

CHARLES G. HALPINE.--Janette's Hair.