REARING SILKWORMS. 71 



If it be found necessary to prune trees to pre- 

 vent them growing too tall, this should be done 

 in the fall or winter, when the sap is down. 



When it is found advisable to have leaves 

 picked in advance for a day or two, it is quite 

 necessary to spray or sprinkle them with pure 

 water. A whisk dipped in water lightly will do 

 very nicely. (But do not do as the Chinese and 

 Japanese; viz., take a mouthful of water and 

 spurt it out on the leaves.) Each time you 

 sprinkle, toss up the leaves from the bottom, so 

 that all may come in contact with the moisture. 

 Then cover them over with old newspapers or 

 clean cloths. When leaves are shipped from a 

 distance, they should be ordered in clean sacks, 

 not in boxes. They should be picked before 

 sunrise, and put up before the coolness of the 

 night passes off from them. When leaves are 

 heated, after picking as high as 80 F.,*they are 

 very apt to engender disease in the worms. From 

 fourteen hundred to eighteen hundred pounds of 

 leaves will feed forty thousand worms (one 

 ounce of eggs) through all the ages. 



LEAVES. HOW TO CARE FOR THEM. 



It is well to have on hand at all times enough 

 leaves to feed four or five times^ 



It will not do at any time to feed either wet or 

 dusty leaves, and it is much better not to feed 



