71 [ 175 ] 



iiearly two inches; or common baskets may be used. The removal 

 iu baskets may be executed in safety, with the following precautions: 



1. Lining the baskets thoroughly with paper well closed, that the 

 exterior air may not strike the silkworms, particularly if it should be 

 cold, 



2. Preventing the sheets of paper covered with worms, from touch- 

 ing each other, by putting slender sticks across to support the sheets 

 of paper, and avoiding their pressing together. This should be done 

 in as many layers, from the bottom of the basket to the top, as there 

 are sheets of paper covered with the young worms, leaving a distance 

 of four fingers between each. 



3. To cover the basket very completely with linen cloths, to keep 

 off cold and sun. 



4. To remove them between the hours of twelve and three o'clock, 

 that being the hottest part of the day. 



5 To give the worms a small quantity of young and chopped leaves 

 if their journey is likely to be three or four hours long. 



The proportion of the boxes stated as necessary for hatching the 

 silkworms, should not be altered; as this proportion prevents any 

 necessity of ever touching the eggs, from the moment the silkworms 

 begin to appear. 



The perforated paper being large enough to support a number of 

 small twigs of mulberry, it consequently enables us to remove a large 

 portion of the silkworms at once. In using these small boxes, the 

 egg shells will always adhere together, and when the boxes are lifted, 

 they should be slightly shaken horizontally, to move the eggs. If, in 

 moving them, some of the holes in the paper should be stopped up 

 with the eggs, it is of no consequence, as it will not prevent the worms 

 climbing up. 



Whenever a sheet of paper is prepared for the arrangement of silk- 

 worms, there should be inscribed upon the paper itself, the hour in 

 which the arrangement began; thus it will be seen in what time, and 

 in what progression, the silkworms come forth. A pencil may be 

 used, for the purpdse of noting the sheets of paper. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



OP THE REARING OF SILKWORMS IN THEIR FOUR FIRST STAGE3. 



In the preceding chapter it has been stated, that the space suitable 

 to the number of silkworms proceeding from one ounce of eggs, 

 should be, in the first age, that is to say, until the first moulting, 7 

 feet 4 inches square. Of about 14 feet 8 inches, until the second 

 moulting; and of 84 feet 10 inches, until the third moulting. The 

 space required until the fourth moulting, is 82 feet six inches squorr. 



