102 



ON SERICICULTURE. 



warm weather the fourteenth morninfy, about six o'clock. 

 It saves trouble to suspend the eggs, the previous evening, 

 in a musHn bag, to the leaf-stalk of an Ailanthus leaf, fold- 

 ing and pinning a leaflet within the bag. If it is wished to 

 rear the worms on a tree out of doors, the bag and Ailanthus 

 leaf may now both be thrust into a bag of the cheapest 

 black muslin, two feet long and nine inches wide ; the 

 mouth of the bag must be fastened up by a string tied round 

 the base of the leaf-stem. The worms will hatch out and 

 feed up therein in safety. To supply fresh food, cut the 

 stalk, untie the string, empty out the dirt, and slip bag and 

 all over another leaf, the first leaf being undermost. At the 

 third change of leaves, the first leaf, stale and withered, 

 may be withdrawn : in oak silk culture, bags twelve to 

 eighteen inches wide may be used, especially with the Turkey 

 oak. 



After the third and fourth moults, fewer worms must be 

 kept in each bag. 



To feed the worms on Ailanthus leaves away from the 

 tree, the leaf-stalk must be plunged in water, and it will 

 keep fresh for three or four days : on no account give the 

 leaflets to the worms and shut them up in a cage, as is done 

 with the Mulberry worms. 



B. Cynthia will feed on other plants, viz., Laburnum, 

 Teazle, Hawthorn, Rose, Burnet, Scorzonera, Salsify, the 

 Castor-oil Plant, Honeysuckle, Plum, &c.; but by no means 

 so well as on the Ailanthus tree. 



Mons. Gelot, at a Conference faite a 1 exposition des In- 

 sectes, Aug. 7, 1865, thus speaks of the silk:* ** This kind 

 is both very fine and very elastic ; less brilliant, it is true, 

 than that of Pernyi and Mylitta, but I consider that to be 



* Revue de Sericiculture, 1865, p. 191. 



