3 20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



larger they, of course, needed more space, and our room was gradu- 

 ally filling with extemporized tables and shelves covered with trays. 

 The cleaning of one tray seems a small matter, but when there are 

 over fifty trays to clean and fill with fresh leaves it takes a good while, 

 and often we did not get to bed until midnight. As early as possible 

 in the morning we were again at work feeding the worms, and for 

 thirty days we were kept incessantly employed, oftentimes feeling dis- 

 couraged, as the leaves were hard to get and the weather hot and de- 

 bilitating. Still, we were determined to do the best we could, and so 

 persevered in our self-imposed task. 



Thirty days from the time of hatching, having lost no worms by 

 disease, the spinning of the first cocoon was begun, and a relief it was 

 to see a large worm crawling restlessly around the edge of the box 

 leaving traces of silk in the corners. Two days later the worms were 

 spinning in earnest, and we found our work of feeding and cleaning 

 somewhat lessened. We tied together twigs and straw, upon which 

 the worms made their cocoons. Following a friend's suggestion, we 

 begged from a grocer some of the straw coverings of wine-bottles, and 

 these the worms seemed to like very much. The room now presented 

 a very different appearance from that which it had a week or two 

 before. Instead of the rows of boxes, the tables were covered with 

 straw tent-like arrangements upon which were the yellow cocoons. 



Before all had finished spinning, we thought it time to steam a part 

 of the cocoons, and here we met with our first difficulty. None of the 

 books on the subject, which we had at our disposal, gave any very 

 definite ideas as to the method by which this part of the work might 

 be accomplished. 



Finally, after considerable perplexity, we made arrangements to 

 have the steaming done at a boiler-room. We laid about eight hun- 

 dred of the cocoons on a layer of cloth netting in a large box, at one 

 end of which a hole had been made and a round gas-tube inserted. 

 To this tube was attached a pipe from the boiler, and for twenty min- 

 utes, the time specified in a report published by the Department of 

 Agriculture, the steam was allowed to enter the box. At the end of 

 that time we found to our dismay that many of the cocoons had been 

 blown to one end of the box, forming a sticky mass. If we had been 

 almost discouraged before, we certainly were discouraged now. How- 

 ever, we dried them in the sun, and a few were sent to the Woman's 

 Silk-Culture Association in Philadelphia, with a letter, asking whether 

 we had steamed them too much, and for information in regard to 

 steaming the rest, of which we also inclosed a sample. In answer to 

 our request, a printed circular containing general directions was sent 

 to us, but no special directions as to steaming the others ; but we were 

 informed that our worms had been insufficiently fed ; the cocoons were 

 small, and steamed too much ; and the fresh cocoons could not be 

 reeled. 



