SILK CULTURE. 909 



Chinese Annual, which much resembles the white Japanese, but is not as generally con 

 stricted. 



Wintering and Hatching the EggS. We have already seen the importance of 

 getting healthy eggs, free from hereditary disease, and of good and valuable races. There is 

 little danger of premature hatching until December, but from that time on the eggs should be 

 kept in a cool, dry room in tin boxes to prevent the ravages of rats and mice. They are 

 most safely stored in a dry cellar, where the temperature rarely sinks below the freezing 

 point, and they should be occasionally looked at to make sure that they are not affected by 

 mold. If, at any time, mold be perceived upon them, it should be at once rubbed or brushed 

 off, and 4,he atmosphere made drier. If the tin boxes be perforated on two sides, and the 

 perforations covered with fine wire gauze, the chances of injury will be reduced to a 

 minimum. 



The eggs may also, whether on cards or loose,* be tied up in small bags and hung to the 

 ceiling of the cold room. The string of the bag should be passed through a bottle neck or a 

 piece of tin to prevent injury from rats and mice. The temperature should never be allowed 

 to rise above 40 F., but may be allowed to sink below freezing point without injury. 

 Indeed, eggs sent from one country to another are usually packed in ice. They should be 

 kept at a low temperature until the mulberry leaves are well started in the spring, and great 

 care must be taken as the weather grows warmer to prevent hatching before their food is 

 ready for them, since both the mulberry and osage orange are rather late in leaving out. One 

 great object should be, in fact, to have them all kept back, as the tendency in our climate is 

 to premature hatching. Another object should be to have them hatch uniformly, and this is 

 best attained by keeping together those laid at one and the same time, and by wintering 

 them, as already recommended, in cellars that are cool enough to prevent any embryonic 

 development. They should then, as soon as the leaves of their food-plant have commenced to 

 put forth, be placed in trays and brought into a well-aired room, where the temperature 

 averages about 75 F. If they have been wintered adhering to the cloth on which they were 

 laid, all that is necessary to do is to spread this same cloth over the bottom of a tray; If, on 

 the contrary, they have been wintered in the loose condition, they must be uniformly sifted 

 or spread over sheets of cloth or paper. The temperature should be kept uniform, and a 

 small stove in the hatching room will prove very valuable in providing this uniformity. The 

 heat of the room may be increased about 20 each day, and if the eggs have been well kept 

 back during the winter they will begin to hatch under such treatment on the fifth or sixth 

 day. By no means must the eggs be exposed to the sun s rays, which would kill them in a 

 very short time. As the time of hatching approaches, the eggs grow lighter in color, and 

 then the atmosphere must be kept moist artificially by sprinkling the floor, or otherwise, in 

 order to enable the worms to eat through the egg shell more easily. They also appear 

 fresher and more vigorous with due amount of moisture. 



Feeding and Rearing the Worms. The room in which the rearing is to be done 

 should be so arranged that it can be thoroughly and easily ventilated, and warmed if desira 

 ble. A northeast exposure is the best, and buildings erected for the express purpose should, 

 of course, combine these requisites. If but few worms are to be reared, all the operations 

 can be performed in trays upon tables, but in large establishments the room is arranged with 

 deep and numerous shelves, from 4 to 8 feet deep and 2 feet 6 inches apart. All wood, 

 however, should be well seasoned, as green wood seems to be injurious to the health of the 

 worms. When the eggs are about to hatch, mosquito netting or perforated paper should be 

 laid over them lightly. Upon this can be evenly spread freshly-plucked leaves or buds. The 

 worms will rise through the meshes of the net or the holes in the paper and cluster upon the 

 leaves, when the whole net can easily be moved. In this moving, paper has the advantage 

 over the netting, in that it is stiffer and does not lump the worms together in the middle. 

 They may now be spread upon the shelves or trays, care being taken to give them plenty of 

 space, as they grow rapidly. Each day s hatching should be kept separate, in order that the 

 worms may be of a uniform size, and go through their different moultings or sicknesses with 

 regularity and uniformity; and all eggs not hatched after the fourth day from the appearance 

 of the first should be thrown away, as they will be found to contain inferior, weakly, or sickly 

 worms. It is calculated that one ounce of eggs of a good race will produce 100 pounds of 

 fresh cocoons; while for every additional ounce the percentage is reduced if the worms are 

 all raised together, until for 20 ounces the average does not exceed 25 pounds of cocoons per 

 ounce. 



*For explanation, see what follows under egg-laying. 



