PEN AND PENCIL IN ASIA MINOR.*

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8986, 25 February 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

PEN AND PENCIL IN ASIA MINOR.*

This is a gossipy and pleasantly-written account of a trip to Greece and Turkey, interspersed with a number of well-written chapters on silkworms, the method of rearing them, their food and diseases, and the Eastern silk harvest. The book itself, a volume of some 450 pages, is well printed on good paper, and is illustrated with about 80 excellent sketches by the author of scenes met by him on his tour, and a number of beautifully executed Meisenbach reproductions from photographs of streets, towns, and mosques; and Greek and Turkish natives in costume—guides, brigands, and other celebrities of the Levant. The value of the chapters on the silkworm is enhanced by carefully-executed drawings showing the method of pruning the mulberry during four years, the incubator for hatching the silkworm eggs, frame on which silkworms are fed, silkreeler at work, size and appearance of the worm from the egg to maturity in no less than 42 different stages, diagrams showing microscopic appearance of silkworm diseases, and many other illustrations, which add much to the clearness and value of the chapters on silk production. The author, Mr. William Cochran, is the silk and tea enthusiast who, as it will be remembered, contributed a number of articles on " Tea and Silk Farming in New Zealand" to the Auckland Weekly News. In the preface he gives an account of his labours in this connection, from which it appears that ever since 1867, when he was travelling in the China tea and silk districts, where he had many opportunities of " studying and inquiring into sundry native articles of commerce, he had been greatly impressed with the advantages which would attend the introduction of those industries into " Britain's semi-tropical colonies, such as the North of New Zealand." Ever since that date he has, by constant writing to private individuals and to newspapers (among others, the Glagow Herald, London Scotsman, British Trade Journal, New Zealand Public Opinion (Dunedin), Chambers' Journal, Land and Water, and the Transactions of the Highland Agricultural Society), endeavoured to promote this object. It was mainly through his exertions that tea planting was established in Ceylon. The great difficulty he found in rousing the New Zealand Government from their apathy is described in the preface to the present volume, but the success of his efforts docs not seem to have been great, as ho seoms to think that nothing has been done since Mr. G. Federli published his pamphlet on Silkworm Rearing" under the authority of the Government in 1883. In this Mr. Cochrane'? information is defective, for the Stout-Vogel Government took some interest in this matter, and engaged Mr. G. A. Schoch, an expert from Italy, to endeavour to organise a silk-pro-ducing trade in the colony. Mr. Schoch's letters and other efforts, his importation of some of the best varieties of silk-worm eggs from Italy and Japan, created a good deal of interest, and the handsome cocoons which lie reared in Auckland showed what could be done if the people will devote the requisite attention to the subject. He also published " A Manual of Instructions for Raising Mulberry Trees and Silk-worms." It was printed by the Government, and largely distributed. The increase in the number of mulberry trees is necessary before a silk industry can be established, and that is a work of time. Mr. Cochran blames the Government for having left tea farming out of their programme in spite of Mr. Thomas Kirk's statement that Assam tea would grow well in the North Island. The author neatly disposes of the dear labour difficulty by saying that " those who use this fallacious argument seem to have forgotten that the drawback in question was equally applicable to every other calling in Iscw Zealand," and insists that it can be overcome by the combination of silk growing and tea farming. The author goes on to say : "So far, therefore, the New Zealand Executive cannot be said to have earned much gratitude for their treatment of the proposal. On the other hand, in every case where I approached the editors of home or colonial newspapers and magazines, personally or by letter, the subject found immediate sympathy, and their columns were opened to articles and general discussion of the project. Thus, from first to last, the proposal to establish tea and silk farming in the North of New Zealand must have already been made familiar to millions of people in both hemispheres. Indeed, the question has frequently been asked from the Antipodes and elsewhere, ' When is the industry to be commenced ?' To such a query, it can only bo replied that the New Zealand Government stops the way. * * * The colonists are favourable, and * * * * numbers of Europeans and others have caught the enthusiasm; and, doubtless, capital in plenty from the old country will bo forthcoming whenever the Colonial Government awakes to a sense of duty and a thorough perception of the importance of the scheme." Continuing, he savs that " the maladies which have lor the past 35 years decimated the silkworms of Europe, and arc at present rapidly destroying those of China, have deterred investors from putting money in the enterprise. For some years it has been known among a limited circle that M. Pasteur, of Paris, has found a remedy for these diseases." The chapters on silk growing in the present volume are stated by the author to be the result of his experiences and those of Mr. John Griflitt, of Bournabat, near Smyrna, a silk farmer of 30 years' experience in Asia Minor, and an ardent disciple of Pasteur. Mr. Cochran passed through a silk season on the premises of Mr. Griffitt, and saw for himself that tho dreaded enemies had been brought under human control. , After a few amusing and chatty introductory chapters, describing his travels from Liverpool to Gibraltar, Malta, and, finally, Smyrna, the author mounts his hobby in the fourth chapter, where he describes the preliminaries of the silk harvest. In this chapter an interesting account is given of the distribution of the "graine," or eggs, to the villagers about Smyrna by Mr. Griffitt, by whose unwearied exertions the silkworm industry had been revived and restored in this district after its almost complete annihilation by disease. The fifth chapter gives much interesting information about the mulberry. It docs not recommend the Morus multicaulis nearly so much as the Morus alba, from which, it says, the result in silk, both as regards quantity and quality, transcends that from any other known diet. The falling leaves, too, are said to make excellent food for fattening sheep in winter. "Now that the hatching of the silkworm eggs can be successfully retarded by the use of ice, the multicaulis can no longer be recommended for feeding silkworms." Interesting accounts of Chinese methods of mulberry-growing are given, together with the most approved European methods of rearing and pruning this tree. In China the growth of mulberry leaves and the rearing of the worms are stated to be two distinct industries. " For six weeks or two months mulberry leaves were almost the only merchandise offered, and the voices of the growers and silk farmers engaged in a continual wrangle of trade nearly the only sounds heard. Now much of this busy commercial life is hushed, as China, having inherited the devastating maladies of Europe without the genius of a Pasteur to combat them, will probably sink year by year under the infliction until tho silk industry of that vast country is extinguished." Chapter VII. deals with the hatching of the eggs in steam incubators and the methods of feeding tho young silkworms, the necessity for absolute cleanliness being strongly insisted on. Chapter IX. is oqcupied with a most minute account of the various stages of the worms and the proper treatment, by Mr. John Griffitt, of Bournabat, in an official report to the Department of State at Washington. In Chapter XI. the selection of cocoons for breeding, the treatment of the moths, and preservation of the eggs are dealt with. Pasteur's method of obtaining eggs free from disease is also described; indeed, all through the book references are almost constantly made to the immensely valuable services rendered by this savant to the silk industry. Diseases of the silkworm—pebrine and flacherieare fully treated, both historically and descriptively, in Chapter XIII. diagrams of the microscopic appearance of the diseases being given, together with the remedies brought to light by M. Pasteur after five years'

* "Pen and Pencil in Asia Minor; or, Notes from the Levant," By William Cochran. tubliahed by Sampson Low and Co,

research. The rest of the book is occupied with very interesting notes, both descriptive and pictorial, of Smyrna, Constantinople, and other Eastern towns. It seems that Auckland is not the only place in which the "incendiary rat" holds sway. After mentioning that the houses in Smyrna are largely built of wood, the author goes on to say " After making every allowance for the inflammability of the houses generally all along the Levant, there remains a serious percentage of annual fires attributed solely to the villainous work of the slinking incendiary. Under such circumstances, some of the resident agents of home insurances—for the Smyrniates are enthusiastic insurers—have been blamed for recklessness in accepting doubtful risks, as the flimsy, closely-packed structures, and the gay metallic badges of so many well-known home offices which appear on their fronts abundantly testify. * * * Whole blocks of inflammable material get on the books of the insurance companies, as it were to-day, and are all dissipated in smoke to-morrow. * * _ * The remains of houses are often pointed out which have been purchased for a song, flimsily repaired, heavily insured, and purposely burned the following night." The book is throughout most interesting, and, to any person wishing to start the silk industry, almost invaluable. A copy of it might with advantage be placed on the shelves of the Free Library.