180 THE MODERN HISTORY OP SILK. 



window, containing about five hundred Silk Worm*, 

 was full of a liquor as yellow as gold, and all the little 

 animals who had been its inhabitants were dead, and 

 scorched up as by the influence of fire, while other? 

 of the pans had only been partially affected. She 

 removed all the dead : but her misfortune did not end 

 there, for three succeeding days presented her with 

 such numbers who had equally felt the baneful effects 

 of the lightning, that her immense stock was reduced 

 to two thousand eight hundred and ninety-three : 

 these were, however, exceedingly healthy, and began 

 spinning their cones on the 7th of July. 



During all this time Miss Rhodes had no other 

 assistance than a servant, and the pans were cleaned 

 out once a-week, and the animals fed three times 

 a-day ; and so small a portion of her time was taken 

 up by attending the worms, that neither her amuse- 

 ments nor avocations were interrupted by it. 



Miss Rhodes found, that the average number of 

 three hundred and sixty cones produced an ounce of 

 silk ; and she had, from the remainder of her stock of 

 that summer, exactly half a pound of silk, all of one 

 uniform colour and height of gum. She had, 

 besides, of the waste silk with which the cones are 

 surrounded, somewhat more than a quarter of a pound, 

 which she had carded and wove into stockings at 

 Nottingham. 



From the statement given by Miss Rhodes, it would 

 appear that it requires thirty thousand to produce five 

 pounds of silk ; and she found that ten mulberry 

 trees, absolutely stripped, were barely sufficient to 



