84. HISTORY OF 



carried on among the southern provinces of Eu- 

 rope. 



The silk-worm is now very well known to be a 

 large caterpillar, of a whitish colour, with twelve 

 feet, and producing a butterfly of the moth kind. 

 The cone on which it spins is formed for covering 

 it while it continues in the aurelia state ; and se- 

 veral of these properly wound off) and united to- 

 gether, form those strong and beautiful threads 

 which are woven into silk. The feeding these 

 worms, the gathering, the winding, the twisting, 

 and the weaving their silk, is one of the principal 

 manufactures of Europe, and, as our luxuries in- 

 crease, seems every day to become more and more 

 necessary to human happiness. 



There are two methods of breeding silk-worms ; 

 for they may be left to grow, and to remain at 

 liberty upon the trees where they are hatched ; or 

 they may be kept in a place built for that purpose, 

 and fed every day with fresh leaves. The first 

 method is used in China, Tonquin, and other hot 

 countries ; the other is used in those places where 

 the animal has been artificially propagated, and 

 still continues a stranger. In the warm climates, 

 the silk-worm proceeds from an egg, which has 

 been glued by the parent moth upon proper parts 

 of the mulberry tree, and which remains in that 

 situation during the winter. The manner in 

 which they are situated and fixed to the tree 

 keeps them unaffected by the influence of the 

 weather, so that those frosts which are severe 

 enough to kill the tree, have no power to injure 

 the silk- worm. 



