REARING SILKWORMS. 95 



quantities of reeled and raw silk. These large 

 profits were the result of the annual silkworm, 

 as Japan does not raise more than one or two 

 crops of silk a year. The Japanese .white silk is 

 the finest silk in the world. As a people, they 

 have vastly improved their machinery within 

 the past forty years. Their treatment of the 

 silkworm is more scientific than that of the 

 Chinese, as they are more advanced in all the 

 arts and sciences of the age. 



They have to be very careful of the silkworms, 

 and protect them from currents of the outside 

 atmosphere, as the climate is very changeful, 

 and at times severely cold. 



The Japanese prune their trees very closely 

 every year. They propagate largely by layer- 

 ing, i. e., they lay down branches, or long 

 shoots from the main body of the tree, then 

 cover them with the soil. They soon take root, 

 and shoot up sprouts, which are in due time 

 transplanted and given more room. 



Besides silk in all conditions, from the 

 waste silk to the finished fabric, the Japanese 

 export mulberry trees of the best kind. 



When the winter weather has really set in, 

 those who are engaged in the propagation of eggs 

 take them and immerse them in water just down 

 to the freezing-point, where they let them remain 



