THE SILKWORM ITS REARING AND MANAGEMENT. 



the caterpillar gets, and the regularity with which it is supplied. 

 The rearer must be prepared to be assiduous in his attention to 

 his charges during the whole of the five or six weeks they will 

 require his care, and neglect during a single day would probably 

 cost the lives of most of his brood. When the rearing business is 

 carried out in real earnest, the first meal is usually given about 

 five o'clock in the morning, and the last between eleven and 

 twelve at night. While the caterpillars are very small they will 

 need constant attention, and should be fed five or six times a day 

 with young and tender, or with chopped leaves. The chopping 

 of the leaves is to furnish more edges for them to attack, for this 

 is where they always begin munching, holding the food between 

 their legs. Frequent feeding ensures their having the food fresh j 

 and it is better to renew the food frequently, giving less at a time, 

 than to provide them all at once with a quantity sufficient to last 

 them over a longer time ; the tray is to be regarded rather as a 

 dinner-table on which a meal is spread, than as a larder in which 

 the occupants can help themselves when they please. It is, more- 

 over, a truer economy of food, to give them only sufficient for 

 present needs, than to supply them with enough to last over 

 several meals, when much will unavoidably be wasted through 

 becoming shrivelled and soiled. 



Care must be taken to distribute the food uniformly, so that all 

 may get the chance of eating the same amount ; for the duration 

 of the " ages " depends upon the amount eaten, and if the supply 

 to some caterpillars be more scanty than to others, they will not 

 all moult together, and then, while some are lying in the torpor 

 of their " sickness," but the others still vigorously eating, and 

 therefore needing to be kept supplied with fresh food, the moul- 

 ters stand a chance of being damaged by having the leaves lying 

 on their backs, or by their fellows pushing up against them or 

 crawling over them, and may even be thrown away unwittingly 

 during the removal of the litter. If they are all moulting at the 

 same time, no such difficulty occurs. It may seem to some that 

 this keeping of the worms all in the same stage of development is 

 a trivial matter to lay such stress upon, but in reality it is very 

 important, and much inconvenience will be saved, as well as 

 probable damage to and loss of caterpillars prevented, if it be 

 attended to. 



Even the gathering of the leaves needs care and forethought. 

 They should never be given to the insects wet, as in that case 

 they would affect their health. Therefore, if the leaves for the 

 early morning meal be picked just before the meal, when they 

 will most likely be wet with dew, they must be carefully dried 



