March 2, 1903.] Sni^plement to the " Tropical AgricuUwistr 
a row of tiny black nng.s, one on each joint of Mie 
body. You will fiud ir, diffifult, to giie^s wliiLr, 
tliese are for. Tlu'y mark ii coriespouiiing rium- 
bin- of tiny opi'iiing^ into the body, through which 
thfi C!U.<'.rpilbir breathes. Insects do not breathe 
throusjh their mouth?, but through separate open- 
infrs, usually on the sides of the body, as in this 
cuterpillar. 
As the silk'-vorm grows larger, it will of course 
require Diore food, but it will now he able to ent the 
older and coarser leaves of the mulberry. When 
they ore quite sma.ll, a large nuniber of the worms 
may be kept on a single tray, but as they grow, 
they will want more room, and mu^t be separated 
and put on to fresh trays. A convenient way to 
keep theiu is to make a framework, with several 
shelves, on the plan of the above sketch.* Thin 
bamboos or any straight Jungle sticks will do for 
the posts, and the shelves may be made of split 
pieces of bamboo laid close together. The p iper 
trays can be placed on these shelves. 
The posts of the frame must stand in tins con- 
taining vTater with a little kercsine floating on it. 
This will prevent the ants from climbing up and 
eating the caterpillars. 
When the silkworms have grown to tiieir fall 
size, which will be in a^out five weeks' time, th.ey 
will stop feeding and begin to spin the wonderful 
silken cases in which they hide themselves for a 
time before appearing as moths. Tliese cases are 
called cocoons. You must now hang some bunches 
of fine twigs above the trays, in such a p 'sition 
that the silk worms can climb up iiito them and 
spin their cocoons there. Now, watch one of the 
caterpillars afcer it has climbed on to the twigs. 
You will see it twisting its head about and fasten- 
ing fine threads of white or pale yellow silk to the 
twigs all round about it. If you look very closely, 
you will see the silken thread coming out of a 
^mall pointed knob just below the head of the 
caterpillar. It goes on spinning more and more 
silk all round itself, until it is quite hidden. 
And it will go on spinning, inside this covering, 
long after you have lost sight of it, until it has 
formed a stout egg-shajed case for itself. The 
cocoons lire quite soft at first, so you must be 
careful not to touch them for at least a week after 
they have begun to spin. ,\ft.er that time you 
may take one of the cocoons asid examine it. Y"U 
will find that the outer part is loose and fluffy. 
If you pull off the outer part, you will see iuside 
the egg-shaped case that 1 have told you about. 
It is very toiigli. You could not tear it open 
with your fingers. But it is made of just the 
same fine silk that you have seen ou the outside ; 
only the caterpillar has stuck it together with a 
kind of gum. Take a pair of finely-pointed 
scissors and cut open one side of the cocoon. See 
lijwsoft and smooth the inside of the case is. If 
only II few days have passed since the cocoon was 
coaini 'uced, you will find the caterpillar still 
inside it, but very much changed in aj)pearance — 
quite shrunken and shrivelled. You will hardly 
rocognizeit. If you cut open another cocoon later 
• Not reproduced. 
on, instead of the shrivelled caterpillar, you will 
find a plump, smooi h, dark brown object which 
i^^ called a chry>aLi-; and just behind it you 
will see the empty >kin of the caterpillar. The 
tkin has been slied . just as On previous occasions, 
only instead of a caterpillar with a new coat appear- 
ing beneath it, this slii sy brown chrysalis has taken 
its place. The chrysalis cannot walk about. It 
can only wriggle. It has no legs. Nor does it 
eat anything ia this stage. Look at it closely, 
and notice the marks on it. They faintly show 
the wings and legs of the coming moth. 
Nothing more will happen for about a fortnight. 
Then, some morning, you may be surprised to see 
a creamy white moth hanging gn to the outside 
of its cocoon. At the end of the cocoon is a large 
hole through which the moth has come out. If 
you can find it immediately after it has come out, 
you will notice that its wings are quite small. 
Watch it for about half an hour, and you will see 
these little pad-like wings steadily growing and 
spreading out until they have readied their full 
size. Notice the •^hape of the moth. It has a 
small head with two large blackish eyes and a pair 
of feathered horns or feelers. There are four 
wings, the front pair with a curved point at the 
tip, the hind pair rounded. The moth has only 
six legs, and the=e legs have been develo{ied from 
the small horny legs that you saw just behind the 
head of the caterpillar. 
When several moths have appeared, some of 
them will commence pairing. The pairs should ba 
placed on. fre-li sheds of paper on the trays. The 
females will lay their eggs on the paper, and these 
eggs must be kept to raise new broods of cater- 
pillars. They will not hatch out for several 
months. When first laid, the eggs are of a pale 
yellow colour. They gradually darken, until, in 
two or three days' time, they are slaty gray. 
We have now watched the whole life of the silk 
worm insect from the egg to tho moth. But if 
we want to use the cocoons for making silk, we 
must not allow the moths to come out. The pierced 
cocoons are of no use for spinning, though " floss 
silk " can be made from them. If, then, the 
cocoons are to be used for spinning, they must be 
taken, about eight days after they have been 
formed, uad either baked or thoroughly dried in 
the sun. They ma.y then be packed and >old to 
the manufactory, where they are converted into 
spun silk. 
Though you will have nothing to do wuh the 
further treatment of the cocoons, it may interest 
you to know what will happen to them. 
The first process is known as "reeling." The 
cocoons are placed in boiling water for a few 
miiHites to soften the gummy matter that binds 
the fibres together. The loose outer silk is re- 
moved, and the ends of the silk fibre are found by 
brushing the cocoons with a bunch of fine twigs 
or suff brush. The fibres of four or five cocoons 
are then lightly twisted together and attached to 
what is called the "ruling machi.ie," which 
gradually winds ofif the silk from rlie whole cocoon. 
As one cocoon is exhauste<l, the fibre from anorher 
one is attached in its place. The^e four or five 
fibres from the several cocoons adhere together 
