234 APPENDIX. [March, 



an average of three and a half feet. The present growth on the quar- 

 ter of an acre does not exceed .5,500, all counted, large and small. 



My cocoonery is 'Mi by 18 feet, '2 stories high. I fed almost entirely 

 in the second story. There are two tiers of shelves three feet wide by 

 twenty-four feet long — the shelves rise one above another — one foot 

 apart, seven shelves in each tier. The second story contains 13 glass 

 windows, with Venitian blinds. My eggs were of my own producing 

 the previous season. They were saved with great care from my best 

 cocoons, on muslin, the pieces of muslin rolled up in the fall, or soon 

 after the eggs were laid, and placed in a common farm bag, and this 

 was hung to a beam in the cellar. In March the muslins were folded 

 up and laid one on top of another, in a small tea chest lined with lead, 

 this was placed in another of the same kind, but a little larger; and 

 the space between the two was filled with pulverized charcoal. Then 

 a few thicknesses of old flannel was laid loosely over the top of the 

 smaller chest, and a loose boaid laid over the larger. Then the whole 

 was set in a still larger rough box, with a loose board on the top, and 

 this was put down in (he ice house, so that the ice surrounded the 

 sides of the box. in the inner tea chest was a thermometer — the box 

 was examined every week, and the thermometer was not allowed to 

 rise above 45o Fahrenheit. I am thus particular as to the mode of 

 preserving eggs, which has succeeded so well with me, because so 

 much disappointment has been experienced in regard to eggs. Other 

 modes equally good may doubtless be adopted for retarding the eggs — 

 the above plan, however, succeeded with me to admiration — the last 

 hatching, the 2Tth of August, was as perfect as the first. 



July !;?th, I hatched some two or three thousand mammoth white. 

 July 2G, five or six thousand sul|)hur. July 31, two or three thousand 

 sulphur. August 19th, over 20,000 sulphur — and August 27th, hatch- 

 ed the last, say 5 to 8,000, sulphur. The mammoth white worms 

 wound in 24 to 28 days — the sulphur 28 to 33 days. A few lingered 

 to 3G or 41) days. 



Green oak bushes were used for the worms to wind in. Last year I 

 had plasterers' lathes fastened under the shelves, one and a half inches 

 apart. I found difficulty, however, in getting the worms to ascend 

 well. This season I used straw at first, tied up in small bundles and 

 set on the shelves, but this did not answer as well as I had been led to 

 expect. At length I threw every thing aside and took the oak bushes. 

 These have succeeded with me better than any other contrivance. 

 They seem natural to the worms, and I have never seen them mount 



