70 



SECTION XXIV. 



AMOUNT OF FOOD. 



ACCORDING to Count Dandolo, five ounces of eggs 

 will furnish two hundred thousand silk-worms, which 

 will consume seven thousand pounds of leaves; and one 

 hundred trees great and small, will furnish the food for 

 all, and twenty-one pounds of leaves will furnish food 

 for one pound of cocoons. 



Count de Hazzi, from the sources above named, 

 calculates that two hundred thousand silk-worms require 

 ten thousand pounds of leaves in the different stages of 

 their existence, in the following proportions : In the first 

 age, 59 Ibs. ; second age, 150 Ibs: ; third age, 460 Ibs. ; 

 fourth age, 1390 Ibs.; but in the fifth and last age, 

 which usually comprises near one third of the brief ex- 

 istence of the silk worm, they will require 7950 Ibs. 



It is evident that the curious tables of the progress 

 of the insects which some of the best authors have 

 given us, can be no sure guide, even with a regulated 

 atmosphere. The progress, space, and the time and 

 proportion of food, which will be required for the 

 40,000 silk-worms which are hatched from one ounce of 

 eggs, from their birth till the time they begin to spin, 

 as has been given by M. Bonafoux, I will here state in 

 the abstract. In the first age, 7 pounds of leaves are 

 consumed; in the second, 21 ; in the third, 69 pounds 

 12 ounces; in the fourth, 210; and iu the fifth, or after 

 the fourth moulting, 1281 pounds. In the consump- 

 tion of their food, their progress, though irregular in 

 the detail, is uniform on the whole. On the third day 

 from birth, they consume 3 pounds of leaves ; on the 

 fourth, but 1 pound 6 ounces; on the fifth day they be- 

 gin to cast their skins, and, being sick and torpid, they 

 consume but 6 ounces. In their second age, and on 



