more care than is needed tor elm or oak. The
first great point is, therefore, gained—sure and
almiulunt pasture for the silkworms. The climates
of Paris and of a great part of England
are sufficiently similar to make it highly probable
that any living creature which thrives in the one
will do so in the other, especially when it is of a
kind which may be sheltered in buildings during
the whole of its existence. The savants who
were so interested about the castor-oil bombyx,
have hardly troubled themselves with that of the
ailanthus; never mind, M. Guérin-Méneville
has succeeded all the same. A year ago, he was
received by the Emperor of the French, to
announce to his Majesty the introduction and
the acclimatation in France of a new Chinese
silkworm, which gives two crops of cocoons per
annum, lives in the open air on a hardy tree, and
produces a very strong silky material which has
served for centuries in China as the clothing of
entire populations. Success, then, being certain,
he prayed to be allowed to make a final experiment
on a large scale, in order to convince agriculturists
that they might make handsome
profits by rearing the new domestic insect
stranger.

But such attempts, he fairly urged, cannot be
undertaken either by scientific men, who are
mostly without fortune, nor by small farmers,
who live from hand to mouth: it is for large
landed proprietors, the patrons of agriculture, to
open the way. It was therefore hoped that the
first patron of French agriculture, the Emperor,
would deign to come to the aid of the poorer
agricultural classes, by instituting in his own
domains a practical experiment sufficient to
establish this new source of riches on the soil of
France. To Henry the Fourth the country owes
the silk of the rich, to Napoleon the Third,
courteous history will record, she owes the silk of
the people. In 1599, a great king wished to
patronise the introduction of a silkworm, but a
great minister, Sully, was hostile to the enterprise:
at the present epoch, it is again a great
sovereign who patronises the introduction of a
new silkworm, out it is impossible that a minister
could now be found who would repeat the
error committed by Sully.

Words chanted to such tunes as this have
charmed duller ears than those of Napoleon the
Third. The Ministers of Agriculture and of Algeria
enabled M. Guérin-Méneville to commence
experiments on a large scale on the estates of
proprietors who placed the ailanthuses in their
parks at his disposal; while the Minister of the
Emperor's Household ordered the planting of five
thousand ailanthuses in the imperial domain of
La Sologne, in order to make practical trial of
the new caterpillar's real merits. The result up
to the present day, of which we propose to give
an abstract, was detailed in a Report of the Emperor,
in the official part of the Moniteur for
November 19th, 1860. The honour thus conferred
upon it is a proof that the attempt is at
least thought worthy of being continued further.

It was in the spring of 1857 that Monsieur
Guérin-Méneville first endeavoured to introduce
the ailanthus silkworm into France; but he did
not succeed until the 5th of July, 1858. The
acclimatation, or rather let us call it the naturalisation,
of these humble creatures, is much more
difficult than that of superior animals; which may
be safely entrusted to careful shepherds, herdsmen,
or keepers. Such tender importations as
exotic silkworms demand the constant attention
of the acclimatator himself. In this case it does
not suffice to have a pocket well furnished with
the requisite funds; it is absolutely necessary to
work at the matter personally, and that almost
day and night. The rest of the year 1858 was
so employed by M. Guérin-Méneville. At the
same time, La Comtesse Drouyn de Lhuys
undertook an autumnal rearing of the caterpillars,
and was rewarded for her pains by the
Acclimatising Society's first-class medal.

M. Méneville holds that a species cannot be
regarded as acclimatised until it is demonstrated
that it can live in the locality to which it is introduced
as well as in its native country; that its
produce can be turned to a useful purpose; and
that agriculturists will find their advantage in
rearing or raising it on an extensive scale. The
two first points were proved after the conclusion
of the season of 1858; for the new Chinese silkworm
had attained several generations in France;
and its silk, both in the thread and woven, both
unbleached and dyed, manufactured in Alsace,
was laid before his imperial majesty, side by side
with that of the ricinus species. The ailanthus
cocoons furnish carded silk which is superior,
both in lustre and strength, to that obtained from
those out of which mulberry silkworms have
eaten their way. Now, carded silk is a textile
material in great request by manufacturers.
France consumes a great deal more than she
produces, having imported, in 1858, nearly two and
a half millions of pounds. The town of Roubaix
alone employs considerably more than three hundred
thousand pounds a year in the manufacture
of her famous fancy goods, which are composed
of a mixture of carded silk and wool, thread,
cotton, &c.

Be it understood, however, that the silk of the
ailanthus caterpillar is not expected to supersede
that of the mulberry. It is comparatively inferior
in quality; it has not the brilliant lustre of the
best silks to which we are accustomed. Moreover,
the cocoons have not as yet yielded to the treatment
applied to mulberrry cocoons; they have
not been reeled off in skeins, but only carded,
and then spun. But in January of the present
year, M. Méneville exhibited to the Academy of
Sciences four specimens of stuff woven in China,
with threads of ailanthus cocoons; their inspection
led to the belief that the Chinese have discovered
a method of reeling off the raw silk from
the cocoon in skeins. If the same result is
attained in Europe, of which there can hardly be
a doubt, the produce of this new branch of agriculture
will be at least tripled. Still, the new