hung up again during the remainder of the summer and through the autumn. Toward the end of the year they are immersed in cold water, wherein a small portion of salt has been dissolved. In this state the eggs are left for two days; and on being taken from the salt and water are first hung up to dry, and then rolled up rather more tightly than before, each sheet of paper being afterward enclosed in a separate earthen vessel. Some of the cultivators use a ley made of mulberry-tree ashes; and they also place the eggs for a few minutes either in snow-water or on mulberry-trees exposed to snow or rain, where the climate permits of this being done. These precautions are taken to prevent the silk worms from being hatched before the season when the mulberry leaves (their proper food) are in a fit state for them. | the evening the sheets of paper are rolled closely When the proper time for the hatching has arrived, the rearer takes the rolls of paper from the earthen vessels and hangs them up toward the sun, the side to which the eggs adhere being turned from its rays, so that the heat may be transmitted to them through the paper. In up and placed in a warm situation. The same plan is followed on the next day, when the eggs assume a grayish color. On the evening of the third day, after a similar exposure, they are found to be of a much darker color, nearly approaching to black; and the following morning, on the papers being unrolled, they are seen to be covered with worms. In the colder latitudes the Chinese have recourse to the heat of stoves to promote the hatching of the eggs. The apartments in which the worms are kept are in dry situations, in a pure atmosphere, and apart from all noise, which is thought to be annoying to the worms, especially when they are young. The rooms are made very close, but with adequate means of ventilation. Each chamber is provided with nine or ten rows of frames placed one above the other; on these frames rush hurdles are placed, upon which the worms are fed and kept. A uniform degree of heat is constantly preserved, either by means of stoves placed in the corners of the apartments, or by chafing-dishes, which from time to time are carried up and down the room. Flame and smoke are carefully avoided. The most sedulous attention is paid to the wants of the worms, which are fed during the night as well as the day. On the day of their being hatched they are furnished with forty meals; thirty are given on the second day, and fewer on and after the third day. The Chinese have such a strong opinion that the silk produced depends on the quantity of food eaten, that when the appetite of the worm flags, from temperature or other causes, they contrive means to stimulate it artificially. The quicker the worm arrives at maturity, the greater is the quantity of silk produced; and hence every care is taken to hasten its development. The changes which the little animal undergoes during this time are most remarkable. In the first place, the egg from which it is produced is about the size of a grain of mustard-seed, and the worm itself, when first hatched, is a little slender thread about a quarter of an inch long. During its growth it will wander about in search of food; but if mulberry-leaves be supplied to it in plenty, it will remain stationary, occupied during the early days of its existence almost wholly in eating. When it is about eight days old, its head enlarges and the worm becomes unwell; it remains three days without food, and in a lethargic state. In fact, its growth has been so enormous, that its skin is too tight to enclose its bulky body; and this sickness seems to indicate the period when the old skin or envelope is abandoned, and gives way to a new one, more consonant with the increased size of the animal. The process is a most extraordinary one, for the insect literally creeps out of its own skin head foremost; lucubrating its body to assist the extrication, fixing the skin to a mulberry-leaf by filaments of silk spun from its mouth, and making its escape by slow degrees. The operation appears to be a painful one, for the little animals are observed to rest several times during its progress, and to be much exhausted on its completion. When nature has given it a more easy-fitting coat, the busy silk-worm proceeds to eat with great voracity, and increases to the length of half an inch in five days. The second coat has become by this time too small for the wearer, and is abandoned in the same manner as before. In its third stage the worm keeps on eating as before, increases in five days more to three-quarters of an inch in length, and then requires a third molting or enlargement of the skin. Another period of five days elapses, a further enlargement to an inch and a half in length takes place, a fourth sickness supervenes, and for the fourth time the worm, finding its skin too tight for its bulky body, creeps out of it altogether, and enjoys a freer existence. This is now the fifth stage of its existence as a worm, and it proceeds to eat so voraciously (mulberry-leaves being still its favorite food), that in ten days it attains a length of two inches and a half or three inches. The time now approaches when the silk-worm, having received so much food from its attendants, yields more than an equivalent in the form of silk. The worm ceases to eat, appears restless and uneasy, seeks about for some place to spin its silk, and forms a sort of resting-place in some nook or corner. The body of the worm at this time contains a secretion which afterward constitutes silk; it is a fine yellow transparent gum, contained in two slender vessels in the stomach. The worm spins or expels this gum from two small orifices in the head, uniting the two into one thread by a peculiar action of the mouth, and laying the silken thread thus formed in such a way as to build a hollow ball, nest, or "cocoon." The little spinner remains within his prison-house, building up around him a silken wall, and spreading and arranging the thread with his front feet in waving lines around him. In this way each worm spins about four hundred yards of delicate silken filament, which is arranged into a hollow egg-shaped mass, measuring about an inch and a half long by an inch in diameter. When the cocoon is formed, the insect smears the inner surface with a peculiar kind of gum, which is also used to make the silken thread cohere in making the cocoon. The animal has become by this time wasted and wrinkled, and then throws off its caterpillar state, assuming the form of a chrysalis. It remains as a chrysalis during a period of from fifteen to thirty days, and seems during this time to be preparing itself for its final stage of existence as a winged moth. When this stage is attained, the moth softens the gummy interior of its house, and gradually works for itself a hole through the cocoon, emerging at length into open day as an active but short-lived moth. It will thus be seen that the silk-worm goes through many remarkable changes. It is first confined within its egg, then it emerges as a worm, then casts its skin four different times, to accommodate its increasing bulk; envelopes itself in a silken nest, then changes to a chrysalis, the intervening stage between the worm and the moth; and lastly assumes the usual appearance of a winged insect. Their increase in size, and the quantity of food devoured by them, are quite remarkable. Fifty thousand silk-worms, when just hatched, weigh only an ounce; there are only four thousand to an ounce at the period of casting the first skin; only six hundred at the time of the second molting; only a hundred and fifty at the time of the third; only thirty-five at the time of the fourth; and when just ready to spin, six of them weigh an ounce, so that in the period of five or six weeks the silk-worm increases in weight nine thousand-fold! Their voracity may be thus illustrated: the worms proceeding from one ounce of eggs will consume six pounds of mulberry-leaves before their first molting; eighteen pounds between the first and second; sixty pounds between the second and third; one hundred and eighty pounds between the third and fourth, and more than a thousand pounds between the fourth molting and the period of spinning their silk, thus consuming, in six weeks, twenty thousand times their own weight of food! If the moth be left to itself, it will live within its cocoon till a proper time, and then make for itself a means of escape; but when man chooses to appropriate the silk to his own use, he puts the little hard-working prisoner to death before its time. The cocoons are exposed to the heat either of the mid-day sun or of an oven until the insect within is stifled. This being done, the external soft envelope is removed from the cocoon, the former constituting floss-silk, afterward brought to the state of yarn by spinning, and the latter being afterward manufactured by silk-throwing. The three or four hundred yards of filament forming each cocoon are agglutinated together by a sort of gum applied to them by the insect; and it is necessary to soften this gum before the filament can be unwound from the egg-shaped ball. To effect this, a number of cocoons are thrown into a vessel of hot water, and there allowed to remain till the gum is softened. The reeler, or person employed, then takes a whisk or kind of brush made of fine twigs, and presses its end gently on the cocoons. One filament from each cocoon adheres to the whisk, and is made to commence the process of unwinding. In this manner the person reeling gets the thread of several cocoons between the fingers, ten or twenty in number, and attaches them all to the reeling machine. They are grouped into parcels containing three or four threads each, then these are again combined, then two of these larger parcels, and so on until all are combined to form one thread very much thicker than the individual. filament, but still an exceedingly fine thread. This thread is wound on a reel or hollow frame, the reeler replacing the spent cocoons by new ones, and having the water' of such a temperature as to soften the gum just as fast as the silk is required to be wound. When the silk, after being wound on the reel, is removed from it, it forms a skein or hank, which is fastened up in a convenient form to send to market. The number of insects required to produce any considerable weight of silk almost exceeds belief. Supposing each cocoon to yield on an average three hundred yards of silk, it has been estimated that the original silk filament, as produced by the insect, would require nearly five hundred miles of length to weigh one pound! Two hundred and fifty average-sized cocoons weigh about a pound, and eleven or twelve pounds of cocoons yield one pound of reeled silk, the other eleven-twelfths being made up of the weight of the chrysalis, floss-silk, waste, dirt, etc. An excellent authority upon this subject remarks: "The quantity of silk material used in England alone amounts in each year to more than As we have already observed, few persons rear the silk-worm and manufacture the silk; the breeder sells the cocoons, and the manufacturer superintends the future processes. The industry in the United States is, therefore, at present simply confined to the rearing of silk-worms and the culture of the cocoon. As the market is near and the demand great, this industry alone offers the most tempting inducements for persons to engage therein. It is especially adapted to women, who may desire to employ their leisure moments, with • a view of adding a suitable competence to their usual income, and is, moreover, a pleasant and agreeable occupation, requiring little more labor than mere attention to the little workers. The industry, we are pleased to state, is rapidly increasing, and much interest is being paid to its | | full and proper development. The liberality and enterprise of many of our leading silk merchants and manufacturers are enlisted in the industry, through the proper dissemination of correct modes. of treatment in the rearing of the silk-worm, and to stimulate healthy competition very handsome cash premiums are being offered for the display of the best cocoons. The "Women's Silk Culture Association of the United States," the most prominent factor thus far in the promotion of this industry, has just announced the holding of a fair in the city of Philadelphia, during the third week in October next, for the best displays of silk cocoons. The cash premiums offered are four in number, and for the best four grades of silk. cocoons, to wit: First premium (best b), $200. Second premium (second best b), $150. Third premium (third best b), $100. Fourth premium (fourth best b), $50. The amount thus to be distributed is the contribution of Messrs. Strawbridge & Clothier, of Philadelphia, a firm com NO. OF DAYS OF CROP AGES. 1 2 3 5 6 17 1st Day 7 5 THIRD AGE. 21 6th " 5 7 |