silk Manufacture. Ill 



served, either by means of stoves placed in the corners of the 

 apartments, or by chafing dishes which from time to time are 

 carried up and down the room. Flame and smoke are always 

 carefully avoided : cow dung dried in the sun is preferred 

 by the Chinese to all other kinds of fuel for this purpose. 



' The most unremitting attention is paid to the wants of 

 the worms, which are fed during the night as well as the day. 

 On the day of their being hatched diey are furnished with 

 forty meals, thirty are given in the second day, and fewer in 

 and after the third day. The Chinese believe that the growth 

 of silk worms is accelerated, and their success promoted, by 

 the abundance of their food ; and therefore, in cloudy and 

 damp weather, when' the insects are injuriously affected by 

 the state of the atmosphere, their appetites are stimulated by 

 a wisp of very dry straw being lighted and held over them, by 

 means of which the cold and damp air is dissipated. 



'It is affirmed by these accurate observers, that the quicker 

 the worm arrives at its maturity, the greater is the quantity 

 of silk which it spins. They say, that if the worms become 

 fully grown in twenty-five days, each drachm of eggs will 

 produce twenty-five ounces of silk; that if their maturity be 

 delayed to the twenty-eighth day, only twenty ounces are 

 obtained ; and that if thirty or forty days elapse between the 

 hatching and the commencement of the cocoons, then only 

 ten ounces are the result. 



' The Chinese are exceedingly careful in preserving the 

 nicest degree of cleanliness in their establishments for rearing 

 silk worms ; being fully aware of the great importance which 

 attaches to that particular. 



' The worms, as they increase in growth, have gradually 

 more space assigned to them ; so that the full-grown cater- 

 pillars have four times the scope that is allotted to them when 

 newly hatched, and sometimes even more. 



' When the insects are about to commence their spinning, 

 mats are provided, in the centre of which a strip of rush, 

 about an inch broad, is fixed, and extended in a spiral form, 

 or in concentric circles, over the whole surface of the mat, 

 leaving an area of about an inch broad between each circle. 

 Here the worms fix themselves to spin ; and it is found that 

 these receptacles occasion less silk to be wasted by them in 

 floss, than when more space is allotted wherein their first 

 threads can be spun. At this time the whole room is carefully 

 covered with mats, to exclude the outward air and the light, 

 as it is believed that silk worms work more diligently in 

 darkness. 



