SILKWORM GRAIN. 339 
Three kinds of nets are required for the de'litements. 
Tulle for taking up (la levee) the young worms when 
first hatched, and during the first age; of coarser 
tulle, or fine net, for the second and third ages ; of net 
with larger meshes for the fourth and fifth ages. The 
meshes of these nets must be square, and of sufficiently 
strong thread not to break under the weight of the 
worms, which is by no means slight in the fifth age. 
To prevent the worms from rolling into the middle 
of the net during the cleansing process, it must be 
stretched on four small laths, of the breadth of the 
mesh, so that they may be slipped into the outer 
meshes of the net, and then nailed at the four 
extremities. 
These frames have the advantage of keeping the 
worms always on a level surface, of preventing all over- 
crowding, and of leaving a space at the time of cleans- 
ing between the net on which the worms rest and the 
one which receives the leaves, a space formed by laying 
one frame on the other. The nets of the two latter 
dimensions are to be two feet square. 
I always cut up the leaf, having frequently observed 
that the worm, being less free in its movements in the 
magnanerie than on the tree, attacks the leaf more 
readily when cut up ; besides, it can thus be more 
equally distributed over the claies. The leaf must 
naturally be cut finer for the first ages than for the 
latter ones. It must be cleanly cut, not chopped, 
which would spoil it, and the knife kept perfectly free 
from dirt. 
The objection may be raised, it is true, that nature 
does not cut the leaf for the worm. Evidently not ; 
but from the moment that the larvae become domes- 
