No. 105.] 147 



It may be remarked that the qualities of the mulberry leaf are such 

 in the latter part of the season, that as heavy cocoons will not be 

 produced as those of the first. A bushel of the first crop raised at 

 Economy, in the season referred to, produced 23j ounces of reeled 

 silk, and the last crop wound in Oct. but 19 oz. About one month of 

 the best part of that season of feeding, was lost by the severe frost of 

 the 5th of May, which entirely killed the young leaves, and must 

 have materially injured the whole crop of the season. 



My method of preserving eggs, is to place them in the ice house in 

 February or early in March, or sooner if the weather sets in warm 

 For this purpose, a box or square trunk should be made, extending 

 within one foot of the bottom of the ice to the top. This may be made 

 in joints so that as the ice settles, the upper joints may be removed. 

 The eggs should be placed in tin boxes, and then enclosed in wood 

 ones, and suspended in the trunk 7iear the ice. The communication 

 of warm air should be cut off, by filling the opening with a bundle of 

 straw or hay. The eggs should be aired for a few minutes, as often 

 as once in one or two weeks, always choosing a cold morning, when 

 also selections for succeeding crops may be made, these should be 

 placed in another box, and gradually raised in the trunk for several 

 days, (from 10 to 14) avoiding a too sudden transition from the ice to 

 the temperature of the hatching room. 



Their ice house at Economy is connected with the cellar, the bot- 

 tom of the former being eighteen inches below that of the latter. A 

 long wooden box extending into the ice house level with the bottom 

 of the cellar floor, contains all the smaller boxes of eggs. The door 

 of the box, opening in the cellar, is kept well closed, to prevent the 

 admission of warm air. 



They employ another ice house, sunk deep in a cellar, with shelves 

 gradually rising from the ice, up to the top of the ground, upon which 

 the eggs of succeeding crops are placed, and raised one shelf higher 

 every day, until they are taken into the hatching room. 



The past season (1845) they have hatched about^ve oimces of eggs 

 or 100,000 worms every four days. 



Diseases of the Silk worm. — The silk worm like every other ani- 

 mal or insect, is liable to disease and premature death. European 

 writers have enumerated and described six particular diseases to which 

 it is subject : But in our more congenial climate nothing is wanting to- 



