THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



39 



they are carefully examined. As soon as the hatch- 

 ing of the worms commences fresh water is put in 

 the first jar, a hole is made through the mat above, 

 and a few branches are inserted so that the stems 

 may rest in the water in the jar beneath. On these 

 branches small saucers of lacquered ware are hung, 

 each containing a small quantity of eggs. These 

 saucers have minute holes bored in the bottoms so 

 that the rain water can easily escape. The worms, 

 as they hatch, spread themselves from the .saucers 

 over the branches. When about 500 of these little 

 caterpillars are thus placed on the branches, a second 

 jar is brought into requisition and a similar process 

 is continued. The opening in the mats, through 

 which the branches are inserted, is well closed with 

 leaves, etc., in order to prevent the caterpillars from 

 falling through into the water beneath. One of the 

 branches is also bent down so as to afford a means 

 of ascent to the worms from the mats to the food. 



When the worms have fed for three days on a 

 branch, this needs changing for a fresh one. This 

 is done by resting it against the fresh food, when 

 the worms will quit of themselves the old branch. 

 The worms are allowed from nine o'clock in the 

 morning to three in the afternoon to make the 

 change. After the expiration of this time, if any 

 remain on the old food, which often occurs, the leaf 

 or twig on which they sit is cut off and placed 

 among the fresh food. Since the worms before 

 their first moult are very small, it requires great 

 care in shifting their food to prevent the loss or es- 

 cape of any. The first period of their lives requires 

 the most attention, and three persons are required 

 to attend to fifteen broods of five hundred larvaj each, 

 later on, the same number of persons can properly at- 

 tend to three hundred of such broods. The water in 

 the jars should be changed every other day. General- 

 ly speaking, the worms should be carefully managed, 

 and any roughness when changing the food or the 

 water in the jars should be avoided. Since they 

 are more or less delicate, they should not be touched 

 with the hands; their death has been known to 

 ensue from later contact with their cast skins, which, 

 in the first moultings, are more or less covered with 

 hairs which subsequently disappear. As the worms 

 increase in size so the number of broods and jars 

 have to be added to ; at every change of food the 

 number of worms on any one branch is diminished 

 by separation. As at first, five hundred worms were 

 placed on the branches of each jar, so, after the 

 fourth moult, this number should have been gradu- 

 ally diminished by separation until no more than 

 fifty remain. 



The tenth day after their exclusion from the egg 

 the worms stop feeding and remain quiet for three 

 days. This is the first moult. The moultings occur 

 four times and, after the total lapse of sixty days, the 

 worms begin to construct their cocoons; this period 

 being hastened or retarded by climatical influences. 



A. R. G. 



Entomology all a Humbug. 



Farmers sometimes complain that Entomologists 

 have as yet effected so little, towards the counter- 

 working of the hundreds of noxious insects, that are 

 annually robbing the community of untold millions 

 of dollars. But in the first place, there have been 

 but very few Entomologists, who have been specially 

 employed for this purpose either by the General 

 Government or by the State Legislatures ; and in 

 the second place, some of those, who have been so 

 employed, have had their time so entirely occupied 

 with extraneous matters, that they have literally 

 had no leisure whatever for the real duties of their 

 position. Hear what Mr. Glover, the Entomologist 

 of the Agricultural Bureau at Washington, says in 

 his last Report : — 



As Entomologist of this department, besides tbe regular 

 daily official duty, all the subjects of general natural his- 

 tory, such as insectivorous birds, specimens of fruits, tex- 

 tile materials, hemp, cotton, flax, Ac, have been handed 

 over to my charge for preservation and arrangement 

 during the past year. (Agr. Rep. 1863, p. 561.) 



This is a good deal like hiring a single cradler to 

 harvest a thousand acres of wheat, and then expect- 

 ing him, in addition, to cut and fetch in wood, peel 

 and wash the potatoes, and be always on hand ready 

 to wait on the good woman of the house. Can we 

 wonder that, under such circumstances, Mr. Glo- 

 ver's Report contains scarcely any original investi- 

 gations, and is in reality, like many similar Papers 

 which appear from time to time in the Transactions 

 of different State Agricultural Societies, little else 

 but a re-hash of Harris and Fitch ? When he 

 should have been looking after the Bugs, he was set 

 to work on the Birds ; if he attempted an attack 

 upon the Army-worm, he was called off to unpack 

 a basket of apples ; and instead of making war on 

 the Chinch-bug, the Hessian Fly and the Curculio, 

 his time was taken up with preserving and arranging 

 specimens of hemp, cotton and flax ! ! Will our 

 rulers at Washington never learn, that it is bad 

 policy to put a square man into a round hole? And 

 that, whether round or square, no one man can fit a 

 hole that is as wide across as the dome of the Capi- 

 tol ? W. 

 1 # ■ 



a®* Sew up your furs and woollen articles in mus- 

 lin or linen bags, as a security against moths. 



