SILK GROWER'S MANUAL. 91 



with its head against the end of the cocoon, after sof- 

 tening it with saliva, and thus rendering the filaments 

 more easily torn asunder by its claws ; such moths, or 

 orilias, are collected and placed upon a piece of soft 

 cloth or paper, where they couple and lay their eggs. 



HOW TO PRESERVE THE EGGS, ETC. 



The eggs, or grains as they are usually termed, are 

 enveloped in a liquid which causes them to adhere to the 

 piece of cloth or paper on which the female lays them ; 

 from this glue they are readily freed by dipping them 

 in cold water and wiping them dry. They are best 

 preserved in the egg state at a temperature of about 

 40 Fahrenheit. If the heat of Spring advances 

 rapidly in April, it must not be suffered to act on the 

 eggs, otherwise it might hatch the caterpillars long be- 

 fore the mulberry has sent forth its leaves to nourish 

 them. Another reason for keeping back their incuba- 

 tion is, that they may be hatched together in large 

 broods and not by numbers in succession. The eggs 

 are made up into packets of an ounce or somewhat 

 more, which in the south of France are generally at- 

 tached to the girdle of the women during the day and 

 placed under their pillows at night ; they are, of course, 

 carefully examined from time to time. In large estab- 

 lishments they are placed in appropriate store-rooms, 

 where they are exposed to a temperature gradually in- 

 creased till it reaches the eighty-sixth degree of Fah- 

 renheit's scale, which term it must not exceed (but in 

 California we do not need artificial heat). Aided by 

 the heat, nature completes her mysterious work of 



