MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART, 
frames take np little room, and are vastly more conve¬ 
nient than twigs,) as they do on the twigs in Franco. 
I was quite pleased with the cocoons, and the natives 
were truly astonished, they had never seen any like 
them: the later worm? laving to bear extremely hot 
weather, did not sncceed so well. The irregularity of 
hatching was very inconvenient; and referring to the 
old East India Company’s experiments I find similar 
^complaints of their Italian eggs (though they never at¬ 
tempted to cross and naturalize as 1 am doing). Hav¬ 
ing so far succeeded with the cocoons, I allowed tuo 
moths to eat out, and then obtained both nyilu and 
female moths of our doskie and madrassie stock, and 
paired the French male with the country female, and 
the country male with, the French female, ^he dispa¬ 
rity of size was immense 4 however, impregnation was 
.effectual; and the eggs were deposited in due time, 
both pailings alike giving eggs of a yellowish colour, 
when deposited, hut after three days those from the 
French female and Bengal male turned dark, and re¬ 
mained unlatched until the next year, passing through 
'our hottest season with the thermometer frequently at 
105 degrees; here was my first disappointment; the 
eggs from the French male and the country female re¬ 
mained yellow until the seventh day, when they dis¬ 
played a dark speck, rapidly changed to slate colour, 
and all latched on the tenth day. The young worms 
were strong and healthy, and fed well, but were more 
rapid in their stages, owing as much perhaps to the 
warmer weather as to their altered nature ; the same 
diseases attacked some of these, a few days before spin¬ 
ning, which had proved fatal to a few of the first batch; 
the operation of spinning was oqore tardy at the eonir 
meneement, the cocoons more flossy, and less firm than 
the original; they were quite as large, but altered in 
.shape, being very’round at one end, and pointed at tlie 
other, without the least contraction in the centre, or 
.shewing much resemblance to the French, except in the 
larger size and stronger fibre; there was a vast improver 
inent upon the Bengali stock. These worms, from the 
time of hatching to spinning, occupied thirty-four (lays. 
I kept all the cocoons for seed, pairing nearly all of 
them in themselves, fully expecting that this one cross 
would suflice, and realize my wishes of improving our 
breed without altering their nature of hatching; how¬ 
ever, I was sadly disappointed, for on the third day all 
the eggs turned "black, and remained thus until the fol¬ 
lowing year. The very few of this cross that I did not 
pair in themselves, were paired with indigenous moths, 
making a second cross for the French male; of these 
the cross female with the country male, followed the 
steps of the proceeding; the cross male with the country 
female hatched, but owing to very bad weather, I did 
not succeed in getting anv cocoons to continue the family, 
and thus ended all my labours in this department for 
1854,with what success my readers can judge. I reeled 
,off a few of both the pure and cross cocoons that I had 
reared, and the silk was quite equal to the best French ; 
the best cross cocoons, though changed in shape, gave 
nearly as good produce as the pure, and as strong a 
fibre.* The change in the shape did not in any way de¬ 
tract from its produce on reeling quality, which is 
generally supposed to bo the case on the continent. As 
I before remarked, I had Italian and China oergs, and 
the result was precisely the same as with the French. 
It may be asked, why I imported the China eggs, when 
the China silk is inferior to our own reel. My reply is, 
.that China cocoons, although small, are infinitely supe 
nor to our own dessie and madrassie sorts, and, in my 
.opinion, capable of making, with good management, as 
fine and valuable a silk as Italian ; and the reason the 
Chinese reel is of inferior quality to these, is entirely 
owing to their own bad management. 
I commenced the year 1855 with the first cross 
French, Italian, ami China females upon our madrassie 
and dessie stock, end second cross French, Italian, and 
China males produce upon our females, which had gone 
back to annuals ; and about the time these eggs began 
to hatch in January, 1855,1 received another large sup¬ 
ply of French eggs, which wore hatching on arrival. 
They were in beautiful order, having come out ou cloth 
loosely packed. I had now such a (quantity of eggs of 
different sorts, that it was very difficult to keep them 
separato; however, they had as much care bestowed oa 
them as possible. Incubation of all the crosses wan 
on as irregularly as with the first imjmrtation, ami it 
was several months before any one batch had finished 
hatching. This year’s experiments were interrupted 
by my being ilf, and compelled to go to Hngiand 
for a few months, but a great many cocoons were 
obtained from’ the different cresses and paired in 
themselves, which gave eggs that turned black, and 
remained in statu quo until the next vear. A fe*a- 
of the pure French were kept pure, but some vere 
crossed upon the last year’s crosses, and the resu-,t 
left unknown until inn/bation; the following 
vear there was very little difference in the cocoons over 
last year’s, the offspring of the Fhina female retained 
its original white colour, hut the shape altered to a 
point at both ends : the cocoon, if anything, was larger, 
and the fibre seemed as strong as the parent cocoons, 
and this wa.-^ the case with the fibre of all the other 
crosses. This was a very unfavourable year for ex¬ 
periments, and many thousands of the worms died, 
On mv return from Europe, I tound a good supply of 
healthy’looking eggs of the different sorts, and lave 
continued the experiments this year (1850) with uiir 
abated perseverance. They began hutching early in 
January, but just as irregularly as before; a small 
quantity only came out daily, and did not cease rill 
.May. The early worms were all good, fed and thrived 
as well as I could desire, and the cocoons from there 
were very fine. I had an opportunity of again com¬ 
paring the pure French cocoons reared by me, with the 
different crosses, and the choice was greatly in favour 
of the pure, hut the cross cocoons were vastly superior 
to those of Bengal ; and what I reeled off in the filature 
gavo a most beautiful silk, and a yield in quantity more 
than, twice as large as the common cocoons of thi$ 
country-, which we were then reeding in the filatures; 
thus, much of the intrinsic value of the French cocoons 
remained, but none of its original shape. I supposed 
now, that I had so far reduced the original nature k 
the frequent crosses, as to he nearly certain ot their 
now assimilating in habits, &c., &c., with our conatrr 
worms, and I did not reduce them by further croso;, 
but allowed the moths to couple with themselves; great 
was mv astonishment to find, after the eggs had beta 
deposited three da vs, that most ot them had turned back, 
indicating that they still had too much French nature; 
a few remained yellow, and hatched after ten (.a> *• 
How to account for the freak ot nature with regard to 
the rest, 1 do not know, bnt I had still to be more sur¬ 
prised after this. I had to wait, of course, till nett 
year, to see the result of the black eggs, bnt those tret 
hatched gave me ample occupation for the time, and I 
watched and cared for them with the greatest interest; 
the young worms looked healthy, ate, and throve vrefi, 
c'md’in due time gave cocoons; the white colour alone 
proved the China portion, and the superior site of coa.™ 
fibre, and lighter colour of some, with less gloss than 
with oar common worm, showed the French anil Italian 
cross. I was, on the whole, satisfied with tins fctoss,an<I 
trusted my labours had met with snecess, but great was 
mv astonishment after the pairing, to see more than Md 
of these eggs again revert back to annuals, though there 
had been a complete break in their nature hr rear 
having hatched in January, given cocoons in February, 
eaten out in due time, paired in themselves, depoate- 
eggs that ten days after hatched, and now to tab bit-., 
not to hatch again until the ensuing January, 18a,, 
fanes' is extraordinary in the extreme, irom the por¬ 
tion that hatched I had another crop of good coc»’», 
and their eggs I distributed to several parts ot ™in. 
Strange to say, many of those reverted back to the na¬ 
ture of annuals, and from those that did not, owing to 
had weather at the time of spinning, hat very few, much 
reduced in strength and quality, are left to me to cot 
