SILKWOKM GRAIN. 343 
*md this can easily be done by allowing about half 
the numbers to come up on the upper net covered with 
leaves. A similar process may be needful at the 
other ages, for it is a matter of the greatest import- 
ance not to allow the worms to be heaped one upon 
another. 
After each moulting the worms must be thinned 
out (dddoubles) in this manner, in the first place, 
because of their increasing size, and secondly, in order 
to have a greater degree of regularity in the series. 
After the third moulting, that is, on entering the 
fourth age, I count them ; for, having set to hatch 
double the number in grain which my magnanerie 
admits of my rearing at the fourth age, purposely 
to have the series of the greatest regularity, by rejecting 
those which are behind-hand in growth, there still 
remain too many to spread put on the large nets. I 
put 400 on each net, which gives 100 silkworms to the 
square foot — the maximum never to be exceeded, for 
even this is a very high rate. This operation, which 
is not so long as one might suppose, is performed by 
very delicately taking up the worms, one by one, as 
they wake up, from the most advanced series, and 
placing them on a net covered with mulberry leaves. 
This operation has also the very great advantage of 
affording a means of keeping an exact account of the 
number of silkworms in the magnanerie ; and subse- 
quently, by counting the cocoons, of seeing the 
proportion of worms lost in the last two ages, which 
•are, as is well known, the most critical. 
The education is generally completed in the space of 
fifty days, though, of course, much depends on the 
weather. 
z 2 
