SILK-WORMS. 
251 
If we would explain why so much has been writ* 
ten ujion this matter, we should hud strong evi- 
dence that it is because the disorders have been 
looked upon as constitutional, and that it has not 
been considered that they arose from the ill- 
management and rearing they have undergone. 
The silk-worms being reduced in our climates to 
a domestic state, we should seek to follow nature in 
our management of them, as nearly as may be 
practicable, and thus reap all the advantages the 
cultivation of this insect may offer us. We may 
then be almost certain of never seeing them at- 
tacked by disease during the thirty-five days they 
require before they attain the period when they 
pour out their silk; this precious produce, which 
is one of the chief springs of wealth to our country. 
All I have written in the preceding pages of this 
work should suffice to preserve the insect from all 
the disorders incident to them. 
This consideration made we waver whether I 
should treat of the diseases of silk-worms, parti- 
cularly as I had never witnessed any in my esta- 
blishments, and that I was obliged to seek these 
disorders in other establishments, managed in the 
old system, when, I wished to observe them. I 
have, however, determined to write this chapter, 
particularly to demonstrate the truth and useful- 
ness of the system I recommend. I must here re- 
