Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1895-10-19
qnE slLx.woRM.
How Ii WORKS From the Raw Material &c
the Finished Work

raw material chiefly IN the leaf oi
the mulberry tree tni0rns,) which
gives name to the common silk-moth
( B08lbgI mora, the caterpillar oil
which is the silk-worm. The tree is
said by proyerb to be made for the
worm and the worm for the tree, and
it seems to have fiber peculiarly snit.
able for textile use, some Of the Pa
ciiic islanders making clothing by /
macerating the bark of the paper null
berry, without the intervention of the
silk-w 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 il has a score of cousins or more /
distant relations, as the Tussah moth /
(Aatherta f)dpiitG) 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 |
NJ the close OF summer numerous eggs |
about the size OF pin-head, attached
singly to the leaf by kind of gum,
which, when dry. has a silky appear
ance. The moths soon die; the eggs
no tlOl HdlCu unlil lub IcAi SiblmCls
and can meanwhile be sent around the
world. The sale of grain or seed, as
the eggs are also called, is of itself
business, for II 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 pound. In obtaining eggs for
breeding, the grower usually places
the moths on cloths in dark warm
room, where they conlentedly lay
their eggs and die. In tropical conn
tries, is 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 b0soms. The care
ful grower makes ready for the hatch
ing bv providing latticed trays or bun
dies of twigs, about which the food Of
iinely-ehopped mulberry leaves is dis
Z tributel. 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
I fifteenth, twcnty-second, and thirty
( second days he '.moults, becoming
torpid. and exchanging old skins for
new. Like his fellow worm, man, he
I has seven ages the sixth, when he
/ has attained the mature age of thirty
I two days. is the spinning. the last the
! breeding period. At the approach of
the spinning age the worms from a
single ounce of eggs (nearly forty
thousand eggs will have required
over /. 200 pounds of leaves, and will
need abont 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 TO ward of other
diseases. In 1867 Europe was swept
Of much of its silben wealth hy one OF
these parasitic diseases, aud one OF
Pasteur's early triumphs was in dis
covering its nature.
The worm is conservative. and never
attempts to move from his place until
it is time to begin spinning. He then
becomes distenled with the silk juice
and semi-iranspsrent, like ripe vel
low plum, and can presently lie OBJ
served lifting his head and looking
about for a good site for his cocoon.
building, which has been furnished by
the cocoon grower in arches of twig'
or lattice work Some of the worm:
ere lazy, and the twig has TO be APP
. piled. The spinner. with careful fore
east, adjusts his body in the best posi-
ton for the cocoon and commence:
10 throw the floss that forms its outer
coating.
The material of the silk is gummN
secretion in seric,eria, two large
Glands along each side of the body
terminating each in splnneret in tn,
mouth: each fiber of the thread prove
on microscopic examination TO b.
double, one stand coming from cacl
spinneret. What the angler prizes a
.silk-worm gut is this sericteriun
soaked in vinegar. stretched and drie
in the sun. The worm closes himsel
in tighter aud tighter, the interio
, thread being the finer; he fixes hi
/. body in place with his hooked feet
I and throws his head here and there n
! he spins.
G The thread is sometimes l,S00 fee
: long without break; good cocoon
, should yield 500 yards; il takes 4
h least 1000 worms to raise pound q
t silk. Within i've or six days the spin
I ming is completed, and the moth pres
+ emily makes preparation to emerge
Q by the help of another secretion
G which softeDs or dissolves the end q
tho cocoon. Since in piercing til
cocoon the worm breaks the continult
Of the thread. it is usually killed ju'
before this stage by exposing tn
y cocoons TO the sun where the temper
$ aturc is above Lightweight degrees
: or by baking, steaming. or otherwi'
r heating them carefully, so that Il
# fiber is not gnmmed together by Il
h heat. HaTper's Magazine.
! Gripsack Grabs.