Taranaki Provincial Gazette – 1869 – No. 15

Page 72

✨ Silkworm Cultivation Report



72

TARANAKI GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

keeping a million worms, and proposing to double the number as soon as he can raise sufficient food for the increase.

In a communication I made some time ago to one of the local newspapers, I overestimated the number of trees required to feed a given number of worms. I have now twenty mulberry trees five years old, and from the manner they stood stripping this past season, I am satisfied I could have fed three times the number of worms I did, by extending time and labour. I had also stated that after the trees had been planted three years, £15 per annum might be netted for every acre of ground planted with the mulberry. This was taking the price of raw silk at 20s. per lb., but the price has since risen to 70s. per lb., so that something like £50 a year might be got from an acre of mulberry trees. Once the trees are planted they require little trouble, and each year their value increases, as the silk improves with the age of the trees the worms are fed upon.

A parcel of cocoons, weighing two pounds, raised by me last season, will be taken to England by J. R. Dodson, Esq., who will hand it to J. Morrison, Esq., London Agent for New Zealand. A letter from His Honor the Superintendent will accompany the parcel, requesting Mr. Morrison to submit the cocoons to the trade, ascertain the value of the silk, and transmit back to His Honor all the information he can obtain concerning sericulture in general, and the best kind of worms to be used.

I may observe that I have kept a stock for supplying me with eggs next summer.

I remain, &c.,

T. C. BATCHELOR, Esq.,

To F. Huddlestone, Esq.,
Hon. Secretary of the Nelson Acclimatization Society.

Printed under the authority of the Government of the Province of Taranaki, by W. H. J. Serjeant, Devon-street, New Plymouth, Printer to the Provincial Government for the time being.




Online Sources for this page:

VUW Te Waharoa — PDF Taranaki Provincial Gazette 1869, No 15




✨ LLM interpretation of page content

🌾 Details on Silkworm Cultivation (continued from previous page)

🌾 Primary Industries & Resources
17 March 1869
Silkworms, Sericulture, Mulberry Trees, Wakapuaka, Acclimatization Society
  • J. R. Dodson (Esquire), Transported cocoons to England
  • J. Morrison (Esquire), London Agent for New Zealand

  • T. C. Batchelor, Esq.
  • F. Huddlestone, Esq., Hon. Secretary of the Nelson Acclimatization Society