226 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
having charge of them to keep them thoroughly clean; for, while they 
pass up through the net to take their fresh food, their excrement drops 
through it and i is always taken up with the old ‘litter beneath. It also 
acts as a detective of disease; for such worms as are injured, feeble, or 
sickly, usually fail to mount through the meshes and should be carried 
off and destroyed with the refuse in the old net below. ‘This placing on 
of the new net and carrying away of the old is such a great conven- 
ience and time-saver that in France, for many years, paper stamped 
‘by machinery with holes of different sizes, suited to the different stages — 
of the worms, has been used. The paper has the advantage of cheap- 
ness and stiffness, but a discussion as to the best material is unneces- 
sary here, the aim being to enforce the principle of the progressive rise 
of the worms. Details “will suggest themselves to the operator. 
Where the nets are not used, there is an advantage in feeding the 
worms upon leaf-covered twigs and branches, because these last allow a 
free passage of air, and the leaves keep fresh a longer time than when 
plucked. In this feeding with branches consists the whole secret of the 
California system, so much praised and advocated by M. L. Prevost. 
The proper stamped paper not being easily obtained in this country, 
mosquito-netting will be found a very fair substitute while the worms 
are young, and when they are larger 1 have found thin slats of some 
non-resinous and well-seasoned wood, tacked in parallel lines to a frame 
just large enough to set in the trays, very serviceable and convenient— 
small square blocks of similar wood being used at the corners of the 
tray to support the frame while the worms are passing up through it. 
Coarse twine-netting stretched over a similar frame will answer the 
same purpose, but wire-netting is less useful, as the worms dislike the 
smooth metal. 
Where branches, and not leaves, are fed, the Osage orange has the 
advantage of ’ Mulberry, as its spines prevent too close sett ling or pack- 
ing, and thus insure ventilation. It is recommended by many to feed 
the worms while in their first age, and consequently weak and tender, 
leaves that have been cut up or hashed, in order to give them more 
edges to eat upon and to make less work for them. This, however, is 
hardly necessary with Annuals, although it is quite generally practiced 
in France. With the second brood of Bivoltins it might be advisable, 
inasmuch as the leaves at the season of the year when they appear, have 
attained their full growth and are a little tough for the newly hatched 
individuals. In the spring, however, the leaves are small and tender, 
and nature has provided the young worms with sufficiently strong jaws 
to cut them. 
Many rules have been laid’down as to regularity of feeding, and much 
stress has been put upon it by some w riters, most advising four meals a 
day at regular intervals, while a given numb er of meals between molts 
has also been ur ged; but such definite rules are of but little avail, as so 
much depends upon ‘circumstances and conditions. The food should, in 
fact, be renewed whenever the leaves have been devoured, or whenever 
they have become in the least dry, which, of course, takes place much 
quicker when young and tender than when mature. This also is an 
objection to the use of the hashed leaves, as, of course, they would dry 
very quickly. The worms eat most freely early in the morning and late 
at night, and it would be well to renew the leaves abundantly between 
5and 6a. m. and between 10 and 11 p.m. One or two additional meals 
should be given during the day, according as the worms may seem to 
need them. Great care should be taken to pick the leaves for the early 
morning meal the evening before. as when picked and fed with the dew 
