192 THK MODnRN HISTORY OF SILK. 



they would subsist upon these without injury to 

 their growth, or the produce of the texture of the 

 silk. They were so fine and healthy, that she fed 

 them solely with lettuces till the 24tli of June, be- 

 ing twenty-four days, or double the time they used 

 to be kept from the leaves of the mulberry-tree. 



In less than a week after this change of food, 

 having attained their full growth, and exhibiting 

 that beautiful transparency which predicts their 

 maturity, they began to spin, and produced cones 

 as fine and firm as any she had ever had before. 



By the latter end of July the whole business was 

 completed, and she wound exactly four thousand 

 cones, which produced eleven ounces of silk, pre- 

 cisely the same as that of the preceding year. 



Miss Rhodes did not lose more than a dozen of 

 worms when feeding; and, from the size of the 

 cones, thought they were equal to any produced in 

 Italy. 



In a treatise on the Silkworm Moth, published 

 in Georgia, it appears that the cones of the cater- 

 pillars fed in that country contain three hundred 

 yards of silk, which weighs no more than two grains. 

 Miss Rhodes measured the thread of a cone of her 

 own breeding, and found it contained four hundred 

 and four yards of silk, which, when dry, weighed 

 three gi'ains ; and this was from one of the worms 

 which fed only one week on mulberry leaves. 



Various kinds of leaves have been employed in 



