468 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 8 



vernment, drew their instructions for the hatching and | crreen-houses, precisely like those which garden- 

 feeding, though through different channels, from the { ers use for ohtaininij flftwers in winter. From 



same remote source, and the highest autliority, Dan- 

 dolo's worlf. Of course there is a general similarity, 

 and often indeed identity of substance in the descrip- 

 tions and directions, as must be expected in any differ- 

 ent treatises drawn principally, however circuitously 

 and remotely, from a common source. Still, there 

 are imperfections of form, and manifest errors of ver- 

 sion, (in mistakes of the author's meaning,) so great 

 and so important, in the manual published by order of 

 the government, that we had no reason to consider our 

 own labor as thereby rendered useless, or superseded 

 by the prior, though unknown, work of another, who 

 is compiler and author, as well as translator. This 

 combination of characters is the first and great objec- 

 tion to the treatise in question; for though it is mani- 

 fest that the writer is generally merely a very free 

 translator, from a work of very high authority, yet 

 he often intermixes the instructions or statements of 

 others, and often his own, without distinguishing be- 

 tween them. It follows, that the reader is left to 

 guess, from the context, whether he isi^ecei ving instruc- 

 tion upon the high authority of Dandolo, the perhaps 

 questionable authority of others, or from the American 

 writer of the document, whose authority on practical 

 silk culture, like our own, deserves no respect whatever. 

 The French work from which this translation is 

 made, is one of a number of manuals, upon almost every 

 useful science and art, which, though so many separate 

 treatises, when taken together form the 'Libraire En- 

 cyclop edique.' This general and extensive work was 

 prepared by the combined labors of a number of sci- 

 entific and literary men, and upon much the same 

 general plan as was conducted the 'Library of Useful 

 Knowledge' in England. It may be inferred of 

 any one of the separate '^Manuels" which have re- 

 cently been published under this plan in France, that 

 it presents the latest and most correct information, and 

 what is there received as the best system of instruc- 

 tion in the art of which it treats. This inference was 

 our ground for supposing that this treatise would fur- 

 nish such instructions as are deemed correct by the 

 best silk culturists of the present time in Italy and 

 France, or those regions of Europe, where the art of 

 rearing silk-worms has been investigated with the most 

 careful and scientific labor, and where the practical re- 

 sults have been the most profitable, and the products 

 the most abundant. — Ed. Far. Reg. 



CHAPTKR r. 



Of the hatching of the silk-ivorms'' 



eggs. 



Among the preliminaries to be observed in the 

 disposition necessary to make for the hatchino- the 

 egfTs, after having detached them from the cloth 

 or paper upon which they have been preserved 

 eince they were laid, the most important is to sub- 

 mit them to a temperature a little raised ; as much 

 lor obtaining them vigorous, and to preserve them 

 capable of tijlfilling the end proposed, as to make 

 them hatch altogether. It has not been very long 

 eince, for this purpose, recourse was had lo the 

 heat of dunghills, of beds, of kitchens and other 

 places; now they construct hot-houses, or warm 



the moment at which the eggs are exposed to 

 this heat, they undergo, all together, the same 

 conditions ; and, whatever may be their number, 

 they almost all reach the end desired in the same 

 time. It is necessary, however, to bring to bear 

 unremitting care and attention, and great watch- 

 fulness ; for without these, the whole brood would 

 be injured or destroyed. Supposing then, that 

 the operator is provided with thermometers, hatch- 

 ing stoves, &c., as will be hereafter described, we 

 will now proceed lo speak o.'' the hatching of the 

 worms. 



1. To prepare the ejrgs to hatch, it is of great 

 importance thit they should have been well fecun- 

 dated, and, above all, well preserved, in the cli- 

 mates of France, to the latter part of April, or 

 first days of May. The cloths, to which the 

 eggs are attached, are plunged into common wa- 

 ter, and suffered to remain six minutes, that the 

 mucilaginous matter, by which the eggs adhere, 

 may be dissolved. The water is then suffered to 

 be drained from the cloths, for ten minutes, and 

 the eggs are then carefully scraped off with a suita- 

 ble instrument, fsuch as an ivory paper-folder, or a 

 spatula,] which may be done with much facility. 

 The efffrs are collected, for the purpose of pouring 

 them off succpssively, and until none are left upon 

 the cloths. We may, in any kind of vessel, do 

 it in half an hour. Before separating the eggs, 

 there is poured over them a little water, which 

 serves to wash them. All which swim on the wa- 

 ter are thrown away. For this operation five 

 minutes are sufficient. It has been noticed that 

 egffs which had been laid in a cold and moist tem- 

 perature, and are yellow, [the mark of not being 

 fecundated,) yet are heavy enough to sink in the 

 water to the bottom of the vessel. All are next 

 poured upon a sieve, or rather upon a thin muslin 

 cloth, to separate the eggs from the water. The 

 effsrs are then put into weak wine, either red or 

 white. Some persons afterwards wash them again 

 in another water, and that causes no marked dif- 

 ference ; but prudence requires that the eggs 

 should not be left loo long in the wine, because it 

 hardens them very much, which retards their 

 hatching. They should be withdrawn from the 

 wine after ten minutes. The temptation of gain 

 alone has induced the dealers in ejrgs to dip them 

 in high-colored wine, by which the eggs all ac- 

 quire the color natural to those well fecundated, 

 even when they are worth nothing. This fraud it is 

 necessary for buyers to be guarded against. Whilst 

 in the wine, the ecrgs should be separated from 

 each other, by being softly rubbed, then stirred, 

 shaken, and poured out with a certain degree of' 

 quickness, by which the heaviest, which are all 

 excellent, are easily separated from the light and 

 unfruitful. The wine is separated and the eggs 

 spread upon new dry cloths, until they are com- 

 pletely dried, which requires forty-eight hours. 

 They are then kept in earthen or porcelain plates, 

 in beds of six to eight lines* of thickness, until it is 



* The weights and measures stated in this transla- 

 tion are French, and both exceed the American in 

 about the same proportion. Six French feet are equal 

 to six feet and four inches American measure. The 

 French foot, like the American or English, is divided 

 into 12 inches, and the inch into 12 lines. Seven 



