CULTtJES OF SILKWOBMS. 
15 
puqjoses, \\ithout the use of the microscope. The system 
consists of the placing of each female moth under a small cup 
iu verted on a sheet of pajjer, on which it lays tt^i eggs. The 
cups are suffered to remain with the cj?^ and moth !>enejith 
them until the eggs bej^in to hutch, and the eggs of all those 
moths which are alive at tluit time are taken to be healthy, and 
those which have died prior to the hatching of the eggs are 
tlirown away as unhealthy. I have exjx^rimented with this 
system, and there appears to be a good deal to \.w said in favour 
i)f it; the moths which survive Ijeiiig ahnust \\^t]lout exceptiou 
healthy ; though it by no means follows that all that die early ai'e 
diseased. To deal with the same niunljer of moths as mentioned 
above would, however, involve the manipidiitiou of about 150,000 
china cups, and would require over 4,000 s(piare feet of table 
surface to put them out on. It has the great Lhsadvanta.ge tlxat 
the eggs cannot be distributed as eggs, and that the young 
worms could only be sent a short distance frt^m the breeding 
estabUshmeut. lu the system advocated above, citlier the cocoons 
of the " seconds," or their eggs could Ix' distributed, and there 
would be plenty of time to send them long distances. 
CULTIVATION OF MLTLBEERIES, 
From the expericnee acquired in Larut it would ap|>ear that 
the best way to cultivate mulberries would Ijc to fell the jungle, 
burn and clear it as if going Ui plant path or coffee. Then put 
in ! !ie mulberry cuttings, or tx4ter, the yoimg plants, previously 
raised in a nursery, at distances of 12 feet by 12 feet, that is, 
302 plants per acre. If it is wanted to begin piclviug early, they 
might be phmted at G feet by (> feet, or 1,210 jier acre.and every 
other row, aud the intermediate bushes of the reuiainiug rows, 
being picked at first, the bushes which had l>een picked when 
young being afterwards cut tmt, as the impickeci ones grow 
larger and require more room. If these latter are allowed to 
grow to 6 feet In height and to Ix'come large sjjreading bushes, 
they will la^t for years ; but when grown as the Chinese grow 
tliem, which is an attempt to violate all the conditions which 
the plant naturally requires to be fnlfilled, they ai-e very delitate 
and susceptible to the influence of over-pick:ing, disease or 
neglect of weetling, and are very apt Xaj die out. They shoidd 
never be picked too close, as it is always to lae remembered that 
the leaves are the organs which supply a jdant with its principal 
food, that is, the whole of its carbon, and indirectly with all its 
other food, as without the leaves to exhale the watery inortion of 
the sap, the roots cannot abi>orb moisture from the soil, and 
unless they absorb water they cannot acquire nourishment from 
the soil, as the water is the medium in which the nutritive parts 
of the earth are conveyed to the plant through the roots. 
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