214 
THE ART OF REARING 
cause as the formation of the moth approaches, a 
greater quantity of humidity evaporates. 
The drought or dampness of the atmosphere 
may increase or diminish the loss by some ounces. 
It is therefore evident that those who, to please 
the silk-spinners, leave the cocoon on the fagots, 
lose a certain sum on every pound of cocoons 
which they sell. 
The proprietors whose silk-worms have risen at 
various times some five or six days later than 
Others, and who have not gathered the cocoons 
until the twelfth or thirteenth day after the 
earliest rose upon the hedges, are likely to suffer 
losses of three or four per cent., without any 
chance of reaping any possible advantage from 
the sacrifice. 
In most cases, it is a loss for the purchaser of 
the cocoon, who has a view to spinning the silk, 
to receive those that are of different ages ; be- 
cause when in some cocoons the moth is preparing 
to come forth, and other cocoons are not so for- 
ward, the spinners are at a loss whether to let it 
come out directly, or to kill the chrysalis to pre- 
serve the cocoon. 
If the rules I have recommended in the pre- 
ceding Chapter are exactly followed, this loss will 
be avoided ; and the cocoons will be. perfectly 
formed, and ready to be worked off, at the end of 
seven days, reckoning from the day they first rose 
upon the hedges. 
