1^6 [ 175 j 



On early /bod. 



Sow the seeds broad cast of the white, or of the native red mulberry 

 tree, in well prepared ground, as .soon as ripe; they will soon vegetate. 

 If the winter be cold, cover the plants with straw, or long manure. 

 The first season, they will afford a small quantity of leaves; but, if wa- 

 tered in dry weather, the leaves will be abundant in the second year. 

 The plants will grow better if the seed be sown in drills, thinned out 

 to proper distances, and kept clean. The leaves of these seedlings are 

 only recommended for the young worms, and as a resource for food 

 until the leaves of the standard mulberry trees have put forth. They 

 have already been proscribed as food for silkworms during their whole 

 r'ourse — p. 53. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



DISEASES OP SILKWORMS. 



A careful perusal of the principal practical authors upon the rearing 

 of silkworms, and attention to their progress during the last season, 

 in a large establishment, have led to the conclusion, that the diseases 

 to which silkworms are subject in their various stages, may be referred 

 to the following causes: 



1st. Errors in hatching the eggs, and treatment of very young 

 worms. 



2d. Bad air of the district in which they were bred. 



3d. Impurity in the air in which they are kept, arising from defi- 

 cient ventilation, from exhalations of the litter of the worms, and of 

 their manure, which has been permitted to accumulate. 



4th. Too close crowding, owing to which cause their spiracles or 

 breathing holes, were stopped, and the expiration and inspiration of air 

 prevented. 



5th. The quality and quantity of food. 



6th. Improper change of food. 



7th. Peculiar constitution of the air in certain seasons, against which 

 no precautions can avail. 



8th. Frequent changes of temperature in the room in which they 

 are kept. 



I. Diseases from defect in the eggs. 



1st. When the apartment destined for the coming forth, and laying 

 of the eggs of the moth is too cold, (54° or 59°,) the impregnating li- 

 quor will not be perfected; and, consequently, does not sufficiently 

 act upon the eggs, to give them the ash color, which, in the course of 

 fifteen nr twenty days, indicates the perfect impregnation. The un- 



