236^ [Senatit 



they being less succulent. The wild, I am confident, makes the larg- 

 est cocoons, but I think a coarser fibre. I concur in the suggestions 

 made by McCarthy, in the above. 



Dewy Collins, Le Roy, N. Y. — In answer to the questions pro- 

 posed, I would say : 



(1.) I have fed four years with good success — first year IJ bushels 

 cocoons ; second year 14 J bushels; third year 5| ; and fourth 1 bushel, 

 bad success, 



(2.) Common room in a dwelling house — temperature not regulated. 



(3.) Have never fed in a shed or tent. 



(4.) The two-crop worm. 



(5.) Multicaulis — cultivate by letting them stand out winters, and 

 hoeing them. 



(6.) I prefer early feeding — choose to hatch by the 20th of June. 



Eliphalet Murdoch, Le Roy, N. Y. — 1 have fed worms — 

 (1.) Four years, as follows : first year 4^ bushels cocoons — second 

 year no success— third year 5 bushels — fourth year 10 bushels. 

 (2.) Common room in a house. 

 (3.) No. 



(4.) Two-crop and the peanut variety. 

 (5.) Multicaulis. 



Rev. S. C. Bradford, Sunderland, Mass. — I have had some ex- 

 perience in feeding worms for five or six years. My first efforts, made 

 in the usual ways, convinced me that results must be unfa voi able, un- 

 less better methods could be devised, labor saved, and the health of the 

 worm better promoted. I accordingly set myself to the task of studying 

 the nature of the thing, and came speedily to the same conclusions with 

 Mr. Gill, of Ohio, yourself, and others, in regard to ventilation. The 

 method I adopted was feeding on open work, or racks, with limbs loosely 

 arranged, to procure all the circulation of air that could be procured 

 consistently with shielding them from the sun. To save further labor, 

 I never applied a hand to the removal of litter, unless I found it sour- 

 ing or moulding, in which case I applied one hand to raise the brush 

 on which the worms lay, and the other to pull out the affected litter, 

 and apply a handful of slaked lime, hard salt, or plaster of Paris. 

 They wind up in the same. I find the result as stated by Mr. Gill. 

 The artificial modes of circulation inentioned by him I have not ap- 

 plied, but doubt not the utility of them. 



I adopt the early and natural season of hatching and feeding, from 

 eggs lying up in a cool situation during the season. I do not choose to 

 remove them at all from the stand on which they were first deposited 

 bv thp miller. Nature nrnvide? ordinarily for the simultaneous re-pro- 



