104 ON REARING 



end of one night. In the contrary case, the silk worms 

 produced by their eggs, cannot all hatch together. 



rtX 



SAME WORK. 



Many persons preserve the eggs of the silk worms, in 

 bamboo boxes, when they are exposed to all the changes of 

 the damp, tepid, hot, or burning weather. If they are sub- 

 jected, suddenly, from cold to excessive heat, they are affected 

 by it in a fatal manner. The inhabitants of the province 

 of Tche-kiang, call that Tching-pou. That expression im- 

 plies, that the silk worms contract a disease, when they are 

 in the egg, (literally, on the linen cloth, or on the leaves 

 of paper.) The worms of those eggs are yellow when 

 hatched : the worms hatched of a yellow colour, are not 

 worth the trouble of raising. They may be compared to a 

 child who has contracted a disease in the womb. At its 

 birth, it is weak and feeble. It is difficult to cure it of 

 this innate disease. In general, when one wishes to pre- 

 serve the eggs of the silk worms, the leaves must be spread 

 on bamboo boards, making it so as not to be exposed to the 

 wind or sun. Moreover, they must be covered with a silk 

 cloth to prevent butterflies, or insects from the cotton plant, 

 eating them. 



Much snow may be expected about the first day of the 

 last moon, it may be in the course of the last moon. Leaves 

 covered with eggs are spread in the midst of the snow. 

 After one day they must be taken up, and newly spread on 

 bamboo boards, and covered as before with a silk cloth. 



When Spring comes, the precise time when the eggs are 

 about hatching must be attentively observed ; powdered 

 cinnabar, must be taken, diluted in luke warm water, and 





