46 



** great ruling passion is to eat," being so 

 extremely voracious of its food ; that this 

 is the only operation it performs, and in 

 many instances its destructive powers are 

 truly alarming, a fact, it is presumed, not 

 unknown to many of my readers. In the 

 caterpillar state it exists for a consider- 

 able time, and its season of existence 

 varies in different kinds, and also as to the 

 food which it is destined to eat. Thus, 

 the silk-worm is hatched from the egg in 

 the month of April, at the season when 

 the mulberry puts forth its first leaves, 

 which are the natural food of this useful 

 creature*, and its continuance in the ca- 



* I am aware that those of my readers who have 

 bred these insects for amusement, will say, that the 

 larva is generally hatched before the mulberry is in 

 leaf. This fact I am acquainted with, but it should 

 be considered, that neither the insect or the mul- 

 berry are natives of our climate, which causes 

 a difference not existing in Italy. It should be 

 moreover remarked, that in Switzerland the breed- 

 ers of the silkworms keep the eggs back from hatch- 

 ing by placing them out of the influence of the sun, 

 till the food is grown, holding it a certain maxim, 

 that giving them lettuce or any other food, as is 

 practised here, makes them sickly. 



