The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-18

This thread is pulled to a pierced frame and drawn through one of the fine holes. Then another thread is drawn from another gland, and the pro- cess is repeated until from twelve to twenty-four have been so inserted in the various openings of the frame. Then they are pulled together and united in thread which is wound on g. wheel in g. manner similar to the process used for the common silk obtained from the worms.
 After the spiders have been robbed of their silk they are taken out of the guillotine carefully and placed on man. go tree, where they recuperate with re- markable quickness. The withdrawal of the silk makes them ferociously hun gry and care must be taken to prevent them from attacking and eating each other. As a safeguard against this, 1t has been found profitable to keep a con- stant supply of flies aud other insects l in the mango plantations, and to supply as many as possible to each spider as soon as 1t is released from the guillo- l tine Their appetites are enormous, l but Madagascar is so rich in insect l life that it is not difficult to feed them. Besides, the nephilae are vegetarlans as we'll as flesh eaters, and they fatten on the mangoes.
 | Usually eight days of rest and feeding are enough to make them ready For repetition of the guillotine experience, | and the average spider of this species IS so strong that it can bear the procedure | repeated in such intervals four or five times Then 1t fails suddenly to recup- crate, and it's hardier brethren do the
 rest by adding the invalid to the sub
 sistence department of the interior I Tananarivo is the headquarters at
 present of the spider silk industry. The
 girls of Madagascar have become or
 ganized as spider hunters and there are
 daily shipments to the capital from all
 over the island. The hunters are kept
 supplied with little basket cages, in
 which the spiders are packed in com
 partments, so that they cannot get at
 one another. As mangoes grow every
 where and most plentfully in Madagas-
 car, it is much easier to feed the spld-
 CTS than it is to feed the silkworms In
 places where the mulberry trees must
 be watched constantly in order to keep
 them in good condition.
 The first attempt at obtaining silk
 from spiders was made in the seven-
 teenth century by the French natural
 ist Reaumur He tried to use the con-
 mon black spider of Europe, but finally
 abandoned the idea, having found that
 for one pound of silk the product ot
 700. 900 spiders was necessary, whereas
 4000 silkworms gave the same amount
 It has been determined since then thai
 while the silkworm. during its prodnc-
 tive life of thirty-twu days, often yields
 one third of it's own weight in silk, ths
 black spider produces enough tc
 amount to its entire weight. The trou-
 bIe, however, is that the silkworn, ! yields its silk within g short period and
 in a form in which it can be obtained readily, whereas the spider spins it's silH : only as 1t needs it. This objection led students finally to drop the plan o1
 utilizing the spider for silk production
 But the Cambones invention has chang , ed the entire aspect of the subject. There are many hundred varieties oi
 web and nest spinning spiders, some oi l which weave fabrics of almost incredi- : ble size and strength The great Soutf , American bird catching spider, for in, stance, WHlle IL JUGS nol sPlh FAiailS . webs, still produces fibre of sucf , toughness that 1t holds birds as large as sparrows.
 ' There is common form of spider 1T ! the United States that spins web more 5 than two feet in diameter. Often this l species throws a. web twice as large
 The common house spider not only spins fairly large web, but is also re
 markably prolific of silk. It has beer f known to spin a. new web day after day f for more than a month, beginning worl as soon as one web was destroyed, ant apparently having an ample supply oi silk left after its great work,--Wash . ington Post.