210 THK CALIFORNIA 



CHAPTER XIII. 



AMOUNT OF FOOD. 



According to Count Dandolo, five ounces of eggs 

 will furnish tiro hundred thousand silkworms, which 

 will consume wen thousand pounds of leaves ; and one 

 hundred trees can furnish the food for all ; and twenty- 

 one pounds of leaves will furnish food for one pound of 

 cocoons. Count DC Hazzi, from the sources above 

 named, calculates that two hundred thousand silkworms 

 require ten thvutand pounds of leaves in the different 

 stages of their existence, in the following proportions: 

 in the fir*t age, fifty |>ouiuls ; second age, one hundred 

 and fifty pounds ; third age, four hundred and sixty 

 pounds ; fourth age, one thousand three hundred and 

 ninety pounds ; but in the fifth and last age, which 

 usually comprises near one-third of the brief existence 

 of the silkworm, they will require seven thousand nine 

 hundred and fifty {tounds. 



It is evident that the curious tables of the progress 

 of the insect which sumo of the best authors have given 

 us, can be no sure guide, even with a regulated atmos- 

 phere ; the progress, space, and time, and proj>ortion of 

 food which will be required for the forty thousand silk- 

 worms, hatched from one ounce of cg^s, from their 

 birth, till the time they begin to spin, has been given 

 by Mr. Bonafoux. I will here state in the abstract, 

 that in the fnt aye, seven pounds of leaves are con- 



