46 ON MULBERRY TREES AND SILK. 



of silkworms a great error, especially in the latter 

 part of their existence as a worm, it being prejudi- 

 cial to their health. All will perceive what gluttons 

 they become in the last ten days before they begin 

 to spin, and how ravenously they will devour any 

 different kind of mulberry-leaf given them; which 

 causes them, sometimes, even to burst. 



My feeding shelves were constructed of strips of 

 lath nailed together at the ends, forming a frame 

 covered with paper pasted on them; the frames four 

 feet long and two feet wide, resting on elects so as 

 to shove in and out at pleasure; these shelves are 

 one foot apart, seven in a tier. My experience in- 

 duces me to believe that fifty worms may well be 

 accommodated to each square foot of shelf. 



I have devised various methods to accommodate 

 the worms in spinning their cocoons, such as bunches 

 of straw tied In the middle and spread at the ends 

 and set upright between the shelves; paper cells, 

 crumpled paper, &c., but find nothing better, or so 

 convenient as green oak branches with the leaves on, 

 placed round the feeding shelves. The worms seem 

 fond of climbing among these, and the cocoons are 

 as easily gathered as from any I have seen. As to 

 this however, I do not pretend that my apparatus is 

 the best that could be contrived; nor am I about to 

 form a manual for the guidance of others, but felt 

 myself bound to give the committee my manner of 

 conducting the experiment in the production of the 

 silk I have exhibited. Let me here recommend to 

 all who may wish to commence or pursue the culti- 

 vation of silk, to procure the Journal of the Ameri- 

 can Silk Society, published at Baltimore monthly by 

 Gideon B. Smith, Esq., Editor, and Secretary of the 

 Society. Mr. Smith exhibits evidence of more actual 

 experience in the silk culture than any other indi- 

 vidual in the country. All back numbers for the 

 two past years may be obtained for $2, and any one 

 engaged in this business would, I think, find a single 

 number worth to him the amount paid for a whole 



