92 



FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OP 



of silk.. They ai*e of about a size, and both varieties are almost always 

 constricted in the middle (Fig. 32 c green ; d Avhite). Another valuable race 

 is the White Chinese annual (Fig. 32 e) which much resembles the AVhite 

 rFic. :b.] .Japanese, but the cocoon is not so general!}^ constrict L'd. 



Previous to the prevalence of disease, a race known as 

 the White French annual was the most esteemed, and in 

 reality the cocoon (Fig. 32 a) is verj' large, oval, and 

 of a pure white. The Yellow French annuals (Fig. 32 V) 

 which are of a deep rich cream, or straw color outside 

 but more yellow inside, were also esteemed, and the co- 

 coon is large and beautiful. 



There are local races or varieties in all the large 

 silk-producing countries, and they generally bear the 

 name of the locality where they are produced. The co- 

 coons may be divided into the yellow, green and white, 

 some races producing cocoons uniform in color; Avhile 

 others produce mixed cocoons. The wdiite silk is the 

 nn St valuable in commerce, but the races producing the yellow, cream- 

 colored or flesh-colored cocoons are generally considered the most vigorous,- 

 and have certainly proved so in my experience in this country. The An- 

 nuals are more valuable than the Bivoltins or Trivoltins ; though the Bivol- 

 tins are often reared, and Mr. Alfred Brewster, of Han Gabriel, Cal., says 

 that he found a green Japanese variety of these last more hardy than the 

 Chinese Annuals. 



HOW BEST TO REAR. 



Volumes have been written on the rearing or education of the Silk- 

 worm; and most persons who have had no experience with it, fancy that 

 there must necessarily be something unusually difficult in the treatment of 

 the worm whose marvelously lustrous product— the pride of kings and 

 queens, and once weighed in the balance with gold — has always been asso- 

 ciated with everything that is choice, delicate and beautiful. Yet if we 

 travel through the different silk-jDroducing countries at feeding or breeding 

 time, we shall find the work very simple. From the reports on silk-culture 

 that have lately been issued by Mr. F. O. Adams, Esq., Secretary to Her 

 Brittanic Majesty's Legation in Japan, we may learn that the culture is car- 

 ried on there in the most simple and even careless manner, with the most 

 primitive machinery; and that the people arc actuall}" in ignorance of some 

 of the very simplest truths, the knowledge of which would enable them to 

 more than double their harvest. It is even worse in China; and in South- 

 ern Europe most of the silk is reared by a peasantrj^ which knows abso- 

 lutely nothing beyond plucking the leaves and feeding them to the worms; 

 and in the best ediications they lose on-e-half the Avorms hatched. 



There are few farm operations more simple, or which require so little 

 training; but jiroper knowledge is all important to insure success and pre- 

 vent undue mortality in the brood. It will be well to bear in mind the 

 character of the climate of that part of Japan where silk-culture has at- 



