The herald., 1896-06-07
Each moth lays from 400 to 700 eggs.

Each moth lays from 400 to 700 eggs.
| but 1t takes over 100000 to make q
pound. In obtaining eggs for breeding.
the grower usually places the moths in
| cloths in dark. warm room, where they
| contentedly lay their eggs and die In
| tropical countries, as Southern China
and India, the eggs hatch by natural
heat; in others, artificial warmth is nee
essary; and in old times hot beds were
used or the eggs were carried about by
women in little bags in their bosoms
The careful grower makes ready for
the Matching by providing latticed trays
or bundles of twigs, about which the
food, of finely chopped mulberry leaves,
Is distributed. 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.
twenty-second and thirty-second days
he "moults," becoming torpid and ex-
changing old skins for new.
Like his fellowworm man, he has
seven ages; the sixth, when he has
attained the mature age of thirtytwo
days, is the spinning, the last the breed
ing period. AT the approach of the spin
ming age the worms from a single ounce
of eggs (nearly 10000 eggs) will have re-
quired over 1900 pounds of leaves, and
will need about 1874 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 'silkworm rot" and to ward off
other diseases. In 1857 Europe was swept
of much Of it's sillsen wealth by one of
these parasitic diseases, and one of
Pasteur'S early triumphs was in discoy-
ering its nature.
SOME ARE LAZY.
The worm is conservative and never
attempts to move from his place until
1t is time to begin spinning; he then
becomes distended with the silk iuice
and semi transparent, like a ripe Vel
low plum, and can presently be obsery-
ed lifting his head and looking about for
good site for his cocoon building, which
has been furnished by the cocoon grow
er IN arches of twigs or lattice work.
Some of the worms are lazy and the
twig has to be applied. The spinner
with careful forecast, adjusts his BODY
IN the best position for the cocoon and
commences to throw the floss that forms
its outer coating. The material of the
SILK is a gummy secretion in the seric-
terra, two large glands along each side
of the body. terminating each in a spin.
neret IN the mouth. Each fibre of the
thread proves on microscopic examina-
ton to be double, one strand coming
from each spinneret
The worm closes himself in tighter and
tighter, the interior thread being the
finer. He fixes his body in place wifi
MS hooked feet and throws his head
here and there as he spins. The thread
Is sometimes 1900 feet long without a
break. Good cocoons should WELD 200
yards; 1t takes at least 25OO worms to
raise pound of silk. Within five or six
days the spinning is completed. and the
moth presently makes preparation to
emerge, by the help of another secre-
tion, which softens or dissolves the end
OF the cocoon. Since in piercing the CO.
coon the worm breaks the continuity of
the thread, 1t is usually killed lust be-
fore this stage by exposing the cocoons
to the sun where the Temperatures is
above S8 degrees or by baking. steamine
or otherwise heating them carefully so
that the fiber is not gummed together by
the heat.
The good cocoons" are fuzzy. oval
balls about the size of pigeons eggs.
white, yellow-white or greenish (these
last from Japanese eggs), containing a
long continuous thread of silk fiber and
the body Of the dried chrysalis. The
fuzz or "foss' Is rough. imn,1re sill
which is taken off as waste.
A CHANCE FOR WOMEN
AT this stage the work of the silk worm
passes into the hands of the artisan. no |
enumerate the many processes and ma. |
chimes 1t passes through before II reach
es the counter of the retail dry goods |
store would require several columns Of |
space. Besides,the silk worm II the most |