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Silk Worm Breeding
The Breeding of
Silk Worms
Information
from the Moritzfeld Heimatbuch,
provided by Don Mingesz, 2003
We were not
able to establish when exactly the breeding of silk worms was
introduced in our village. It was a very beloved economic activity in
the 18th
century. We know that emperor Joseph the 2nd – like his
mother – has brought in Banat specialists from Italy in order to
spread this branch of the agricultural production. In those periods
many people bread silk worms (even well to do peasants), because it
was an easy activity for the families with many children, which needed
an additional income. For years 1880-1902 we have accurate information
about the breeders and their success in the Banat and Arad counties.
|
County |
Number
of
Locations / Breeders |
Cocoons
|
Income
in
Kronens |
Income
in
Florins |
|
Arad
|
142
/ 1156 |
307586 |
564852 |
282426
|
|
Karasch
|
213
/ 4763
|
1017883 |
1867549
|
933774.5 |
|
Temesch |
197
/
10389 |
2343531 |
4369405 |
2184702.5 |
|
Torontal |
207
/ 18229 |
2677461 |
4845145 |
2422572.5
|
|
Hungary |
2667
/ 94605 |
18949372 |
35225339 |
17612669.5 |
In
1892 the Moritzfeld village arranged one and a half-acre of land as
tree nursery. Here they mainly cultivated blackberry bushes. The tree
nursery was maintained by a nursery worker paid by the community,
under the supervision of teacher Nikolaus Kolb. The inspectorate for
silk in Szekszard supplied the villages with silk worms and tried to
get breeders everywhere. In 1896 in our
village 165 persons dealt with this
activity, in 1910 there were only 105
persons. In some years they were able to get
between 1500-2500 kg of cocoons and received
an average amount of 4000 Kronen (2000
Florins) out of sales. It was for sure a
welcomed additional income.
Count Mercy,
the Italians
and
the Silkworm... The first settlers of Mercydorf were Italians, who settled
here to introduce silkworm breeding in the Banat. They
came with their priest Clemens Rossi who was the first pastor
who established the parish in 1734.
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