ON MULBERRY TREES AND SILK. 45 



cocoons were formed, yet I do not consider my ex- 

 periment as successful. 



Another lot of worms, whose proper time for 

 hatching would have been on the 27th of July, but 

 were forced to premature hatching by being exposed 

 to the extreme hot weather, about the tenth of that 

 month, seventeen days before their annual period, 

 did somewhat better than the first brood, owing, as 

 I conceive, to being hatched nearer their proper 

 period. 



From all I can collect on the subject, from the 

 more accurate experiments of others as well as my 

 own, I come to the conclusion that no difficulty ex- 

 ists as to keeping eggs for successive hatchings, as 

 all producers of eggs can easily produce them at the 

 different seasons required, marking on the papers 

 on which they are deposited the date of their produc- 

 tion. It has been found by all experiments promul- 

 gated, that a week or two variation from the proper 

 time will make little or no difference as to the health 

 of the worms. Common sense will suggest all oth- 

 er precautions necessary in preserving silk worms' 

 eggs, as every one knows that all kinds of eggs 

 would be ruined by improper exposure after the germ 

 has started. 



The trees on which I contemplated raising my 

 worms this season were the Morus Multicaulis, or 

 " Perotted" Mulberry. They were planted the 

 last week in May. The leaves at the time I com- 

 menced feeding were somewhat larger than those of 

 the native red mulberry, but I was reluctant to rob 

 the tender branches of these young plants, having 

 been planted so late, (one month later than they 

 ought to have been.) I therefore fed from the na- 

 tive tree, (Morus Rubra) and from the white (Mo- 

 rus Alba.) I fed also occasionally from my nursery 

 of Multicaulis, taking only the lower leaves. T found 

 the worms to eat the latter much more greedily than 

 either of the other kinds, leaving not a vestige of 

 them, I conceive, however thus changing the food 



