davisox] THE SILK-WORM 157 



phase of education. The slight cost and trouble involved in 

 securing and caring for an abundance of material make it avail- 

 able for schools of all classes. Eggs may be purchased at the 

 rate of twenty-five cents per hundred of T. Keleher, 662 Massa- 

 chusetts Avenue, X. E., Washington, D. C. ; Dr. W. H. Hill. 

 Peoria, 111. ; and Mrs. Carrie Williams, 1245 Logan Avenue, San 

 Diego, Cal. Two hundred eggs are sufficient for twenty pupils. 

 As the worms feed only on the leaves of the red, white and black 

 mulberry trees and the osage orange, two or three of these trees 

 should be planted on the school-ground if none occurs in the 

 locality. The white mulberry is most desirable. 



The eggs should be secured a fortnight or more before the mul- 

 berry leaves appear and stored in a moth-proof box or glass 

 jar in a cool dry cellar or other room where the temperature is 

 not above sixty degrees Fahrenheit. When the first minute leaves 

 appear on the food trees, the eggs placed in a box about a foot 

 square must be kept under daily observation in the schoolroom 

 or living room where the temperature is from sixty-five to seventy- 

 five degrees. As soon as the hairy black larvae, less than a 

 quarter-inch long, break from the eggs, a dozen tender leaves 

 smaller than the human finger-nail should be given them five 

 times daily at intervals of about three hours. If small leaves are 

 not obtainable, larger ones may be cut into strips less than one- 

 eighth inch wide. Leaves with dew or water on them ought not 

 to be used. The rate at which the worms grow depends upon 

 the temperature and the number of times they are fed daily. 

 Those furnished leaves only twice daily and kept cool will not 

 reach full size in less than forty days, while a warm room and 

 five or six daily feeds will mature the worms in from three to 

 four weeks. They may be fed to advantage as early as six 

 o'clock in the morning and as late as ten o'clock at night. 



When a week or ten days old, ten worms should be given to 

 each pupil providing a box four or five inches square. Covers 

 need not be used, as the worms make no attempt to escape. 

 During the first few days they merely suck the juices from the 

 leaves, but later bite off and swallow particles of leaf-tissue. 

 When they are two weeks old, full-sized leaves uncut may be 

 fed, and these can be gathered once daily and kept fresh by 

 placing in a bucket covered with a wet cloth. 



Some of the features to be observed in the growing worms are 



