162 ON REARING SILK WORMS. 



penetrate. When it is cold, the silk worms must be warmed 

 with chafing-dishes, filled with live* coals. Whenever the 

 young silk worms are fed, tender leaves cut in small shreds 

 must be distributed to them. In order not to injure the 

 knife, the wooden block, (or the table,) must be covered 

 with rice or wheat straw. When the leaves are gathered, 

 they must be put in an earthen jar, for fear the wind may 

 dry them. 



Before the second moulting, when the silk worms are 

 to be changed from the frames, they must be raised with a 

 small bamboo stick, of which the extremity is rounded. 

 But after the second moulting, they can be taken up with 

 the fingers. The changing of silk worms is a painful and 

 assiduous work. Lazy persons, in changing the frames, 

 accumulate a large quantity of leaves upon the worms. 

 These leaves, mixed with dirt, and dampness, produce a 

 deleterious fermentation, which causes a multitude of silk 

 worms to die. 



When the silk worms are disposed to moult all together, 

 they do not moult until after having thrown around them 

 some threads of silk, which aids them to disembarrass 

 themselves from their skin. Those who remove them to 

 other frames ought to pick up with much care the leaves 

 on which they rest, and only give them those that are per- 

 fectly clean. For if, in awakening from their torpid state, 

 they should eat a single mouthful of the leaves, where the 

 threads of silk are pasted, they swell and die immediately. 



After the third moulting, if it be very hot weather, the 

 silk worms must be hastily removed into a cool and spa- 

 cious room. Care must also be taken to shelter them 

 from the wind. In general, after the great moulting, (after 

 the third moulting,) the frames must be changed after twelve 



