REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLCGIST. 227 
upon them they are more apt to induce disease. Indeed, the rule should 
be laid down, never feed wet or damp leaves to your worms. In ease 
they are picked during a rain, they should be thoroughly dried before 
being fed; and on the approach of a storm it is always well to lay in a 
stock, which should be kept from heating by occasional stirring. Care 
should also be taken to spread the leaves evenly, so that all may feed 
alike. During this first and most delicate age the worm requires much 
care and watching. 
As the fifth or sixth day approaches, signs of the first molt begin to 
be noticed. The worm begins to lose appetite and grow more shiny, and 
soon the dark spot already described appears above the head. Feeding 
should now cease, and the shelves or trays should be made as clean as 
possible. Some will undoubtedly undergo the shedding of the skin much 
more easily and quickly than others, but no feed should be given to these 
forward individuals until nearly all have completed the molt. This 
serves to keep the batch together, and the first ones will wait one or 
even two days without injury from want of food. It is, however, un- 
necessary to wait tor all, as there will always be some few which remain 
sick after the great majority have cast their skins. These should either 
be set aside and kept separate, or destroyed, as they are usually the 
most feeble and most inclined to disease; otherwise, the batch will grow 
more and more irregular in their moltings and the diseased worms will 
contaminate the healthy ones. It is really doubtful whether the silk 
raised from these weak individuals will pay for the trouble of rearing 
them separately, and it will be better perhaps to destroy them. The 
importance of keeping each batch together, and of causing the worms to 
molt simultaneously, cannot be too much insisted upon as a means of 
saving time. 
As soon as the great majority have molted they should be copiously 
fed, and, as they grow very rapidly after each molt, and as they must 
always be allowed plenty of room, it will probably become necessary to 
divide the batch, and this is readily done at any meal by removing the 
net when about half of the worms have risen and replacing it by an 
additional one. The space allotted to each batch should, of course, be 
increased proportionately with the growth of the worms. The same 
precautions should be observed in the three succeeding molts as in this 
first one. 
As regards the temperature of the rearing-room, great care should be 
taken to avoid all sudden changes from warm to cold, or vice versa. A 
mean temperature of 75° or 80° EF. will usually bring the worms to the 
spinning-point in the course of 35 days after hatching, but the rapidity 
of development depends upon a variety of other causes, such as quality 
of leaf, race of worm, &ec. If it can be prevented, the temperature should 
not be permitted to rise very much above 80°, and it is for this reason 
that a room with a northern or northeastern exposure was recommended 
as preferable to any other. The air should be kept pure all of the time, 
and arrangements should be made to secure a good circulation. Great 
care should be taken to guard against the incursions of ants and other 
predaceous insects, which would make sad havoc among the worms were 
they allowed an entrance; and all through the existence of the insect, 
from the egg to the moth, rats and mice are on the watch for a chance 
to get at them, and are to be feared almost as much as any other enemy 
the silk-worm has. 
The second and third casting of the skin take place with but little 
more difficulty than the first, but the fourth is more laborious, and the 
worms not only take more time in undergoing it, but more often perish 
