STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 261 



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COCOONERY. 



Having selected your location and planted your trees, the next thing 

 to be prepared for use is some place to feed your worms — a cocoonery. 

 Any rough building will do in this State. Our climate is so mild and 

 favorable we can dispense with many of the extra conveniences or neces- 

 saries required in many other countries, and, consequently, with much of 

 the expense; but you cannot feed the worms in the open air, for the 

 reason that they must be protected from the sun as well as the night 

 dews; also from the birds. If }'0u have a barn on the place which can be 

 devoted to this use in the summer season, you have already a cocoonery. 

 All you want to do is to put up upright standards, to which, at about 

 two and a half feet apart, fasten cross pieces and lay on loose boards for 

 shelves, and your cocoonery is made. At about eight feet from the floor 

 your cross pieces will want to extend across the alleyways between the 

 shelves, on which lay a temporary floor to stand on while feeding the 

 worms on the shelves above. All the framework and boards for shelving 

 can be so made that they can easily be put up and taken down, and kept 

 from year to year. Be careful to provide a plenty of ventilation. This 

 may be done in any manner most convenient, so that the wind does not 

 blow directly on the worms. The worms also want plenty of light, but, 

 as before remarked, must not be exposed to the direct rays of the sun. 



Of course the size of the cocoonery will want to be regulated by the 

 number of worms to be fed. It is estimated that five hundred thousand 

 worms will require, for the first age — that is, from hatching until the first 

 moulting — about one hundred square feet of surface or shelving. For the 

 second age — from the first to the second moulting — about two hundred 

 square feet; for the third age, about four hundred and fifty square feet; 

 for the fourth age, about eleven hundred square feet- and for the fifth 

 age, about twenty-five hundred square feet of surface or shelving. The 

 space required will be greater or less, in proportion to the greater or less 

 number of worms to be fed. In Germany, nearly every farm-house is 

 devoted to the purposes of a cocoonery during the feeding season, and 

 in many cases this same practice may be adopted here, especially where 

 the house is large and the number of worms to be fed is small. 



HATCHING THE EGGS AND FEEDING THE WORMS. 



Now we come to the most delicate and important, as well as most 

 attractive and interesting portion of the silk culture, and upon the skilful 

 and successful management of this department of the business depends 

 all its profits, and consequently all the advantages that can be urged in 

 its favor. To this particular branch, then, I would ask the especial 

 attention of every beginner. There is nothing intricate or difficult 

 about feeding and taking care of the worms and making a sure crop of 

 silk, but there are certain things necessary to be done to insure success, 

 and these things are necessary to be done at particular times, and they 

 must absolutel}' be done at those times. He who would successfully feed 

 silkworms must have a time for everything and everything in its time. 

 Having impressed this idea of perfect regularity and certainty upon the 

 minds of those who propose to feed and care for a family of worms, we 

 will go at once to the work of hatching them from the eggs. 



The eggs having been kept in some place where the thermometer 

 never rises above forty-five or fifty degrees, and where they are in no 

 danger of sweating or becoming mildewed, should be taken out when 



