SUCCESSIVE CROPS OF SILK. 133 



on the papers on which they are deposited ; and those 

 eggs of a similar age are brought forward to hatch at 

 the same time, and then they usually are all ready to 

 spin together. If all the eggs are saved from the first 

 crop, it will prevent the possibility of degeneracy. 

 These are carefully rolled up and preserved in dry 

 boxes, and kept in a dry cool cellar, and in June or 

 July of the following year, and when the heat of the 

 climate or season requires it, they are transferred to a 

 dry ice house. 



Among the great advantages of having silk-worms of 

 different ages in the same apartment, he asserts, " that 

 the same room and shelves will hold abundantly more 

 worms at the same time without being crowded ; and a 

 room and shelves which will but barely accommodate 

 100,000 full grown worms, will better accommodate 

 250,000 consisting of four or five different ages, pro- 

 vided each age or parcel are about equal in number, and 

 are hatched seven or eight days apart." Also it is 

 ascertained that, by this system, much more can be 

 done with the same amount of labor, than by any other 

 mode. 



I am perfectly aware, that the excellent Dr. Pascalis, 

 at the time he published his work on silk at New York, 

 in 1829, endeavored to explode the idea of attempting to 

 raise numerous crops, or even two successive crops of 

 silk in a season. He states some plausible reasons for 

 his objections, particularly the record of the failure of 

 an attempt near Lyons, about 1820 ; and also the failure 

 of the attempts at the Isle of Bourbon, situated beneath 

 a fiery sun, and within the burning zone. In the next 

 year, and in No. 2 of his valuable work, " The Silk 

 Culturist," for January, 1830, Dr. Pascnlis has recorded 

 the successful introduction of the silk culture to the 

 north of France, a thing which had been deemed, at 

 least, equally problematical thirty years before. Also, 

 that Dr. Deslongchamps, had even succeeded in raising 

 a second crop of cocoons from the eggs of the first. 

 Dr. Deslongchamps was one of a society of savans, at 



