Leaders. 101 



from the living worm is not very attractive to a hu- 

 mane person. Perhaps this vivisection may be unnec- 

 essary. Many ways of killing insects other than by 

 immersion in vinegar are practised by entomologists. 

 Momentary immersion in boiling water or exposure to 

 the vapor of chloroform, ether, alcohol, or ammonia, 

 might be tried, the liquid being placed in a flat dish rest- 

 ing on the bottom of a box, the worms on a wire-gauze 

 raised tray, and the box closed. But even if Dr. Gar- 

 lick's method, pure and simple, were the only available 

 method, still there is money in its success. I have paid 

 as high as five dollars for a really phenomenal salmon 

 leader nine feet long, and found the apparent extrava- 

 gance an actual economy. 



Whether the scrap-basket is not the proper place for 

 the foregoing rather than this book, seems doubtful. 

 Either it will tend to the establishment of this industry 

 in this country, or it will not. If it will not, it is a clear 

 waste of good paper and ink. On the other hand, if it 

 does, then such value as it may have had is at an end 

 from the moment the industry is established. Conceding 

 for the sake of argument that what I have written on 

 this subject is worth printing, even then is not its proper 

 place something more ephemeral than a bound volume ? 



The yawning mouth of the scrap-basket, though mute, 

 makes strong appeal. But think what a boon such gut 

 as it seems certain has been drawn from our native silk- 

 worms would be to the angling fraternity of this coun- 

 try indeed, of the world if it could be had when 

 wanted. The advantage that the cultivation of this 

 now useless worm, and its conversion into a merchanta- 

 ble product, would be to our rural population requiring 

 little or no capital, and so well adapted as a field of in- 



