Lady Dorothy Nevill is making extensive experiments with the Alanthus silk worm, at her seat, near Petersfield.
Bury and Norwich Post — Tuesday 23 August 1864
THE AILANTHUS SILKWORM.—With respect to the ailanthus silkworm, the most successful experiments have been those of Lady Dorothy Neville, at Dangstein, near Petersfield, Hampshire. According to Mr. Buckland, her Ladyship has planted a considerable part of her garden with the ailanthus-tree, which she has covered over with a light canvass marque, not to protect the silkworms from the cold, but from the birds who destroy them. The worms are from two and a half to three inches long, of a beautiful emerald-green colour, studded with tubercles of marine blue. ‟Last summer,” says her Ladyship, ‟I netted over three dozen trees, and placed five hundred worms on them. They yielded (only, four hundred and eighty cocoons, a bird having got under the net and destroyed twenty of the worms. Some of the late worms were left on the trees until the frost nipped the leaves; but the worms took no harm from it. The trees would have supported two thousand worms if we had had them, as the more the worms devour the leaves, the stronger the latter shoot forth.” Her Ladyship found a ready sale for the cocoons with the French silk manufacturers, who would purchase any quantity. The introduction of this species of the silkworm is worthy of the attention of our agriculturists, it being evident that it would thrive in this country, with ordinary care and attention. Cottagers especially might make it a source of considerable emolument, where they possess a piece of ground to grow the ailanthus, which is easily cultivated. So satisfied are the members of the Council of the Acclimatization Society of the benefit to be derived from the cultivation of this species of the silkworm, that they do not hesitate to recommend it to the attention of the cottager and small landowner, as calculated to yield them a good profit; and to ‟ladies especially this operation is recommended by the fact that they may, without the slightest hyperbole, grow their own silk dresses in their own gardens.”