TEA AND SILK FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 219 



their silken prisons, there would then be no need for any stifling 

 process, and the result would be that the harvest of eggs would 

 be enormously increased. There is a hope that something of this 

 kind may be accomplished ere long, and it is encouraging t© find 

 that in Syria, where it is practised to a small extent, the rapid 

 unwinding of such cocoons as can be overtaken in the limited 

 time and without sacrifice of life, yield 50 per cent, more silk 

 than an equal number in which the insects have been killed. 



The cocoons selected for reproduction are always chosen from 

 among the best-looking and firmest in texture ; those containing 

 males are smaller, thinner in the middle, and having more pointed 

 ends than those spun by females. Double cocoons, or those 

 which by some accident of crowding contain two or more moths 

 are usually rejected, although there is no good reason why. They 

 are not liked by reelers, as the filaments being much interlaced 

 they are unwound with difficulty. When selected, the floss silk is 

 removed, and the cocoons are attached with gum to cardboard or 

 cloth. In the course of five or six days the moths apply a soften- 

 ing or solvent liquid to the silk which enables them to push their 

 way out, and having fluttered to the cards or other material upon 

 which their eggs are to be laid, find partners for six hours, and 

 spend the two or three following days in laying eggs, of which 

 each female deposits from three hundred to double that number. 

 Their little lives of forty days having now been accomplished, 

 and as no food has been taken since the commencement of their 

 cocoons, they die. It is found that on an average one pound of 

 good cocoons yield moths which produce 1 ounce of eggs, and, 

 as already stated, the worms from 1 ounce of healthy eggs should 

 spin 120 lbs. of cocoons. 



For export or home-reeling purposes the cocoons are subjected 

 to sufficient heat to destroy the chrysalis, either by exposure to 

 the sun's rays, by fire or steam heat, or by being stowed, as in 

 some parts of China, in jars under layers of salt and leaves, with 

 a complete exclusion of air. But in whatever way the life of 

 the insect may be sacrificed, the after desiccation must be so 

 efTectiial that the remains become crushed to powder when the 

 cocoons are press-packed. The loss in weight by drying is, 

 of course, very considerable, amounting to 66 per cent., 4 lbs. 

 of desiccated cocoons })eing equivalent to 12 lbs. of undried. 

 Packing, however, does them no injury, as when placed in hot 

 water previous to being reeled tliey expand and resume tlieir 

 original form, and yield their lihiment as readily as if unwound 

 immediately after having been spun. 



Although silk-reeling in China is not carried nearly to the 

 pitch of perfection the art has reached in Europe, yet it is every- 

 where practised ; and considering the rudeness of the machinery 

 employed, the results an; very surprising. Dining, and for 



