2 CULTURE OF WILD SILKWORMS 



classify three separate species as hu-po-lo (ty jj $j|), <'ltifii-t<> (l J^), and ch'ing-Vtvng (^ ife) 

 or ch'ing-Jcdtig (flf fl). The first and most common of these has u broad leaf and a thick, 

 black bark. Of the other two less familiar ones, the chii'-n-txn carries a narrow leaf and a 

 thinner, more greyish, bark ; while the ch'ing-kdng has a green bark and a leaf slightly larger 

 than that of the chien-tso, with a more ragged edge. 



When allowed to develop on the lower slopes, these oaks attain to a height of 20 or 30 feet, 

 so far as I have been able to observe. Along the higher contours they seem to remain dwarfish. 

 Also when used for grazing they are frequently cut well back, to secure a more tender and a 

 more accessible, I should say leaf. 



Culture of the Worms. 



Of the accuracy of the principal facts given in this section, I am reasonably certain, as the 

 information has been secured and checked by inquiries in many different places; yet on one 

 feature of the silkworm's life as here sketched I have had difficulty in determining which of its 

 historians is correct, so diverse have been their many accounts. This feature is the number of 

 days spent in the larva stage of development, that is, the period between the birth of the worm 

 from the egg and the spinning of the cocoon, which marks the transition to the pupa stage. To 

 clear this point I have spent several hours talking with the producers in their own cottages, 

 and have elected to give below the account of an intelligent farmer's son, who himself cares for 

 the worms during their development on the trees. 



It will be easiest to trace the worm's life by beginning with the appearance of the summer 

 butterfly. This year the first of the imagoes pierced their cocoons about the soth and 2ist 

 July, while the later ones followed throughout a period of 10 or 1 1 days, which is the average 

 time intervening between the earliest and the latest debuts. Most of the butterflies come out 

 late in the afternoon, that is, just before or at the sunset hour. About 9 in the evening the 

 attendants place the males and females together and leave them until, approximately, 3 P.M. of 

 the following day, or 18 hours. As the male worm serves but one female, when he is taken 

 away from the female on the afternoon of the 2nd day, he is cast aside to die within from 24 

 to 36 hours. The female is at once carried out to the trees, where she is tied down to a twig 

 with a species of grass known among the producers as "silkworm grass" (f=| ]|i) or "three- 

 cornered grass" (H W. J|D- ^ho then lays on a leaf or branch somewhere between 100 and 200 

 eggs this number seemed to be very approximate during the evening and night of this 

 2nd day, has her bonds loosed by the watcher the following morning, to be put into a basket 

 and kept for eating or to fly away to enjoy the two or three sunsets that are given her to see. 



