STATE HORTlCULTrRAL SOCIETY. 21 



The Mennonites l)r()n<^ht with them, and iini)()rte(l the Cancasias 

 or Kussian mullierrv trees and seeds. Prof. Thiessen says it is aseed- 

 \m^ of the Moretti. The Mennonites surrounded their farms with 

 this kind of mull)errv tree hedge for the purpose of getting their 

 Hre-wood and posts on their jtrairie farms: and many of them used 

 the fruit, that was left by the l)irds, for preserves. 



In Kansas the Mennonites have phmted hundreds of miles of 

 mul])erry hedges, and use their leaves to feed the silk worms: ])ut I 

 doubt if this is advisable, for experience and the science of horticul- 

 ture have taught me that all good fruits and plants need culture or 

 they will go back into a wild state. I do not advise beginners to use 

 hedge leaves for food for silk worms, liut do advise them to ])lant the 

 Moras Moretti. Rosea, and Alba iji districts where they cannot grow 

 the boss tree, Japonica, 



Each female silk-worm moth will lay about three hundred eggs 

 and then die. The eggs will l)e gathered and preserved in a cool 

 place to be used when the mullwrry tree is in leaf. A good, airy 

 room, with a door and two windows well cleaned, and racks put up, 

 with lattice work, will do to raise the silk-worms in. The eggs will be 

 spread on a sheet of paper covering the whole shelf: in eighty-live 

 degrees (summer heat ) they will begin to hatch. Now take a mos- 

 quito net, spread that over the eggs, and take fine chopped mulberry 

 leaves and spread them on top of the net. The first batch of worms 

 will crawl through the net to eat the leaves. Then take the net with 

 the worms and place them on the upper shelf, which you will have 

 covered with paper. The next day another batch of worms will 

 crawl out of the eggs, and you will phice them n\)on the second shelf, 

 and so on for five days, when it is supposed they are all hatched. 

 You will feed them with fresh leaves, three times a day, make a 

 chalk, or i)encil mark for every meal you give them, on each shelf. 



The silk worm will change its skin four times, and has five eat- 

 ing periods. After eating five days it will change its coat: then it 

 will eat again four days and change its coat one day; eat again four 

 and one-half days, change his coat one day: then eat six and one- 

 half days, change its coat one and one-half days, and eat again eight 

 and one-half days. From the time the worm leaves the egg it will 

 take only thirty or thirty-five days for it to get its growth : it will 

 then crawl up the ladders or in branches fixed for it on the sides of 

 the shelves, and begin to spin its cocoon from one fine thread twelve 

 hundred to two thousand feet long. Kight days after this we find 

 the worm in the cocoon, changed into a butterfly (commonly called ), 

 and eight days later it will eat a hole in the end of the cocoon and 

 escape to lay eggs as said l)efore. 



It would take too much time for me to give a long explanation 

 of this industry, and I refer you'to the little work on silk culture by 

 Miss L. Capsadell, and the writings of I'rof. ('rozier. 



Respectful Iv submitted 



DR.'H. S('HR(K1)KR. 



