silk (to be called ailanthine) promises to become
an important article of commerce. Its easy culture,
the wide range of country throughout which
it may be grown, and its consequently moderate
price, destine it for the daily usages of the great
masses of the population. Manufacturers have
never enough silk, nor enough cotton; and it
is probable that many years will elapse before
they have enough ailanthine, when once it finds
its way into the general market. It takes most
dyes well; it is strong, and must be cheap. It
will be the silk for work-days and for working-
people.

The task to be performed, in 1859, was to prove
that agriculturists might derive a profit from the
culture of the ailanthus and its silkworm. On the
15th of May, M. Méneville went to Toulon, and
on M. Aguillon's property, reared caterpillars on
a considerable scale and in the open air. A little
later, he put M. le Comte de Lamote-Baracé in a
position to make an experiment still larger in its
proportions, at the Château du Coudray, near
Chinon (Indre-et-Loire). Four thousand five
hundred silkworms were placed upon flourishing
thickets of ailanthus, which had been grown as
bushes with that intention. Their development
progressed admirably, and they gave 3515 excellent
cocoons, after supporting, without injury,
rain and heavy storms, and with no extraordinary
precautions taken to protect them from the
attacks of birds. This is a remarkable result;
for, with ordinary silkworms, the loss of individuals
is well known to amount to at least one-
half.

But the summer of 1859 was very fine, and
Chinon lies quite in the warm interior of France.
We want to know what would happen under less
favourable circumstances. An eye-witness, M.
Lucien Platt, informs us that last summer, i.e.
1860, in the Bois de Boulogne, near Paris, they
stood the rain day after day, without losing their
hold of a leaf or losing a bite. On the contrary,
they continued in perfect health; you could see
them grow. Besides the two principal experiments
just mentioned, M. Méneville tried others,
not less conclusive, in various parts of France, as
well as at the experimental garden of Hamma, in
Algeria. It is clear, therefore, from these essays,
that the new silkworm will give, in France (south
of Paris), two crops a year; that it can be reared
in the open air, and almost without putting a
hand to work; for it has only to be placed on
ailanthus bushes, according to the immemorial
practice of the Chinese. The details of the rearing
process are intelligible to the meanest capacity.

M. Méneville thinks that he is, at last, in a position
to state, in figures, to the imperial government,
the profits which farmers may expect to
make by adopting the newly imported caterpillar.
He has worked out a debtor and credit account, on
the supposition that a proprietor devoted twelve
acres (to take round English numbers) to the
culture of ailanthine. The balance in his favour
turned out so great, that he hesitated to believe
in it. But after carefully studying the elements
of his figures; after consulting men of practical
experience in all the details, and purposely exaggerating
the expenses and diminishing the receipts,
he arrives at this magnificent result:
During a period of ten years, the average annual
expenses would be 2030 francs, the average of
possible receipts 9945 francs, leaving a net annual
average profit of 7914 francs (say £330 in round
numbers) for the twelve acres, or £27 10s. per acre,
and this from poor ground, be it remembered,
whose slope or whose poverty unfits it for growing
scarcely anything else.

But in the northern departments of France,
and for the same reason in Great Britain and
Ireland, only one crop of cocoons can be expected
per annum. Nevertheless, if we diminish
the profits by one half, without diminishing a
farthing of the expenses, a very pretty little
balance will remain. Many a small farmer would
whistle gaily as he pocketed sixteen pounds
fifteen shillings, the nett return of an acre of
land through which he would not, or could not,
drive the plough. But we may take the practical
truth to be, that time alone can verify any
balance, or any set of figures, in such an utterly
novel project as this. The important inquiry to
be made is, Has M. Méneville made out a good
and promising case? We think it cannot be denied
that he has. The new insect appears to be
of a robust constitution, and of its favourite food
there can be no lack. The only textile material
with which ailanthine is likely to compete, is
cotton; but instead of proving cotton's competitor,
it may turn out to be cotton's ally, combining
with it, the one strengthening and
beautifying the other. In short, no one can
exactly guess what unexpected uses the future
may develop. M. Meneville is working out the
problem by studying the bases of its general
employment, which comprise: the culture of the
ailanthus in lands hitherto uncultivated, the
rearing of its silkworm, the purchase of cocoons
or of the silk carded from them, and the spinning
of the produce.

The English public are wisely averse to hasty
and ill-considered schemes; but mulberry silk
was a doubtful scheme in Europe not quite
three hundred years ago. Swedes and mangelwurzel
were all innovating schemes in their
day; which has not prevented their taking root
in the land, to the nation's manifest advantage.
It will not be ruinous for private individuals to
try a few ailanthus silkworms during the coming
year; our zoological establishments, and perhaps
some of our botanical, ought certainly to show
us what they are like and what they can do; the
numerous individuals, ladies, and children, who
amuse themselves by rearing common silkworms
on the leaves of the lettuce and the garden mulberry,
will find equal amusement and more excitement
in trying their hands at a novelty.
The French possessors of the stock have shown
themselves liberal in communicating it; they
have manifested no jealous intention of keeping
the importation all to themselves, and would no