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THE CYNTHIA SILK-WORM. 317 
' cocoons will be doubled, and even trebled, to the great 
injury of the silk, it being impossible to wind the silk off a 
double cocoon. On the 21st of July the moth appeared ; 
three weeks in the cocoon; and by the 6th of August the 
second brood of caterpillars began to hatch out; these going 
into the pupa state about the middle of September, and re- 
maining there up to June 10th, I having kept them back a 
little on account of the backwardness of the spring. “Oh 
that date the first Cynthia from my collection of cocoons 
made its appearance, and there is every prospect that a few 
days more will witness an increase in that portion of my in- 
sect family.” 
I have now said enough to show that the rearing of this 
moth is a very easy, simple process, one which may be at- 
tended to by any boy or girl of ordinary intelligence, super- 
intended of course, if the number raised be very large, by 
some older person. In a word, it furnishes profitable em- 
ployment for those members of the family unable to perform 
harder labor. And this reminds me that. if the feeding be 
done within doors, the food branches, or, at the outset, 
simply the leaves, should have their stems immersed in a 
vessel of water; some precaution being taken to prevent the 
young caterpillars from wading into, or falling into it. 
When nearly full-grown the clusters of fine caterpillars, set 
off by the rich green of the ailanthus leaf, form a very beau- 
tiful sight; and although I cannot conscientiously recom- 
mend such an ornament for the drawing-room table, it 
certainly may be placed almost anywhere without being 
offensive to the most fastidious eye. Plenty of air and light 
should be given them, but they should not be exposed to the 
direct rays of the sun. Reared, even from motives of curi- 
oity, and without a view to immediate pecuniary results, 
the task cannot be performed without teaching a lesson, 
Which Will be of infinite value to the mind anxious to inform 
itself of the wonderful workings of that law of nature, agi 
transforms a small crawling animal, of an eighth of an inch in 
w 
