Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1895-10-26
THE sILK.wORh.
How 1t works-From the Raw Material 10
the Finished Work.

How II Works From the Raw Material 10
the Finished Work.
The insect is in one sense a tiny |
manufacturer himself, finding II = /
.'raw material" chiefly in the leaf of |
the mulberry tree tDl0rus.) which |
gives name 10 the common silk-motb |
lBoDabuJ moro, 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
1T seems to have a fiber peculiarly suit
able for textile use, some OF the Pa
cific islanders making clothing by
macerating the bark of the paper mul
berry, without the Intervention of the
silk-worm. Most of the silk of COM
merce is made by this one moth from
this one food. yet it can feed in whole
or in part, upon other leaves, as those
of the Usage orange in this country.
and it has score of cousins or more
distant relations, as the Tussah moth
(Aatherfa pdphia) 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 tilC tloS6 vi GIGS
about the size OF pin-head, attached
singly to the leaf by kind of gum,
which, when dry. has 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. MS
the eggs are also called, is of itself a
business, for il brings as much as 81
per ounce. tenfold the price years ago.
before an epidemic 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 dark warm
room. where tAev contentedly lay
their eggs and die. In tropical couu-
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 latticed trays or bum
! dies of twIgs, about which the food of
| finely-chopped mulberry leaves is dis.
| tributed. The tiny worm at first eats
| two meals day; ut the end of i've
days he casts his first skin, on The
ninth day his second; again, on the
| fifteenth, twcnty-second. aud thirty
second days he "moults," becoming
torpid. and exchanging old skins for
new. Like his fellow-worm. man, he
/ has ..seven ages" the sixth. when he
has attained the mature age of thirty
two days, is the spinning, the last he
breeding period. At the approach OF
the spinning age the worms from a
single ounce of eggs lnearly forty
thousand eggs) win have required
over LOO pounds Of leaves, and wall
need about 1874 square feet space for
their homes.
Each days Matching is kept together
lest the older eat up the food of tn.
weaker brethren, and every care mus
be taken TO prevent the growth of tn,
minute fungus which makes '.silk
worm rot" and to ward off othei
diseases. In 1857 Europe was sweep
of much of its silken wealth by one o.
these parasitic diseases. and one o
Pasteur's early triumphs was in dis
covering its nature.
| Inc NOTtu II CbUstTfdLift. duu never
attempts to move from his place until
il is time to begin spinning He then
becomes distended with the silk juice
and semi-transpnrent, like ripe vel
low plum. and can presently be OBJ
served lifting his head and looking
about for good site for his cocoon
building. which has been furnished b,
the cocoon grower in arches of twig,
or lattice. work Some of the worm,
are lazy, aud the twig has to be ap
piled. The spinner, with careful fore
cast. adjusts his body in the best posi-
ton for the cocoon and commences
TO throw the floss that forms its outer
coating.
The material of the silk is quinn,
secretion 10 sericteria, two larg,
glands along each side of the body
terminating each IN spinneret in tn,
mouth; each fiber of the thread prove
on microscopic examination to b.
double, one stand coming from eacl
spinneret. What the angler prizes a
''silk-worm gut" is this sericteriuu
soaked IN vinegar, stretched and drie
in the sun. The worm closes himsel
in tighter and tighter, the interio
thread being the finer; he fixes hi
body in place with his hooked feet
aud throws his head here and there a
/ he spins.
, The thread is sometimes 1880 fee
, long without break; good cocoon
should yield 800 yards; il takes a
! least $500 worms to raise pound o
I silk. Within tive 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 o
2 the cocoon. Since in piercing tn
? cocoon the worm breaks the continut
{ of the thread. il is usually killed jus
g before this stage by exposing tn
. cocoons to the sun where the temper
2 aturc is above eighty.elght degrees
: or by baking, steaming. or otherwis
: heating them carefully, so that tn
: fiber is not gummed together by th
heat. Hdrper's Magazine,
Gripsack 6rabs.
1 ~. = All q, 4, )