56 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



the young worms eat only the tender green part of 

 the leaf, leaving the numerous and clo^-ely crossing 

 fibres like fine net-work. By the linie that ilie 

 leaf is dry, and unfit lor food, it thus forms a net, 

 or sack, from which the worm cannot always es- 

 cape, when impelled by its renewed appetite. 

 Thus many worms are concealed, and damaged, 

 and will suffer, and many will even die in their 

 confinement, unless searched for and relieved ; 

 and that operation, with the cleaning away the 

 great quantity of litter in and among which they 

 are enveloped, will, in the first two ages, give more 

 trouble, and cause more loss, than ought to be 

 met with during the whole rearing. 



Now all this trouble to the feeder, and injury to 

 and loss of worms, may be avoided by simply 

 cutting the leaves into fine shreds, and sprinkling 

 them on thinly. Then, even if greatly excessive 

 feeding be not avoided, it will do no harm. The 

 worms are not restrained by the breadth or weight 

 of the leaf, and they can easily climb to the upper 

 surface, as is always their disposition. The un- 

 consumed shreds soou tZry, which is a great ad- 

 vantage for all that must remain in wasie. This 

 dried litter is as loose and open as any bed can be, 

 and when quite dry and sweet, (as it will be usu- 

 ally,) need not be removed until after the end of 

 the second age, at about 10 or 12 days alter the 

 hatching. But it is very easy to remove this lit- 

 ter. By feeding the worms at first in narrow 

 strips, or in small squares, or circles, and sprink- 

 ling the fresh food at the outer edges of the space, 

 the worms will crowd to the fi-esh food, and soon 

 leave naked the greater part of the older litter, 

 which may be taken up in masses and separated, 

 from time to time, and thrown away, without 

 picking off or disturbing a single worm. Such will 

 be the course of things even with the most waste- 

 ful feeding, (and it is always given wastefully to 

 young worms ;) but if the excess of food be less, 

 even this small amount of trouble will be still 

 more reduced. 



It is not designed that these suggestions should 

 serve as full directions for feeding even through 

 the two first ages ; nor by any means to substitute 

 the full directions to be found in most treatises on 

 eilk-culture. The young culturist of course ought 

 to read and consider these, thouifh it will not be 

 necessary to follow each rule. The object aimed 

 at here is merely to remove early and unnecessary 

 obstacles, which serve either to deter from begin- 

 ning, or to discourage after beginning, nearly all 

 who are inclined to make a trial. These remarks 

 apply to no more than the two first ages. The 

 feeding through the third, fourth and fifth ages 

 requires much more care, labor, and cost ; but 

 still will not be didiculf, to those who have gone 

 properly through the earlier feeding. Every trea- 



tise (of which several are in previous volumes of 

 this work,) will furnish rules of conduct, which, 

 if modified and corrected by the feeder's judgment, 

 according to existing circumstances, will serve to 

 conduct him to ^ successful result. 



But by success it is not meant that the experi- 

 menter who leeds 1000, or even 10,000 worms, 

 will make a net profit (i'om his expenditure, and 

 his care and trouble lor the lime. Such an expec- 

 tation would be most unreasonable, from any bu- 

 siness so small, and yet requiring such frequent 

 and careful attention. Perhaps 50,000 worms, 

 with proper facilities and method, would not re- 

 quire more than twice as much labor or time of 

 attendance, as 5000 only ; antl the mere waste of 

 the food of 1000, as usually bestowed, might feed 

 5000, and yet save labor (in clearing away the 

 litter,) instead of causing more therein. If the 

 young liieder loses very lijw of his worms by ac- 

 cidents or disease, and generally obtains very good 

 cocoons from all others, and finds no great or in^ 

 superable difficulty in any part of ihe operations, 

 then it may be fairly deemed a successful issue, 

 and indicating, with suflicient assurance, a net pro- 

 fit to be reaped upon his next and sufficiently large 

 operations. 



Tliere is one caution necessary 1o be added. It 

 is all-important to have eggs from a healthy slock 

 of worms, and that have been well kept during 

 winter. Whoever has to purchase eggs, incurs 

 great risk of loss on this score. Eggs from a 

 sickly stock will be sure to produce a sickly and 

 worthless progeny; and even if from healthy 

 stock, still improper management in keeping, and 

 especially exposure to too great and too frequent 

 altetrnations of cold and heat, will cause the worms 

 of eggs so treated to be unhealthy. From such 

 causes, induced either by ignorance or by fraud of 

 the salesmen, nearly all the eggs in this market 

 last year were worse than worthless. Though 

 the danger will be less this year, still there is 

 enough ground for fear to make every buyer very 

 cautious. Many beginners at rearing silk-worms 

 have been discouraged by their mishaps proceed- 

 ing solely from this cause; and all would, and 

 very reasonably, have been thus discouraged, 

 and made to consider the business hopeless, if 

 other experiments had not been made with good 

 eggs, which served to show the cause of differ- 

 ence. If disease from hereditary taint, or because 

 of diseased eggs, begins to show among silk- 

 worms, it is best at once to throw away the whole ; 

 for they will seldom be worth saving. But in this 

 excellent climate, and with proper care in feeding 

 and cleaning, there is little danger of disease from 

 any other source than hereditary tnint, or bad 

 keeping of eggs. 



