86 ON THE CULTURE OF SILK. 



whole term of the insect's existence as a worm. Pure food, 

 pure air and sufficient space will generally keep them healthy 

 and vigorous. Should, however, some general sickness shew 

 itself among them, they should be removed into another room — 

 to other shelves and a purer air — or the shelves should be 

 thoroughly cleansed and the air of the room purified by the use 

 of the Chloride of Lime or Chloride of Soda. This article may 

 be obtained at the apothecary's. It may be used according to 

 the directions usually sold with it for disinfecting silk worms. 



Preparation for the Cocoons, &fc. — Previous to the rising of 

 the worms, little arches or cabins should be formed between the 

 shelves by setting up brush wood, broom corn, or what Cobb 

 prefers, small branches of oak, cut and dried a few days previous, 

 with the leaves on, with their tops spread and pressing against 

 the bottom of the shelf next above that where the worms have 

 been fed, and which supports the stems of the brush. The 

 worms will readily climb these little trees, and spin their cocoons 

 in them. Each worm will be three or four days spinning the 

 cocoon. All fed on the same shelf, will generally finish their 

 work in eight days — from the time when the first began to spin. 

 The brush may be then taken down, the cocoons taken oft^ — 

 the floss or loose tow picked off from tlie brush and from the 

 cocoons — which must be saved and manufactured like cotton or 

 wool by carding and spinning. 



Management of the Cocoons. — A selection must be made of 

 the cocoons which are destined for seed and those which are to 

 be sold or manufactured. The best should be preserved for 

 seed. They are distinguished by their straw color, their greater 

 hardness, chiefly at the extremities, and by the superior fineness 

 of their web. The best are a httle depressed in the middle as if 

 tightened by a ring, and they are not the largest. There are no 

 certain signs to distinguish the cocoons which are to produce the 

 male moth, but experience teaches that the sn)aller which are 

 sharper at one or both ends and most depressed in the middle, 

 generally produces a male, and that a round full cocoon contains 

 a female. Could it be well ascertained which are male and 

 which are female, it would be well to preserve double the 



