THE SILKWORM ITS REARING AND MANAGEMENT. 6 1 





discoloured by the bits of leaves and fluid excrement, and will 

 therefore become useless. Warned, therefore, by the above signs, 

 the amateur has provided a quantity of little conical paper bags, 

 of such a shape as grocers use for wrapping up ounces of mustard, 

 pepper, etc., and of such a size as a half sheet of note paper will 

 make. Each caterpillar, as it manifests the wandering tendency, 

 is placed in one of these, and the bag is then pinned up to the 

 wall. It need not be closed, as the worm will not escape, but 

 begin at once to form its cocoon. This method of course 

 necessitates the taking up of each worm separately as its turn 

 comes, putting it in the paper bag and pinning it up, and therefore 

 involves so considerable an expenditure of time that it would be 

 an altogether inapplicable mode of procedure in connection with 

 a large magnanery. In such a case, therefore, as with the 

 feeding, the worms themselves are made to effect the needful 

 transference, and thus a vast amount of labour is saved. 



For this purpose, bunches of heather are set upright at regular 

 intervals along the shelves, with their tops bending over towards 

 one another, so as to 

 make a series of 

 arches (Fig. 18). 

 These are to serve as 

 a lodgment for the 

 cocoons. The cater- 

 pillars soon find their 

 way into the heather, 

 and at once begin to 

 construct their silken 

 nests in the interstices 

 between the branches, 



in this way the heather in a few days becomes crowded with 

 cocoons as with a crop of fruit. Sometimes two caterpillars enter 

 into partnership over a single cocoon, which, as it necessarily 

 consists of two separate threads which cross one another in all 

 manner of ways, and therefore interfere with one another on 

 unwinding, is useless for commercial purposes. They are called 

 " double cocoons," and of course contain two chrysalises ; they 

 are much rounder than the normal form. If, therefore, any cater- 

 pillars be observed thus uniting their efforts, they should be 

 separated and placed on different parts of the heather, or their com- 

 bined labours will only be so much lost energy. Of course double 

 cocoons are never made when the caterpillars are placed in paper 

 bags. Occasionally, even more than two combine to form a 

 single cocoon, which thus envelopes them all. 



Fig. 18. Heather twigs to receive cocoons. 



