Correspondence.

Press, Volume III, Issue 336, 27 November 1863, Page 2

Correspondence.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'PRESS. ,

Sib, —I am again led to make the following re-' Tiarke from the fact daily before oar eyes in the public papers, that, owing to the American war, :ind other causes, the materials for the manufacture of textile fibres and the superior qualities of paper are becoming scarcer and dearer, and that ill sorts of substitutes for cotton arc increasingly | in demand. The " spotted grass" of the Pyrenees was lately introduced, and is about to be offered in the shape of pulp, I believe at the rate of about £25 per ton, by a firm in London. This grass, I iin informed, possesses a strong fibre suitable for ■wiper-making, but not fitted for textile fabrics. In strength it is not to be compared with flax or linen ; far less can it be placed in equal rivalry vith our phormium tenax. This spotted grass is the only substitute, as yet discovered, suitable for •upplying the place of inferior rags, or cotton waste, and, as I have just stated, it is far inferior in strength to New Zealand flax, so is it also inferior to it in its non-adaptability for the weaver or spinner. I am happy to state now, publicly, that the progress of our experiments convinces our firm still more of the value of the phormium tenax. We are confident that in addition to the prepared flax (as seen by you and others) suited for the paper manufacturer, we can, by an additional process, export it in a form ready for the hands of the weaver and spinner. As we wrote in August, our advices from England ought to reach us by the December mail (next month). Machinery was then ordered, not only requisite for the preparation of the article, as per sample forwarded, but easily convertible by additions made by our own founders in the colony into the machinery required for the second article of export, or the phormium tenax in a more advanced state, for the preparation of dnc holland and finen. It may seem too sanguine in mc to add that the opinion of our firm is that it i» admirably adapted from ite strength and brilliancy not only for the manufacture of lineu, but for wearing along with

or spinner.

silk. Leaving the subject of the pliormium tenax however, for the present, I now wish to call the attention of your readers and the public generally to certain facto connected with the growth of silk which have for some time occupied my attention I have been reading of certain experiments which have been carried on for t>. series of years with a tree called the ailanthus glandulosa. I will first give the description of this tree from Wilson , * Cyclopaedia of Agriculture, 4e.:— The ailanthus —popularly tree of heaven—-* small genue of very elegant exotic trees, of the i turpentine family. Four species "are known to botanist*, and two of these, the Chinese and In. dia, have been introduced to Great Britain. Tug Chinese species, ailanthus glaudulosa, is a remarkably beautiful ornamental tree, with one five parted, very email calyx, acute, fine petalled! convolute corolla—and a singularly clegan* leaf resembling that of the deciduous, pinnate-leaved sumach. It is a native of China, and was but recently introduced to Great Britain ; yet it is as hardy as any of our oldest or best known ornamental trees. It possesses surpassing beauty of foliage ; and though later in coining into leaf than almost any other hardy tree, it compensates this fault by its extraordinary gracefulness. It grows rapidly, and attains a height of about fifty feet It is easily propaguted from suckers, from cuttings of the root, and from foreign seeds ; and the last ought, immediately on their arrival from China, to be sown under protecting glasses in boxes of light earth of sand and peat. Some remarkably fine specimens of ailanthus are growing on the Duke of Northumberland's grounds at Sion; and numerous specimens of it, from 30 to 40 feet in height, may be seen in many parts of England, Its timber is hard, heavy, and glossy, bears some resemblance to satin wood, and is pusceptible of the finest polish. Now the Ailanthus is the tree the leaves of which are used by the Chinese for feeding the silkworm. Unsuccessful experiments have been earned on for a series of years by M. Guerin Mcneville. In his first experiment he had to contend with the ragiug mania for the Castor Oil Bom by x, which had been introduced by M. Miint Edwards, Professor of the Museum of Natural History, Paris. I select from Charles Dickens' article on this subject, and will give a few apropos quotations :— The Bombyx (or silkworm) of M. GuerinMene* ville is a native of China, and feeds on the leaves of the ailanthus glnnlu osa, improperly termed by the French vernis dv Japou, or the Japan varnish. Now the Ailanthus, which was introduced to Europe some hundred years ago, is a vigorous, perfectly hardy tree, which cares nothing for our winters, and which throughout summer produces ■an abundance of large pinnacled somewhat coarse leaves ; but what is that to us so long as the silkworms like them ? It is a favorite as an ornamental town tree, partly on account of its handsome carriage, and partly because it offers considerable resistance to the noxious influences to which plants are exposed in towns. It is not nice about soil or aspect; its lofty stature is an inconvenience both for the gathering of its leaves and for allowing the caterpillars to feed on it at liberty, in the open air, but then it submit* to be cut down, sending up plenty of stout sucker* from the stump, so that it is easily kept in a bushy state, which allows the formation of ailanthus thickets or shrubberies. You may tee healthy trees in the Boulevards of Paris; but, what ia of the greatest importance, the ailanthus make* itself quite as much at home in England a* in Franco. Of the waggon loads of leaves it would give with the apronfuls to be had from the mulberry and the handful* from the ricinaa then is no comparison. We have the satisfactory certainty that, if properly planted, they wJUgrowand flourish, with no more care than i» newel for an elm or an oak. In the possession of tha ailanthus, the first great point is therefore gained: sure and abundant pasture for the silkworm. Now we know that the ailanthus bombyx thrives in France, and the climates of England and France are sufficiently similar to make it highly probable that any living creature which thrives in one place will do so in the other. The savant* who were so interested about the castor oil boinbyx, have hardly troubled themselves about the aUantbns ; never mind, Mr. Guevin Meneville has succeeded all the same. In 1859, he was received by the Emperor of the French, to announce to bis Majesty the acclimatisation of this bombyx, which gives two crops of cocoons per annum, lives in the open air on this hardy tree (the ailanthua) and produces a very strong silky material, which has served for centuries in China as the clothing of entiro populations.

I have quoted thue largely from Dickens' account of the ailanthus and the bombjz which feeds on it, as an introduction ta the subject, fcr the purpose of leaving your reader* to judge for themselves whether or not it would be advisable to introduce the bombyx into Canterbury. If regards the tree itself, I have much pleasure in informing the public that yesterday, in Mr. Wilson's nursery, I surveyed with delight upwards of 1000 young plant* of the ailanthus sown this season, and which from their thriving appearance seem fully to bear out all that ha* been quoted above concerning this hardy and valuable tree. Mr. Wilson has great hopes of the young plants, and intends procuring a larger supply of seed from home, for even failing the, production of " ailanthine silk" (so it v called in France) the plants themselves will be an ornament to our city, and will doubtless become garden favorites from their hardihood and the ease with which they may be trimmed into band*: some shrubberies. Having introduced this subject, I now conclude, and will in a future paper give some account of experiments successfully tried by 11. Chwnn Meneville. Youw,&c-,