218 
THE ART OF REARING 
eggs of their own gathering, and induce them to 
prefer buying them from others. 
The first may be, that the broods have failed, 
and have produced bad cocoons : this motive 
never could exist, were the silk-worms well 
managed. 
As to the second motive, experience constantly 
demonstrates, that eggs that are gathered and ap- 
pear to proceed from good cocoons fail, and are 
not so successful as the produce of eggs that are 
bought, it will only clearly prove that the silk- 
worms of the buyer are worse managed than those 
of him who sells. 
The third motive is, that, to save themselves 
trouble, cultivators will rather buy eggs than 
rear them, so as they can believe them to be of a 
tolerably good quality, and produced from well- 
managed silk-worms ; which shews that laziness 
is the great inducement to buy eggs, instead of 
rearing them. 
The cases that can make it necessary to purchase 
eggs, sooner than to raise them, are therefore of 
« 
very rare occurrence. 
I should also add, in this Chapter, that there 
exists a notion that every two, or three, or four 
years, the eggs proceeding from a laboratory 
should be changed ; it requires but little to be 
said on these egregious popular errors. 
