1877.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



25 



And adds some iiioisteniuij to his fruit and meat. 



They praise his liospitality and feel 



They shall sleep better after such a meal." 



Jolui Taylor, by tin- time you have got 

 through this, you will have read cnouf,'!!. The 

 sum ofall is, be ready for your siiriiif; work a.s 

 soon a.s tlie weather becomes warm enough, 

 and then jiut your liaud to the plow and look 

 not back. Daniel Wkhstei;. 



— Philadelpliia Lnhjcr. 



THE BREEDING OF SILK WORMS. 



Large Shipment of Eggs from Japan to Eu- 

 rope via America — The Trade Increas- 

 ing Yearly — Peculiarities of the Worm, 

 and How it is Cared For. 

 A large cargo of silk worms' eggs was ship- 

 ped from Vokohama on the steamship City of 

 Peking, and reached San Francisco on tlie 

 14th instant ; thence they were sent by rail 

 across the Continent, and airived last Friday 

 at the Union Line Dock, Jersey City. About 

 half the cargo was shipped by the City of 

 Berlin, via Liverpool, for Havre and Paris. 

 Tlie remaining portion \s'\\\ be forwarded ne.xt 

 Saturday by the steamship Labrador direct to 

 Paris and Havre, where the eggs will be dis- 

 tributed through different parts of France, 

 Italy and Switzerland. The eggs, which are 

 placed in 1,872 bales or cases, occupy seven 

 cars and their value is estimated at |.3,0I10,- 

 000. The agent of the Union Pacific Hail- 

 road, Mr. Nolan, says that the cargo arrived 

 in good condition, and that the eggs are 

 healthy, and have not been injured by their 

 long journey to this city. A regular trade in 

 the trau.sportation of silk worms has been 

 established for several years between Yoko- 

 hama and Europe. The steamer Gaelic, 

 which arrived at San Francisco from Yoko- 

 hama on the 6th in.stant, had on board a cargo 

 of 287 bales of the silk-worms' eggs, en route 

 to Europe. Large as these consignments are, 

 the trade is increasing daily, and the supply 

 of silk-worms shipped this year exceeds that 

 ot any previous year. This is owing to the 

 fact that there has been a great shortness of 

 the crop in the silk-worm producing countries 

 of Europe. The decrease in France within 

 the present year has been at least one-half, 

 and the supply in Italy has fallen off fully one- 

 tenth, making a short crop of .30,0(X) bales of 

 silk in Europe this year. This failure is at- 

 tributable to frosts and wet weather, and lias 

 increased the value of the raw material fully 

 one hundred per cent. What is known as 

 "the silk worm disease'' broke out in Europe 

 with great virulence last year and destroyed 

 a large number of the worms. The silk-worm 

 seed shipped from Yokohama for the European 

 niafket is round, slightly flattened, and 

 as small as a turnip seed. The .seeds will 

 stick wherever they have been laid by the 

 female moth as if glued on pasteboard, paper, 

 cloth, or even the very cocoon. But the seed 

 of other breeds will not adhere, such as 

 those that come from the Caucasus, Persia, 

 and European Tmkcy, among which are the 

 white of Adrianople and the yellow of Cau- 

 casus, from Nouka. The eggs are by natural 

 law submitted to a period of seemingly life- 

 less inaction, and so, during the whole sum- 

 mer, they will stand a degree of heat much 

 greater than the one needeed to hatch them 

 in the spring. But after December it becomes 

 possible, by giving them the same amount of 

 heat, to secure nearly perfect hatching. Theie- 

 fore, if silk worms were kept in winter in a 

 heated room, there is no doubt that they 

 would hatch or spoil. In shipping them by 

 railroad or steamboat, care must be taken that 

 they are not placed in heated cars or too near 

 the boiler. The most intense cold does not 

 hurt them, and there would be less danger in 

 having them buried in ice than in exposing 

 them to a high degree of heat after the month 

 of Octol)er. 



Mr. Franklin Allen, Secretary of the Silk 

 Association of America, related to a reporter 

 some curious facts connected with the habits 

 and peculiarities of the silk worm. He ex- 

 plained that there are five diflerent ages in the 



life of the silk worm, from the hatching, accor- 

 ding to the number of tinu'sthey changi' their 

 skin. These ages arc al.so termed inoulliMg 

 or sleep. Nature gave the worm the liicully 

 ofspimiing the .sulld cocoon in which it wraps 

 itself, secure ai:ainst all dangers that might 

 hurt it as .soon as it is transl'orined into a chrys- 

 alis — a state of insensibility which it preserves 

 from eight to twenty days, according to breed 

 and climate, before it emerges as a moth. The 

 age of silk worms is counted by the number of 

 meals they have eaten and not by the days 

 spent from their birth. At each moulting the 

 worm changes the whole of itsouter envelope. 

 When just hatched, it is not one-twelfth of an 

 inch long, but from the instant of its birth, 

 even before its lirst meal, it begins to s[)in. 

 When the eggs are on the point of hatching, 

 they undergo a marked change of color; they 

 pass from dark lilac to ashy lilac, and become 

 (piite while when the worm is out. They eat 

 more or less, in proportion to the degree of 

 activity imparted to them by the beat. At 

 a cold temperature they are benumbed, and 

 eat little or nothing. Hence it is ueces.sary in 

 warm weather to feed them frequently. 



Some leading breeders maintain that tire, air 

 and leaf are the three e.ssential requisites to 

 sustain the silk worm. Great care, as well as 

 punctuality, should be observed in feeding 

 them. The mulberry leaves should l)e spread 

 very evenly, so that one worm cannot eat more 

 than another. After eighteen meals most of 

 them will be buried beneath the leaves. The 

 others, as many as can be seen, will have short, 

 thick-set bodies and large heads. By and by 

 the worms begin to thicken, and in eighteen 

 hours they will all come out if the temperatm-e 

 be warm. At every moulting the color of the 

 worm grows dimmer and wliitens gradually. 

 At the fourth and last age, the worm is lean 

 and feeble. As .soon as it is well o\it it is 

 necessary to give them a light meal with wild 

 leaves. Later on, plenty of leaves should be 

 supplied them three times a day. When this 

 is done, a noise similar to a heavy shower tail- 

 ing on foliage is heard, which is produced by 

 their chewing the leaf, which they gnaw close 

 to the wood. For eight days they require 

 constant attention. Six days after the last 

 silk worms have come up, the collecting of the 

 cocoons may be commenced. The first thing 

 is to take ai)art the bushy cabins where the 

 worms first climbed up. The most important 

 points necessary to breeding and to prevent 

 disease, are attention to cleanliness, proper 

 ventilation, regularity in feeding, and care 

 against cold draughts of air or sudden changes 

 of temperature. The mull)erry silk worm 

 being partially domestic in its habits, requires 

 greater care than the hardy race of worms that 

 arc independent. During their torpor the 

 worms require no food ; but their appetite in- 

 creases after each moulting, and in the fiftll 

 age it may be called voracious. As they ap- 

 proach their torpor they raise their heads" with 

 a waving motion, and their ap|)etite ceases. 

 The worm, arrived at matmity, diminishes in 

 size by discharging its excrementitious matter, 

 and becomes transparent. As soon as the 

 worms begin to give out the silky fibre, they 

 should be put on the bush or branches pro- 

 vided for them to spin their cocoons. In three 

 days the worm completes ifs cocoon, which is 

 left ujKin the bush about five days longer, to 

 season it. Twelve or thirteen "ounces of co- 

 coons will produce one ounce of seed or eggs, 

 unless the males be too many in proijortion' to 

 the females, or the moths liot all very robust 

 (stout). Finally, lOU females can give 40,000 

 eggs, whicli, if they all come out well, would 

 produce VM pounds of silk, and more for .some 

 breeds, in which 200 cocoons make a pound; it 

 would then be 200 poiuids. It is to be undei-stood 

 that these figures can only \m approximative, 

 still they often prove to be correct in small 

 breeding. The moths live for about twelve 

 days from the breaking out of the cocoons. If 

 the seed has not been impregtiated, it remains 

 ever yellow and after a while dries up, while 

 that which has acquired the lilac color stays 

 round, slightly flattened, but always full till 

 the next spring. It is left to dry where it 



was laid, for .some days, when it is removed to 

 a place cool and dry. 



The series of transformations or changes of 

 skin which the ijilk-w<irm undergoes are like 

 those of any other caterpillar; it inclo.ses it- 

 self in the most admirable tissue, and becomes 

 a chry.salis aiul then a butterfiy. Examined 

 with a niagnil'ying glass, the insect's head, 

 its mandibles, its thread-s))inning apparatus, 

 legs, skin, and all its organs, external and in- 

 ternal, are curiously and wonderfully fashion- 

 ed. A marked swelling, covered with wrin- 

 kles, at the fore part of the body looks like 

 the woiiu's head, but has only the appear- 

 ance of it, and contains a greitsy liquid. The 

 hanl part, which forms the snout, i.s the true 

 liead; it is composed of indented mandibles, 

 .set side by side, hard, strong, movable, very 

 lit to take hold of the leaf every way, making 

 the lii-st cut on the sides as well as in the mid- 

 dle, fi-oni their veiy birth; the other i)art of 

 the head is the liliere or threader, a kind of 

 membranous apparatus, set with muscles, 

 which Dresses as they pass, and strongly joins 

 together, by means of a gummy substance, 

 two silk threads .so adherent that they can 

 be severed only by means of powerful chemi- 

 cal ageiiLs. These two silk threads are slip- 

 ped out of two inner reservoirs, full of a trans- 

 parent liquid, which hardens in the air and 

 becomes thread liy a i)hase of natme, easier 

 recorded than explained. Two black points 

 adorn the head of the silk worm; some [teople 

 think they are eyes, some say they are not. 

 The feet are articulate, membranous and 

 fitted with hooks, who.se princijial use is to fix 

 the insect in any position. There are six of 

 them in front, artiinilate, used for motion; 

 and eight at the back, membranous, whose 

 principal u.se istofixthe insect in any position; 

 they are called false feet, and are lengthened, 

 taken in and expanded, according to the in- 

 sect's wants. Twelve ringsalternately widen- 

 ing or Hearing each other,"are used tor loco- 

 motion; last of it, upon the extreme back, is 

 a protuberanc'e, a kind of tail, the use of 

 which is unknown. At each side of the body 

 there a/e nine black points. They are aper- 

 tures which supply constantly to the larvae 

 the large amount of air which it needs so 

 much. Inside nearly o.oou nniscles have been 

 counted, used for locomotion. The intestinal 

 tube extends in straight line along the whole 

 length of the body; it presents many inside 

 divisions, and is "externally surrounded with 

 many small channels, used for digestion. On 

 each side of that tube are the two long reser- 

 voirs which contain the silky liquid; they ex- 

 tend to the head, where they unite with th« 

 threader or filiere, thus forming two threads 

 that join on the outlet, as we have before said. 

 It was an error, very generally received, that 

 the silk thread was already formed inside of 

 the worm, but it is now proved that it is 

 nothing but a liquid, which hardens as soon 

 as it comes in contact with the outer air. 



HOG CHOLERA. 



The disease so-called is really a kind of ty- 

 phoid fever, characterized by great heat of 

 bowels and rectmn— cosliveliess or dian'hoea, 

 either one. The symjitoms vary with the 

 creater or less poison the animal h.as absorbed. 

 This article is an abstract ofall that has been 

 learned on the subject in Europe and America 

 bytenyearsofclo.se observation by scientific 

 and practical men. The disease is the very 

 one now prevailing in Holt. It is caused 

 by an intense poison evolved from the body of 

 the hog where large ntmibers are confined to- 

 gether in tilth. It is the mosteontagious pois- 

 on known, and is carried in a thousand unsus- 

 pected ways, by chickens, birrls, wind, streams, 

 of water, feathers and straws l)lown, old lum- 

 ber or troughs carried, hogs running at large 

 and smelling around pens where others are 

 confined. A bird or chicken may alight where 

 a diseased hog has been, and carry the infec- 

 tion on its feet or wings great distances. 

 Crows and blackbirds have carried it fifty 

 miles. Occasionally some animals can remit 

 it, just as some people can remit small-pox 



