42 



He proposes, \vlien the worms arc ready to 

 wind, to transfer them to upright frames, with 

 twine lattice work, standing about an inch and 

 half apart. The worms will reach over from one 

 frame to the other, fasten themselves at each ex- 

 tremity, and then, in a small compass, envelope 

 themselves in their cocoons. Every thing is then 

 clean and compact, and after they have finish- 

 ed winding, the frames in pairs ran bs put 

 away compactly, and, when wanted for use, the 

 cocoons may be easily taken oft'. The building is 

 well contrived for ventilation, and the reeling, by 

 steam power, will be carried on in the same edi- 

 fice. He intends to feed a million of worms 

 this summer and reel four or five hundred pounds 

 of silk." 



We have been thus particular in developing 

 the various plans oflaboratories and fixtures, be- 

 cause it is the only part of the silk and Mulberry 

 culture which can, in the least, be thought to bear 

 the smallest resemblance to costliness, and the 

 intelligent reader will find on a proper examina- 

 tion, that for a very few hundred dollar? a house 

 calculated to accommodate many millions of 

 worms' may be built, and that it is so simple in 

 its construction as to be within the achievement 

 of the mechanical skill of most plantation hands 



HATCHING THE WORMS. 



The time of hatching the eggs is to be deter- 

 mined by the forwardness of the season, and 

 should mainly be regulated by the state of the 

 Mulberry leaves on which they are to be fed and 

 supported ; for it is a reckless waste of time and 

 hazarding of prospective gain, to bring them into 

 being before you are prepared to sustain their 

 wants. All the authors we have consulted agree 

 in this, that as soon as the leaves have developed 

 themselves you may make your arrangements 

 for stimulating the worms into life. Upon this 

 head Mr. Smith observes that : 



"At the period for hatching, which in Mary- 

 land, is generally about the 1st of May, the eggs 

 which are presumed to have been kept in the cel- 

 lar, may be brought out and spread on paper on 

 a common table, called the hatching table. The 

 proper period is always best ascertained by the 

 state of the Mulberry leaves. 1 consider the best 

 and most safe time to be that when the leaves 

 are about the size of a half dollar. The hatching 

 table may be kept in the common laboratory. 

 If the weather be mild and warm, the eggs will 

 begin to hatch in eight or ten days. The first 

 day or two there will but few leave the eggs. 

 They need not be attended to. On the third 

 a considerable quantity will hatch. Some fresh 

 leaves should then be laid on them, when they 

 will soon attach themselves to the leaves, and 

 should be removed on to a shelf and be thinly 

 spread out. The next day all that have hatched 

 should be treated in the same way ; and so on 

 lill they have all hatched, which will generally 



he in five or six days. Each day's hatching 

 hould be placed on separate shelves, and the 

 whole laboratory arranged into as many divisions 

 of shelves as there were day's hatchings, that 

 they may be continually kept separate. This is 

 important that the periods of moulting and spin- 

 ning may be as nearly the same with all the 

 worms on a shelf as possible. 



In large establishments a small close room, 

 with a stove will be very useful in hatching the 

 eggs, as the temperature may be regulated at 

 pleasure. But in this case a thermometer is al- 

 most indispensable, as there would be danger of 

 too high a degree of heat, which would spoil the 

 eggs at this season, and the necessary equability 

 and gradual increase of the temperature could 

 not be secured without one. In this mode of 

 hatching by artificial heat, the worms will be 

 brought out with more regularity and in less 

 time than in that above described, and therefore it 

 is preferable in large establishments. The hatch- 

 ing room should be, when the eggs are carried in- 

 to it, of about 70 temperature,^ which should be 

 increased one degree a day till the worms are 

 hatched. The hatching room will therefore be 

 of about 80 temperature when the worms are 

 hatched, and if the laboratory is not then about 

 the same temperature it should be raised to it, 

 or nearly so, before carrying in the young worms, 

 that they may not experience too great and sud- 

 den a change The leaves maybe torn in small 

 pieces whilst the worms are small, and the worms 

 should be led during the first week two or three 

 times a day, by scattering the leaves over them. 

 The second week the worms will require food 

 three times a day, the third, fourth arid fifth, it 

 should be given them as fast as it is either con- 

 sumed or becomes withered." 



Having thus copied the plain common sense 

 directions above, we would respectfully state that 

 Count Dandolo, and those who have either ab- 

 stracted or transcribed his plan, for most all the 

 writers appear to have done either the one or the 

 other, recommends that, 



" When the Mulberry leaves are about to open, 

 the cloths upon which the eggs are fastened, 

 should be put into a small pail of water, steeped 

 up and down, that they may be thoroughly soak- 

 ed for nearly six minutes, which will be sufficient 

 to dissolve the gummy substance by which the 

 eggs are stuck to the cloth. The six minutes 

 elapsed, the cloths must be taken out, and the 

 water allowed to drip from them, by holding 

 them up for two or three minutes. They should 

 then be spread upon the table, the cloth to 

 be well stretched, while the eggs are separated 

 from the cloth with a scraper. The scraper 

 should not be too sharp, for fear of cutting the 

 eggs, neither too blunt, lest it should crush 

 them." And after the eggs are off" the linen 

 cloths, they are to be put into a basin aud submit- 



