PART II. 



THE SILK WORM. 



In order to a skilful and successful rearing of the 

 Silk Worm, it is necessary that the culturist should 

 have a thorough knowledge of its nature, habits and 

 the diseases to which it is liable. 



The Silk Worm (bombyx mori) is a species of the cat- 

 erpillar, which after undergoing several metamorpho- 

 ses becomes a moth like others of the genus. The 

 color of the Worm for the first eight or ten days after 

 hatching, is an obscure black. It casts its skin at sta- 

 ted periods, until it has attained its largest size, when 

 it becomes yellow. It is about three inches long 

 when full grown, covered with scattering hairs, and 

 has a small fleshy tubercle on the upper end of the 

 last ring. After constructing its cocoon, which is usu- 

 ally about the size of a pigeon's egg, and similar in 

 shape, it is transformed to a chrysalis, and subsequent- 

 ly to a moth. After remaining in the cocoon about 

 twenty days, it forces its way out and dies immedi- 

 ately after depositing its eggs, to the number of five 

 hundred or more, which are attached together by a 

 gummy substance. The several ages of the Worm 

 amount to thirty-two days, but have been known to 

 extend to sixty. 



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