432 Transactions op the 



At about ten o'clock take hold of the strips of leaves carefully and 

 lay them close together on a clean paper upon which you intend to feed 

 them. It is better that the worms be pretty thick when small — so thick 

 that the leaves upon which they rest will look black with them. When 

 you have thus moved all the worms from the eggs in this manner, cut 

 dp some tender leaves very fine and sprinkle them over the worms. 

 They will immediately leave the dry strips and go for the fresh cut 

 leaves. Mark the worms, or the paper containing them, the day of the 

 month, and feed them a little once in about five hours during the day- 

 time, and if the nights are sufficiently warm, so that they continue to 

 eat all night, keep the feeding up all night; hut if the nights are cool, 

 let them miss one feeding in the middle of the night, and then again at 

 four o'clock. 



Repeat the process of taking the worms from the eggs each day for 

 about four days, and then throw away those that have not hatched, as 

 they will not probably be very good after that. Be very careful to keep 

 each day's hatching by itself, and keep the papers on which you place 

 them separate, so they will not mix, as this will save a great deal of 

 trouble in the future changes of the worm. Keep up the feeding with 

 finely cut leaves each four hours, being careful not to feed them much 

 more than they will eat until the worms are four days old. 



FIRST MOLTING. 



At this age their heads and the foreparts of the body will be a grayish 

 color, and if the temperature has been kept up to about seventy degrees 

 they will probably begin to lose their appetites, preparatory to going to 

 sleep, but if the temperature has been a little lower than seventy they 

 may eat, on the fourth day, more ravenously than on an}^ previous day, 

 and their sleepy time may be delayed until the fifth day, or even to the 

 sixth. When they stop eating, stop feeding; as, if you continue to feed 

 them, you will bury them up with cold, dam]) leaves, and thus lose many 

 of them. They will sleep from twenty-four to thirty-six hours, and 

 sometimes forty-eight hours. In this time their bodies shrink and the 

 skin separates from the little black cap that covers the head, the cap 

 falls oft', and the worm wakes up and crawls out of his skin. This is 

 called molting. When they have thus molted and waked up they are 

 very hungry, but don't feed them any till all the worms on the paper 

 have molted. Be very particular about this, so as to keep them all of 

 the same size, and so that when thej' go to sleep the next time, which 

 they will do again in about five or six days, all will sleep and wake at 

 the same time. 



By being very careful to keep the worms of the same day's hatching 

 separate, and thus keeping each day's hatching uniform in size, and 

 putting them all to sleep at the same time, before each molting, much 

 work is saved, and the wormswvill do much better all through their 

 lives. We should have mentioned that, as the worm approaches the 

 time for going to sleep, it changes its color, always looking a yellowish 

 sickly color at that time; and when it fully stops eating, it fastens itself 

 to a piece of a leaf, and seems to be stiff and almost lifeless. In this 

 condition they should not be moved, or fed, or disturbed in any way, but 

 left entirely alone. When going to sleep, also, many of them get down 

 under the surface leaves, so that you can see but few of them on the top. 

 When they have molted, their color is changed, and they appear on the 

 surface again and move about in search of food. 



