Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1885-09-18
TIE siLK.wORM:
How Il works-From the Raw Material 10
the Finished Work.

manufacturer himself, finding his
raw material chiefly in the leaf of
the mulberry tree (mOrHS,) which
gives name To the common silk-moth
1B0mbUr mora, the caterpillar OF
which is the silk-worm. The tree is
said by proverb To be made for the
worm and the worm for the tree, and
il seems to have fiber peculiarly suit
able for textile use, some OF the Pa
cific islanders making clothing by
macersting the bark of the paper null
berry, without the intervention Oi the
silk-worm. Most of the silk of COM
merce is made by this one moth from
this one food. yet il can feed in whole
or in part, upon other leaves, rs those
of the Usage orange in this country,
and it has score of cousins or more
distant relations, rs the Tussah moth
(Antheria paphia) of India, which live
upon other trees and produce SINH
lar material.
The moth is about an inch long.
whitish. with brown stripes. and lays
at the close OF summer numerous eggs
about the Ze OF "A pin-head, attached
singly to the leaf by a kind of gum,
which, when dry, has IA silky appear
ance. The moths soon die; the eggs
do not hatch until the next summer,
and can meanwhile be sent around the
world. The sale OF grain or seed, rs
the eggs are also called, is of itself
business, for it brings as much as ~
per ounce, tenfold the price years ago,
before an cp demic swept through the
silk world. Each moth lays from four
hundred to seven hundred eggs, bat
it takes over six hundred thousand to
make a pound In obtaining eggs for
breeding, the grower usually places
the moths on cloths in a dark warm
room, where they contentedly lay
their eggs and die. In tropical coun-
tries, as southern China and India, the
eggs hatch by natural heat; in others,
artificial warmth is necessary; and in
old times hot-beds were used, or the
eggs were carried about by women in
little bags in their bOsoms. The care
full grower makes ready for the hatch
ing by providing latticcd trays or bun
dies of twigS, about which the food of
finely chopped mulberry leaves is dis
tributed The tiny worm at first eats
two meals day; at the end of five
DAYS he casts his first skin, on the
ninth day his second; again. on the
fifteenth, twcnty-Secoud, and thirty
second days he "moults," becoming
torpid, and exchanging old skins for
new. Like his fellow-wOrnl, man, he
has "seven ages tho sixth, when he
has attained the mature age OF thirty
two days, is the spinning, the last the
breeding period. AT the approach of
the spinning ago the worms from a
single ounce of eggs (nearly forty
thousand eggs Will have required
over !, POO pounds of leaves, and Will
need about lS4 square feet space for
their homes.
Each days Matching is kept together,
lest the older eat up the food OF the
weaker brethren, and every care must
be taken TO prevent the growth Of the
minute fungus which makes silk
worm rot. and 10 ward oil other
diseases. In 1857 Europe was swept
of much of its silten wealth by one OF
these parasitic diseases. and one OF
Pasteur's early triumphs was in dis
covering It's nature.
The worm is conservative. and never
attempts TO move from his place until
it is time to begin spinning. lie then
becomes distcnded with the silk juice
and semi-transparenl, like "A ripe vel
80" ria aud can lad sGa'G anhidd look inc
about for a good site for his cocoon
building, which has been furnished by
the cocoon grower ia arches OF twigs
or lattice work. Some of the worms
are lazy, and the twig has to be APP
piled. The spinner. with careful fore
cast. adjusts hi~body ia the best posi-.
ton for the cocoon ana commences
to throw the floss that forms It's outer
coating.
The material of the silk is gummy
secretion in serictera. two largo
glands along each side of the body,
terminating each IN spinnerct IL the
mouth; each fiber of the thread proves
on microscopic examination TO be
double, one stand coming from each
spnneret What the angler prizes as
''silk-worm gut is this Sericterium
soaked in vinegar. stretched and dried
in the sun. The worm closes himself
in tighter and tighter, the interior
thread being the finer; he fixes his
body in place with his hooked feet,
and throws his head here and there as
he spins.
The thread is sometimes 1900 feet
long without break; good cocoons
should yield 800 yards; il takes ut
least 100 worms to Ia Sc a pound of
silk. Within live or six days the spin
ming is completed, and the moth pres
emily makes preparation to emerge.
by the help OF another secretion
which softens or dissolves the end of
the cocoon. Since in piercing the
cocoon the worm breaks the continuity
of the thread, it is usually killed just
before this stage by exposing tho
cocoons TO the san where the temper
ature is above eighty.elght degrees,
or by baking, stcaming. or otherwise
heating them carefully, SO that the
fiber is not gummed together by the
heat.-Hdyper'S magazine