SILK-WORMS. 
53 
have observed the leaf is apt to press upon the 
young worm, and load it. Many cultivators 
may have witnessed, that when I removed the old 
leaves there were a number of worms injured, 
not being able to disencumber themselves from 
the weight. 
The worms which may have been managed ac- 
cording to the method I have stated, will always 
be healthy and strong. They will neither be red 
nor black, but of a dark hazel colour or chestnut, 
■which is the proper colour they should have. 
It is impossible to state the practical advantage 
of this method, thus ensuring the constant pro- 
duction of well-constituted animals *. 
* The essential point is to cause the eggs to be hatched 
with the greatest case : if the success of this operation is not 
complete, the worms will probably be subject to disease 
through their whole course of life, as I show in Chap. XII. 
It has been seen, in the two latter notes, how necessary it 
is to make use of the brick stove, and that the expense of 
heating the room for a certain number of days is inconsider- 
able. Would it not, therefore, be most useful to establish, 
in those countries where silk-worms are cultivated, public 
stove-rooms, and also rooms to put the worms in when 
hatched, previous to distributing them among the proprietors 
and farmers ? It would be a more secure, more certain, and 
much less troublesome method for those who are in the ha- 
bit of rearing silk-worms in the old way. For one hundred 
francs, you might thus hatch thousands of ounces, and thus 
begin to nationalize (if I may use the expression) this 
art, which is the main spring of numberless other arts. 
Incases where the public would not incur the expense, might 
D 3 
