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1. The preservation of the health of silkworms, depends essentially 

 on the leaves being perfectly dry when given to thcin. Wet leaves in- 

 variably produce a diarrhoea. 



In the four first ages, the leaves may be easily kept two or three 

 days; but on the days when the silkworms are voracious, a number of 

 persons must be continually at work to provide for their daily con- 

 sumption, and dry the leaves a day or two before they are wanted. 



To dry in a day several hundred pounds weight of mulberry leaves, 

 proceed in the following manner: 



When the wet leaves are brought in, have them spread on brick 

 floors, or on earthen floors, which should be as clean as possible. Then, 

 according to the quantity, one or two persons must spread them with 

 wooden forks, turn them, throw them about, and move them much. 

 This, often repeated, very soon shakes off the wet. If the floor is not 

 of bricks, and the ground becomes wet, the leaves should be raked off 

 to another and drier part of the floor. 



Although the leaf appears quite dry after this operation, it still con 

 tains a great deal of water in its folds, and even on its surfiice. 



Then twenty or thirty pounds of leaves should be spread upon a 

 large coarse sheet, and doubling it into the shape of a large sack, two 

 persons should hold the four corners, and shake the leaves well about 

 from one end of the sheet to the other, until they appear to be quite 

 dry, which will be the case in a few minutes. 



Should it be required further to dry the leaves, by burning a larn-e 

 heap of shavings, and some faggot sticks, and placing the leaves nearly 

 all round the fire, taking care to turn them well with clean pitch-forks, 

 they will become, by these means, as dry as if they were gathered at 

 noon on a fine day; it may b*3 effected, as is required, in either way. 

 Should the leaves be only wet with dew, drying them with the sheet 

 will be sufficient. 



2. The experienced Pullein says, that the leaves of mulberry trees 

 which grow in moist grounds, or in places shaded from the sun, and 

 those from suckers produced from the trunk, roots, or principal arms, 

 being full of sap and moisture, crude and immature, will produce fatal 

 distempers in silkworms: even by giving them only one feeding, they 

 are surfeited, and throw out of their mouths a greenish liquor, and a 

 clear humor out of the pores of their skins, and out of the little point 

 growing near the tail. This clammy moisture, by rubbing against 

 one another, closes up the spiracles, or breathing holes. 



3. Young worms should invariably be fed upon young and tender 

 leaves. The strong nourishment derived from full grown leaves, as 

 has been already mentioned, produces disease in them. Old leaves must 

 be reserved for worms in their advanced ages. 



4. Over feeding and scantiness of food, are the remote causes of dis- 

 ease. Unceasing attention should therefore be paid, to have the worms 

 regularly supplied with food, and in proportion to their appetites. 



VI. Diseases from change of food. 



When silkworms have been fed upon the leaves of the native red 

 mulberry tree, they sometimes become diseased, when these leaves 



