32 THE AMERICAN SILK WORM. 
For over six years I have been engaged in raising the 
Polyphemus worm, and here present the following imper- 
i - fect sketch of the progress made from year to year in pro- 
pagating and domesticating these insects from the wild 
stock 
In 1860, after having tested the qualities of the co- 
coons of the different species of American silk worms, 
I endeavored to accumulate a large number of the cocoons 
of the Polyphemus moth, for the future propagation of 
this species. At first the undertaking seemed very sim- 
ple ; but who will ever know the difficulties, the hardships 
and discouragements which I encountered. This worm 
having never been cultivated, of course its habits were 
entirely unknown, though all success in my undertaking 
depended very much upon that knowledge. ` However I 
was not discouraged by the difficulties of the task. The 
first year I found only two caterpillars. The chance of 
their being each a male and female was very small, and it 
was another question whether the two sexes would come 
out of the cocoon at about the same time for the fecunda- 
tion of the eggs. So suecess was very doubtful. Spring 
came, and with it one of the perfect insects ; it was a male, 
one, two, three days elapsed, my poor male was half 
dead, the wings half broken, the other cocoon was not 
giving any signs of an early appearance; imagine my 
anxiety ; it was a year lost. The male died on the sixth 
day. The other moth came out more than a fortnight 
after; it was a male also. During the summer of 1861, 
I found a dozen worms, knowing then a little about their 
habits. In the spring of 1862, I was fortunate enough to 
have a pair of these insects that came out of the cocoon at 
the proper time, and I obtained from their union three hun- 
dred fecundated eggs. The pair which gave me these eggs 
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cay Cero Bae E ETE E E 
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