116 ON SERICICULTURE, 



being too wet from the over-suction of the water in which 

 the branches were placed. Next year, if all be well, I will 

 arrange that all shall, if possible, be reared from the com- 

 mencement out of doors, and contrive that the very smallest 

 shall not be checked in their growth, by placing a glass-light 

 over the portion of the house devoted to them. It seems to 

 me necessary at present to be prepared with forced oaklings 

 for those which hatch out prematurely ; but it is a fact, that 

 the eggs which I had of you last November, and which I 

 have wintered in a small perforated zinc box, suspended 

 under an arch with a north aspect, have been the latest to 

 come out, and at least two-thirds of them are still un- 

 hatched. 



*' July 11, 1868. I have been waiting to write to you for 

 some weeks past, in hope of being able to give you a good 

 account of the Bomhyx Yama-Mai ; but, alas! it is with 

 me as witli many others a complete failure. When I wrote 

 to you some two months back rejoicing in my success, I 

 certainly thought that I had every chance of it; seventy to 

 eighty magnificent worms crawling independently about on 

 3'oung oaklings, and eating with the greatest gusto every 

 leaf offered to them; four or five hundred just hatched from 

 the eggs you sent to me from Japan, and doing well on oak- 

 lings in pots. A selection also doing well on boughs kept 

 in jam-pots and bottles full of water; ditto, sent away to 

 friends. Loss the first was from a mischievous bird or birds 

 taking the whole of my early larvae, and leaving only those 

 hatched from the eggs sent from Japan. It is a great dis- 

 appointment, as I felt certain of rearing the7n successfully. 

 However, I turned my attention to the remainder, and placed 

 them out on oak bushes covered with gauze, and watered 

 them occasionally, using every precaution against insects, 

 &c. First indication of disease shown on those reared on 



