274 



SILK. 



cast off their skins. This time of trial for them will last 

 three or four days, if the weather is warm and genial; 

 but if it is cold and damp, they are much longer to get 

 through it. As soon as the skin is cast off, they appear 

 active again, eat with a good appetite, and will continue 

 so for six or eight days, when the second shedding comes 

 on under the same circumstances, and is succeeded by a 

 third and fourth shedding. The second shedding is the 

 easiest for them, and fewer die under its operation than 

 during the first, third, and fourth. Eight days after the 

 worms have got through the fourth shedding, and at the end 

 of about six weeks from the commencement of their exist- 

 ence, they have arrived nearly to maturity, and are going 

 to make their cocoons, and reward the care that has been 

 taken of them. They want then to go up to spin their 

 cocoons, but it is necessary not to encourage this natural 

 disposition, until it is evident that they are fully ripe. If 

 they go up too soon, their cocoons will be light and flimsy. 

 The signs of their full maturity are, some change in their 

 colour, which until then is white ; the head appears wilt- 

 ed, the tail larger, the green circles round the body become 

 of a bright gold colour, and they keep moving about among 

 the others, but without eating, and seem as if stretching 

 their heads for the purpose of spinning. When the worms 

 exhibit these indications, they should be separated from the 

 rest, and put into a place where small, dry branches of oak, 

 hazel, white birch, or any other wood, have been prepared 

 for them to ascend and spin their cocoons. When they 

 have ascended, it will be some days before they begin to 

 spin. The first day they lay out threads for a foundation — 

 the second, they form the shape of the cocoons — the third, 

 the worm is entombed and out of sight, but continues to 

 spin (inside) until he has expended the whole of his stock 

 of liquor, which, in general, is the seventh or eighth day. 

 The thread of a good cocoon is about nine hundred and 

 fifty feet. 



It is highly important to feed the worms in that particu- 

 lar way which experience has shown to be the most suit- 

 able ; the leaves, at all times, should be -dry v» hen given to 

 them; therefore, when rain is likely to fall, it is necessary 

 to gather in a stock, before they get wet ; if the weather 

 set in to steady rain, the leaves should be spread in a sepa- 

 rate room, and dried before they are given to tlie worms; 

 leaves wetted by rain, or dew, will either kill them, or bring 

 on some bad disorder; from their birth to the second shed- 



