No. 124.] 249 



July. He hatched about two ounces of eggs, producing from €0 to 

 100,000 worms. He had not foliage enough to feed one-fourth of 

 that number. His room for feeding was a small chamber in his 

 dwelling-house, about 14 feet by 12, and not capable of containing 

 more than 250 feet of shelving, which at the most ought not to con- 

 tain over 10,000 worms. I advised him to throw away 7-8ths of his 

 worms, and warned him of the consequence if he did not. Having 

 fed a small lot last year with good success, and being one of those 

 men who choose to have their own way, he determined to try his 

 luck with the whole lot. He ransacked the neighborhood and the 

 woods for leaves, but all in vain; at about two weeks old they be- 

 came diseased, and he lost the whole lot. His eggs were good, and 

 his worms perfectly healthy, till about the third age, when they be- 

 came suffocated. I have found on close observation, that nothing 

 imparts such vigor to the worms as a good dry breeze of air. Even 

 a damp bree^^e is far better than a sultry confined air. The building 

 in which I fed stands in a low, damp situation. I intend to build a 

 cocoonery another season and locate it on a rising grouhd, where the 

 air will circulate freely. In regard to the silk cause in general, I 

 have always had confidence in its success. About four years ago, I 

 laid out about $160 for cuttings to commence an orchard with, I 

 lost the greatest share of them. Since that time, I have kept on in- 

 creasing them, down to the present year. Some of my neighbors 

 tell me I had better grub them up. I tell them no — they may yet 

 want to j3W?TAase them of me for orchards of their own. Feeding 

 worms has been no new thing with me. When I was a boy, my sis- 

 ters, several in number, fed silk-worms from my recollection, my fa- 

 ther having planted an orchard of Italian trees on his first settlement 

 in Hampshire county, Mass. Several brothers of us used to pick 

 leaves for our sisters. They always had success. I never heard of 

 their crop being unhealthy, or losing it. They thought it no more 

 difficult to raise a crop of worms, than a crop of chickens. 



Noah B. Hart, Bntavia, JV. Y., for himself and Elijah Herrick^ 

 Bethany; Warden Mattison^ Darien ; and Wm. Telden^ Le Roy, 

 says:— 



At the State Fair at Rochester, we had a hurried convention of a 

 part of the silk growers present, and sent you some statements of our 

 successes. [I am sorry to say that the document here referred to 

 has not been received. J. R. B.] There were fine specimens of 

 silk exhibited on that occasion. 



I am authorized to say, that amidst our successes and losses, our 

 good moves and bad moves, we are all determined to persevere, fully 

 satisfied that the silk business has a solid basis to stand upon, and all 

 that is wanting to secure full success in feeding worms, is practical 

 knowledge, and appropriate facilities, — the same precisely as in any- 

 thing and everything else. 



[Senate No. 124.J Gg 



