ON THK CULTURE OF SILK, 87 



number of the latter. These cocoons, stripped of the floss, may 

 either be spread on a shelf or strung upon a thread, care being 

 taken not to pierce entirely through the cocoon — and hung up 

 till such times as the moths or butterflies come out, which will 

 take place in twelve, sixteen or twenty days — in proportion to 

 the degree of heat of the room. 



In the cocoons designed for the manufactures, the chrysalis or 

 living insect within them, must be killed within ten days after 

 their formation, or the silk will be greatly injured. This may be 

 done by placing then in an oven moderately heated or in the 

 steam of boiling water, or they may be put into a tin vessel with 

 a cover and this vessel set in boiling water for a half hour or 

 more. The cocoons are then spread and dried. After this 

 operation the cocoons are ready for the reel or sale. If the 

 culturist should undertake to reel the silk, however, it would 

 be better to do it before the insect naturally pierces them — 

 because the silk winds off more easily than afterwards. In 

 being cured they lose about twenty five per cent in weight. 



Management of the Butterflies. — As soon as the butterflies 

 come out of the cocoons, they attach themselves to their mates. 

 After they separate or can be readily separated the males should 

 be taken away and shut up in a box — the females placed on 

 cloth or sheets of paper, allowing to each about two square inches. 

 They will begin to lay their eggs in twenty four or thirty six 

 hours, each producing three or four hundred eggs, which they 

 attach to the cloth or paper, in close and regular order. On the 

 day following, the same males may be allowed to pair with other 

 females should there be a larger number of the latter than the 

 former. From the time they pierce the cocoon they should be 

 kept in a dark room or one from which the sun and much of its 

 light is excluded. As soon as the butterflies on one sheet have 

 done laying their eggs it should be folded up and put in some 

 cool dry place until wanted for use the next summer. If kept 

 in a cellar, the eggs should be occasionally, on cool drying days, 

 taken out and exposed to the air, to prevent the injurious effects 

 of mould which would otherwise soon cover them. Should the 

 eggs remain exposed to the hot weather, they will sometimes 



