STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 247 



those who used them before they were thus chilled, generally, if not 

 universally, had good success Having conducted my own experiments 

 to a satisfactory solution of the question, I made a tour among other 

 cocooneries in this section, and in every instance where ill success was 

 attending the feedings, I discovered the same unmistakable signs of 

 chilled eggs. 



Having learned that all those engaged in the business in L03 Angeles 

 had, early in the spring, clubbed together to build a large ice box, in 

 which to keep their eggs back until such time as their trees, all of which 

 had been cut down to the ground to supply the demand for cuttings, 

 should supply sufficient foliage to commence feeding, I suspected that 

 they also might have met with the same misfortunes that had attended 

 the efforts of many in this section. Upon opening a correspondence on 

 the subject, I soon found my suspicions fully confirmed. There seems 

 now to be but one opinion among the silk culturists in that part of the 

 State as to the cause of their failure, and that opinion is, that it was 

 owing to their unfortunate experiment with the ice box. I have related 

 my experience this summer to many persons who have long been engaged 

 in feeding worms in European countries, and they uniformly agree that 

 the ice box is the cause of the trouble. My Chinamen, some of whom 

 have been brought up from childhood in the business, came to the same 

 conclusions. I think now there cannot be the least doubt as to the cor- 

 rectness of this opinion. It would seem, in fact, that we all ought to 

 have known better than to have been led into so fatal an error. The 

 fact that nearly all the trees in the State had been cut down to the 

 ground, and the lateness of the season forced us to adopt some method 

 to keep our eggs from hatching until we should have leaves to feed them, 

 and, unfortunately, we neglected the precaution until our eggs were so 

 far advanced that a resort to any means to keep them back a sufficient 

 length of time would probably have ruined them as effectually as the 

 one adopted. 



The lesson taught by the experience of this season is like many others 

 we learn by accident, and which, when learned, appears so plain and 

 easy that we wonder we were so ignorant or careless as not to have 

 ku<jwn it before. 



I will here state that those who were so fortunate as to be able to 

 obtain eggs of the Japanese variety, that had been produced in the 

 forepart of the season for feeding in the latter, were, with few excep- 

 tions, very successful. The cause of the failure in the exceptional cases 

 is one that serves to illustrate the superiority of our State for silk culture 

 over those countries where showers of rain are of frequent occurrence 

 during the season for feeding. It is irrigation. I have two or three 

 cases directly in point, to show that it will not be safe, while feeding 

 worms, either to irrigate the trees or to change the food in any manner 

 to leaves containing more water than those they have been eating. Dr." 

 C. Euddick, of Yolo County, was feeding some worms, and fearing that 

 his food would fall short, resorted to the irrigation of some of his trees 

 to force a greater growth. No sooner did the trees show the effect of 

 water than he discovered a deleterious effect on his worms. A change 

 from the irrigated to trees that had not been irrigated checked the 

 trouble, restored the good condition of the worms, and they made good 

 cocoons. So in Los Angeles, some parties irrigated their trees; and in 

 a letter written from that county, the writer says: " It is to this cause 

 I attribute the failure of some parties later in the season with trivoltines 

 — finding in every case of failure the plantation had been irrigated, while 



