The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1896-07-09
AMONG CH!NA'5 Sf-NUOaM5.
A Little Girls StC-y of the Great Oriental
Ipfiust-y

"A AiNbAo WITS Oh Ore9t Ofle1gat
Industry.
SilkwOr,n eggs ire about dis large
and as round rs n pin head. Some
are black and some are white, with
yellowish tin5in them. a little moth
lays these eggs in the spring, and
they will hatch the next spring,
when the mulberry leaves are just
coming cut. When it is time to hatch
them, the Chinese put them on their
bodies to keep. IL an warm, but we
keep ours. in a. cupboard in a warm
place. When the silkworms come
out they are about an eighth of an
inch long and are dark brown and
their heads a shiny black.
We gather tender mulberry leaves
and cut them up fine and give it to
them. They eat all the time, day
and night, and do not rest until they
shed their skin four times. At these
times they do not eat, but are quiet
and hold up their heads. AS they
grow larger their color grows light
or, and then dark rings appear on
their bodies. They have 141egs, four
pairs in the back and three pairs in
the front. When they are small, we
can put a good many into one small
basket. When they are large, we
must put them into several large
baskets. They eat a good deal and
must have fresh leaves all the time.
They have to be fed in the night.
When they are full grown, they
are about 215 inches long, and then
they begin to spin. We know when
they want to spin, because they stop
eating and are clear and shiny, and
thread of silk is coming from their
mouths, and they keep crawling up
all the time.
When we see this, we know they
are trying to find good place to
make their cocoons, and we put them
on bundles of straw. They crawl
around until they find place that
suits them, and then they stand
, upon their hind legs and wave their
| heads very slowly back and forth,
| and fine thread of silk comes from
their mouths t.
! They keep working very busily
until the cocoon is made. Mother
dissectod silkworm and saw the
two silk glands eoiled along each side
f, of the body. These glands lead to
the spinneret that is in the mouth.
| The cocoons are oval.
Some are white, and some are vel.
low, and some arc cream color. In.
side the cocoon there is change in
the worm. 1t becomes q pupa. It
comes out as moth.
If we paste piece of paper over
the top of a cup and put a silkworm
on it, it will spin a mat instead of a
! cocoon.
Some are not willing to spin mat
and crawl off and spin a cocoon. The
Chinese embroider the mats and use
them for the ends of pillows and fol-
powder putfs. Last year we called q
man to wind off the silk from our
cocoons. He put a handful of CO.
coons into boiling water.
This kills the pup@ in an instant.
He stirred them with chopsticks un-
til the threads were loosened from
the cocoons. He then lifted UP q
few threads and put them over a
wheel and wound off all the silk un-
til there was nothing but the pup@
left in the bottom of the water. The
Chinese save all these to eat We
saved few cocoons for moths to
come out and lay some eggs for next
year.
They lay several hundred eggs and
then die without ever eating any
thing. think that silkworms are
busy, patient, wonderful little crea-
lures
The Chinese have many supersti-
tons about them. They do not dare
to call them worms, but say 1.-THE
precious ones, or Miss Caterpil-
lar" They do not allow us to go
into their houses while the silk
worms are at work, because they are
afraid it will lessen their crop of silk.
When they are winding the silk,
they boil eggs in the pan, and they
say that if they eat those eggs they
will not have sore eyes or headache
for a year.-Central China Sunbeam.
Spanish Bric-a-brac Dealers.
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