2 CULTTJEE OF SILKWORMS. 



the worms. When they are full grown, and as they turn yellow, 

 they are pk-lced out of the trays and put on to the cocooning 

 frames to spin. These are bamboo frames with thin strips of 

 curled bamlioo fastened to them on each side, and it is in the 

 loops so formed that the worms spin. The frames are about 

 two feet by three feet, and are stood up in pairs in tlie houses 

 when required for use. The spinning completed, the cocoons are 

 picked out of the frames by men armed with small steel forceps. 

 The earliest of the spinners are reserved for breeding and the 

 i-emaiuder are stifled. The cocoons kept for ])reeding are put in 

 a single layer on the bamboo rearing trays. When the moths 

 emerge they are allowed to pair, and in the evening the pairs are 

 separated, the females being placed on a sheet of common 

 Chinese paper on which a wooden frame is placed a little smaller 

 than the size of a sheet of paper. These frames are about one 

 and a half inches high. A board is laid on top of the first frame, 

 then a sheet of paper, then another frame, which, having been 

 filled with female moths, is covered with another board, and so 

 on. As soon as the moths have laid they are thrown away, and 

 the sheets of jjaper, densely covered with eggs, are dipped into 

 hot water, the water lieing heated so that the hand can be 

 borne in it. The sheets are then dried, the date of laying 

 marked on each sheet, and they are rolled up and put away 

 until they are ready for hatching. The dipping in hot water is 

 a matter requiring great care, as if the water is overhealed it 

 kills the eggs. It is said to make the eggs hatch more evenly 

 and is thought to be of great imjjortance by the Chinese.* 



TEEATMENT OF THE SILK. 



The cocoons Tiot required for breeding are put into wooden 

 drawers with perforated bottoms, arranged in a large chest, be- 

 neath which are put earthenware chafing-dishes, in which char- 

 coal is burned. This kills the chrysalids and in a few days dries 

 them up. Care must be taken, or the silk gets scorched, if the 

 heat is too great. Another method of stifling used by the Chinese 

 is to take the cocooning frames full of cocoons and heap them ii]) 

 and then cover them all closely over with cloths. The chafing- 

 dishes with burning charcoal are then put underneath the pile 

 and the stifling ensues, 



* I have found that if the eggs laid by a pebrinous moth are washed, 

 and the water examined under the microscope, the corpuscles of pebrine 

 will be found in it ; showing that these corpuscles were in the Huid used by 

 the moth to stick the eggs on wiih, and it is conceivable that a moth 

 which had becoiiie diseased late in life, and after the eggs were formed, 

 might lay pure eggs, but that some of the young worms in eating their 

 way through the shell of the eggs might contract the disease by eating the 

 corpuscles on rhe exterior surface of the eggs. Can this have anything to 

 do with the Chinese hot water process ? 



