264 [Senate 



3d. Their food is kept too long in cellars or some other vile place 

 where it gets wilted or dried up. Give silk-worms plenty of food 

 fresh from the trees, plenty of room on the shelves, and plenty of 

 pure air, and then don't handle them too much, and there is no diffi- 

 culty in raising them successfully. 



To your other questions I am compelled to answer, No ! I should 

 have prepared specimens to send to your Fair, but my ill health and 

 other matters have and will prevent me from doing so this year. 



B. B. Barton, Gill, Mass. — I commenced feeding silk-worms in 

 the summer of 1840. Have continued in the business ever since. 



The first season I purchased one ounce of silk- worm eggs of the 

 large peanut variety, which were fed upon the foliage of the white 

 mulberry in the early part of the season, and produced between 80 

 and 90 pounds of cocoons, and after selecting 8 or 10 pounds for 

 eggs, reeled 7i pounds of silk. 



The second season I hatched two and a half ounces of eggs, which 

 produced 189 pounds of cocoons. These were fed upon the leaves 

 of the white mulberry, and hatched about the middle of June. I 

 also fed a second crop with the leaves of the white mulberry and 

 multicaulis, which wound 60 pounds of cocoons. The two crops, 

 after selecting one bushel for seed, reeled 21 pounds of silk. 



The third season, I fed about as many worms as the second, with 

 nearly the same success. 



My success the present season has been good, though taken as a 

 whole not quite as favorable as heretofore. My first crop the early 

 part of the season were healthy and did extremely well, producing 

 190 pounds of good cocoons. I did not succeed as well with the 

 second crop of about 30,000, being busy attending the first crop that 

 were winding. They were neglected and fed very irregularly in the 

 first stages, and the different days hatching became mixed, which 

 caused them to be uneven. They commenced winding the 21st of 

 August. The weather was very rainy and they did not no first rate, 

 but wound 80 lbs of cocoons. I also fed another lot of about the 

 same number which did extremely well until they commenced wind- 

 ing, which was the 11th of September; the weather at that time had 

 become quite cool with some frost. The building was closed, and by 

 means of artificial heat the temperature kept between 70 and 80 de- 

 grees. Nearly two thirds went up and wound good cocoons, far 

 superior to those of the second crop. The remainder did not appear 

 to be affected with any sweeping disease, but most of them turned to 

 chrysalis without forming any cocoon. This crop wound only fifty 

 pounds of cocoons. The two last crops were fed exclusively upon 

 the leaf of the multicaulis. From the cocoons raised the present 

 season, I have selected two bushels for eggs, reeled 17 pounds of 

 silk, and have cocoons enough to produce 4 or 5 pounds more. 



The building in which I have fed is about 18 feet in length by 14 

 in width, and 7 feet between the posts. There are four windows, 



