STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 245 



months, being taken out as wanted for use. Now, mark the result: 

 Though they were all hatched by myself and others, and fed with the 

 greatest of care, not one produced a cocoon ! 



Does any one doubt what killed the worms? If so, let him read the 

 statements of experiments and facts that follow, and he will be convinced. 



MY EXPERIENCE AND EXPERIMENTS IN EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND 



SIXTY-NINE. 



Being encouraged by my success in feeding worms in eighteen hun- 

 dred and sixty-eight, and by the very liberal inducements held out by 

 laws enacted by the two preceding Legislatures, I determined this year 

 to spare no pains and to neglect no precaution considered necessary to 

 secure success, on a scale that would be beneficial to myself as well as 

 advantageous to the State at large. Having extended my mulberry 

 plantations, to secure the necessary food, I next turned my attention to 

 the preparation of necessary buildings for cocooneries, and to supplying 

 them with all the conveniences and apparatus deemed requisite for the 

 prosecution of the business on the most approved style. The building 

 in which I fed last year, though it answered every purpose then, 

 was now pronounced unfit for use, it being too open and not being pro- 

 vided with the necessary apparatus for regulating the temperature. It 

 was therefore battened and improved until it was as tight as many 

 houses, supplied with all the conveniences for ventilation, and with two 

 good stoves to supply artificial heat. A new building having been 

 erected, with direct reference to the business, and in accordance with 

 the rules laid down b} T the best authors, and being supplied with a hot 

 air furnace and registers for a perfect control of the temperature, I con- 

 sidered myself ready to commence business. My eggs were then taken 

 from the ice chest and put to hatching. Some thirty ounces in each 

 building were hatched and carefully fed by the same Chinaman who had 

 brought me such success the year before. The night-watch and fireman 

 were instructed not to allow the temperature to fall below seventy de- 

 grees, and not to exceed about sevent} r -five degrees, except when raised 

 by the natural heat of the sun. The worms grew very rapidty, much 

 more so than those fed in the open buildings of which I spoke in my 

 last, and without artificial heat. My Chinaman felt very much elated 

 with the prospect, and I thought success almost secured. They passed 

 through the first moulting in apparent good order, but between the first 

 and second moultings a growing irregularity in size began to be observ- 

 able, and there was evident delay in passing through the second moult- 

 ing. As they approached the third change, the irregularity in size grew 

 greater, and the smaller worms began to assume an unnatural, bluish 

 color about the head, and to taper too much from the head to the tail. 



When about fifteen days old, instead of going into the third moulting, 

 as they should have done, and becoming quiet, they seemed restless and 

 uneasy, as if in distress. They ate but little; but by their constant 

 motion they ran over their food, trampling it down, and rendering it in 

 a condition favorable for fermentation. The larger worms passed through 

 the third moulting, but the smaller and blue-headed ones mostly died at 

 this stage. As they approached the time for the fourth moulting the 

 trouble increased, greater irregularity in size and more unnaturally blue- 

 heads appeared every day. Despairing of success, I threw them all out. 

 At this stage of the proceeding I was completely in the dark as to the 

 cause of the trouble; I could not even conjecture, with any degree of 



