150 THE CULTURE 



cannot lay hold of the tv/igs and climb, 

 without being fubjedl to fall and tumble 

 down, which fo fatigues them that they 

 give over the attempt. 



The worms at this fifth age will eat a 

 prodigious quantity of leaves, which fhould 

 now be of the befl fort you can procure 

 for them, becaufe it is now that they col- 

 le6l and digeft the matter out of v/hich they 

 afterwards form their filk : if you were to 

 open a worm before the fourth moult, you 

 would find nothing but a watery humour 

 mixed v/ith the green mucilage of the leaves 

 which they feed on 3 but when they are 

 fomewhat advanced in this lad age, you 

 will find^in their filk-vefTels a pale or yel- 

 low gum, out of which they form their 

 balls of filk. 



The goodnefs, therefore, of their filk de- 

 pending, in a great meafure, upon their 

 being properly fed at this time ; you mud 

 take care that their food may be, in all re- 

 fpe6ls, as good as can be got j not the 

 foft tender leaves of flickers, or of trees 

 growing in moifl: watery places, or of thofe 

 which are very young, but the firme/l 

 dark green leaves from your oldeft trees -, 

 and thefe always free from dew or moif- 



ture. 



