242 APPENDIX. [March, 



from 10,000 to 50,000 per annum. To carry on the business to a 

 much larger extent, with equal success, proportional caution and care 

 will be required. In this communication I will consider the evils and 

 hazards to be guarded against ; and the process by which the desired 

 end may be insured. 



Well made, perfect cocoons are as essential to profit in this branch 

 of industry, as full plump grain in wheat and other bread stuffs, in- 

 stead of that which is blighted and shrivelled. To accomplish this, 

 nothing is wanted but a vigorous and healthy worm. The art to be 

 mastered and studied, is such a treatment of the worm, commencing 

 at its earliest existence and continuing to the end, as is found to be 

 the surest preservative from feebleness and disease. The difference of 

 skill or assiduity, (making allowance for the difference of temperature in 

 the seasons,) with which this husbandry is managed, will be apparent 

 from the proportion of worms that fail, either wholly or in part, of 

 yielding a perfect and sound product. It can never be safely calcula- 

 ted that a whole brood will go through without loss, under the best 

 regimen that prudence can adopt. But when (there being nothing pe- 

 culiarly adverse in the season) the labor bestowed ends, as sometimes, 

 in the entire loss of one quarter or more, dying when they ought to be 

 spinning their cocoons, or the scarcely less revolting spectacle of co- 

 coons scarcely begun and there left for want of power to do more, 

 others half finished, and the rest, though somewhat nearer to perfec- 

 tion, barely worth reeling; it may be presumed that the undertaker of 

 the enterprise began without being sufficiently aware of the nature of 

 his task. The rearing of silk worms differs from many other employ- 

 ments, which, in the last result, do not materially suffer by occasional 

 errors or neglects, they being susceptible of remedy in some after sta- 

 ges of the process. The worms that suffer by bad treatment or unfor- 

 tunate circumstances, at any period of their existence before their 

 work is done, are liable, more or less, to disappoint the hopes of a sat- 

 isfactory return ; and among other considerations not to be overlooked, 

 there is that which relates to atmospheric temperature. Although con- 

 siderable changes may be endured without proving fatal, yet the loss 

 of time, which is unavoidable so long as the mercury stands much be- 

 low 70<^, is not the worst effect produced by such an occurrence. 



By some, the necessity, or even usefulness of an apartment impervi- 

 ous to cold air, as a place for feeding the worms, is disregarded. Ex- 

 perience, however, during the late cold summers, has made it certain 

 to my mind, that he is not prepared to prosecute this business under 



