228 THE IDYL OF THE SPLIT-BAMBOO 



In one respect the inferiority of the American 

 product must be admitted; I have not yet succeeded 

 in producing a strand of gut that will test to ten or 

 twelve pounds, as I understand an occasional strand 

 of Spanish gut has done. Still, the extreme length 

 of the imported article is eighteen to twenty inches, 

 while the native product is three or four times as 

 long. Strands tied together are not as strong as the 

 single one, because the knot is the weakest part of 

 the leader; therefore a leader testing up to eight or 

 nine pounds is a very strong one. It is not improb- 

 able that a better variety of food, or a different 

 pickling solution, or a careful breeding of worms to 

 secure desired qualities, may produce an article su- 

 perior to anything which I have been able to get, thus 

 far. I have gone about the matter in an amateurish 

 way and have produced results far exceeding my 

 first hopes. 



I consider the field a promising one. A first-class 

 salmon-leader, for instance, is listed at five dollars, 

 and is the product of several Asiatic silkworms. A 

 cecropia strand of equal length and testing up to 

 four or five pounds has been produced. As already 

 noted, a cecropia caterpillar has two silk-sacs and 

 yields two strands of gut. It is possible, therefore, 

 that with really scientific study and manipulation one 

 cecropia worm might produce ten-dollars' worth of 

 gut. If one caterpillar in a hundred did, the oc- 

 cupation of raising them would be profitable. The 



