PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 253 



the advantages to the "health of the silkworm" in the breaking 

 up of the large establishments for breeding them — that is, let 

 them be raised by the peasants in a small way, but the larger tlie 

 establishment for reeling the better." 



Silk worms have been fed upon lettuce and will live, but are 

 i/ot healthy. The pulsations known by the motions of the sec- 

 tions of the body of the worm, will run down when fed on this 

 plant almost one-half — that is from about forty-five to twenty- 

 five per minute. 



Mulberry trees do best in a dry region, and what is wonderful, 

 their leaves are scarcely sought after by any other class of cater- 

 pillars except the silk worms. The oak has some seventy varie- 

 ties of insect depredators, the apple thirty or forty. 



The mulberry tree will bear to be stripped of its leaves every 

 year for ages. There are four varieties of it cultivated in differ- 

 ent parts of the world for the feeding of silk worms. 



One hundred silk Avorms at birth weigh one grain, and after 

 the fifth or last moult, the one hundred will weigh 9,500 grains. 

 It requires thirty days for all these moultings. 



Our native silk worms have but one generation a year; they 

 live through our winters in their cocoons in the crysalis state ; 

 they are all moths, that is, as butterflys, that only fly at night. 

 They have the characteristics of night flying butterflys, without 

 the little knobs on the ends of their antennas. In hot countries, 

 several generations of the siik worm are produced in each year. 

 In Madras, they have eight or ten; the butterfly itself, the per- 

 fected insect, living but a single day — those beautiful wings, each 

 containing 100,000 feathers, to be expanded for so brief a period, 

 and that only at night. 



We have, as natives of our own country, four silk making cat- 

 erpillars : 



The Eecropia, found on apple, cherry or plum trees. 



The Polypheme, found on oak, elm or linden trees. 



The Luna, found on walnut or hickory trees. 



The Promethea, found on sassafras trees. 



These nocturnal beauties might probably be considered the 

 most useful to man of all the race of insects, for they are not to 

 any extent injurious to vegetation, and their abundance in any 

 country might be rendered an important resource of wealth and 

 luxury. 



Large sections of many of our States, and especially those 



