PART II. 



ON REARING SILK WORMS. 



THE silk insect affords a display of the wisdom of 

 Divine Providence in the adaptation of means to ends, 

 calculated to excite high interest and admiration. 



The extraordinary effect produced by this little animal 

 in the short space of six weeks is no less than the con- 

 version of the vegetable substance of the mulberry leaf 

 into threads of rich and durable silk. Well might the 

 Emperor Justinian be astonished to find that the rich and 

 beautiful material of his magnificent robes was first pro- 

 duced and worn by this feeble insect ; and well might 

 he repay with munificence the monks by whose exertions 

 the eggs of the silk worm were smuggled in a hollow 

 cane from India to Constantinople. This hollow cane 

 was the ark whence came out the germ of those numer- 

 ous tribes of this insect which have spread over the whole 

 of Europe, and whose descendants are now fast settling 

 in these United States. Let us commence with the eggs 

 of this insect, and trace its operations, its wants, and 

 various changes, till it foims the cocoon, from which pro- 

 ceeds the moth, which in its turn produces the egg. 



