260 
THE ART OF REARING 
shoot of the mulberry-tree is thoroughly de- 
veloped. If, after all this care, the season should 
turn out very indifferent, and the leaves bad, 
the temperature of the laboratory may be 
gradually lowered for two or three days to 68° 
or 66°, that the hunger of the worms may slacken; 
they eat less, and their first age is prolonged 
some days, which may allow of beneficial altera- 
tions in their favour. 
It is also, in these cases, equally useful to 
allow the leaf to wither, that there may be a 
small portion of watery substance in it. 
In the year 1814 many persons experienced 
these difficulties, and not having used the pre- 
cautions I have recommended, lost an immense 
quantity of worms. My laboratories, on the 
contrary, produced as much as they did any other 
year, because I never ceased employing the ne- 
cessary means for their preservation. The second 
Table, placed at the end of this volume, will 
exactly shew how I reared the silk-worms, under 
such circumstances. 
It is very rare to experience so very bad a 
season as that of 1814, even in the cold and va- 
luable climates which I inhabit. In warm coun- 
tries, these astonishing variations are unknown. 
