CHINESE MODE OF REARING SILKWORMS. 1^9 



fully dried in the sun, and used by this people in 

 ^reference to every other kind of fuel. 



Those practised in the rearing of silkworms say, 

 that the sooner they can be brought to a state of 

 maturity the better ; and that the quantity of silk 

 which they produce is more or less as they are able 

 to effect this. It is considered that the worms are 

 nost productive when they are fully fed, in from 

 twenty to twenty-five days ; in which case that 

 jach drachm weight of eggs will eventually produce 

 ibout twenty-five ounces of silk ; and that, if their 

 naturity is protracted till the twenty-eighth day, 

 that only twenty-one ounces are produced by the 

 same quantity of eggs ; and if they are not full fed 

 )efore the lapse of thirty or forty days, that not 

 more than ten ounces of silk w r ill be the produce of 

 the above quantity of eggs. 



The Chinese say that much depends upon the 

 node of feeding, in promoting or retarding the 

 growth of silkworms. To ascertain this, we tried 

 in experiment in the summer of 1833, on some 

 caterpillars of the Cabbage Butterfly (Pontia Bras- 

 sicce,} the Papilio Brassicce, volume first, page 186, 

 which had been newly hatched. These we divided, 

 and placed in two separate tumblers, and put them 

 upon cabbage leaves. We supplied the larvse in one 

 of the tumblers plentifully tw r ice a-day with fresh 

 cabbage leaves, while those in the other tumbler 

 had but a scanty supply, and even allowing them 



