Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-06
CULTURE OF CHINESE SILK WORM
Eggs to Be Distributed South Of the
Mason and Dixon Line.

The Department. VI Agriculture is pre-
pairing to add stitnn1ue to the culture of
the Chinese silk worm by the free distri-
button of the eggs fof the work anywhere
south of the MasSh paffd Dixon line. DR..
Howard. chief Of the division Of entomol-
ogy, has already begun the distribution and
is shipping through the mail small pack
ages of the seeds to-aH who desire them
Any person desiring to secure these seeds
can do so by communicating with DR.. How
ard The only reqafHezhent of the depart
ment is that each applicant for the eggs
must, have YhatR fneplbsrryi tree on his
premises Secretary Wilson OF the Depart
ment of Agriculture has instructed the
heads Of the two BUREAUS mentioned to scat
ter the eggs broadcast, over the south as
it is his opinion that the, silk worm can be
made to- grow and flourish in that section
and that great industry will grow out of
it's introduction. The department has pre-
pared to furnish mulberry trees to the
people who have none also Prof. Pinchot,
chief Of the division of forestry, has been
instructed to send young plants to all who
apply for them.
Thousands Of these plants have been
brought to this country from France and
Italy. The tree is not indigenous to any
part of the United States, the department
experts state, although good specimens are
occasionally encountered in some parts Of
the country. There are a number of -four
ishing trees in northeastern Missouri that
bear great quantities of fruit every year.
The farmers of that section have not been
cultivating the tree except for the shade
it gives, and as a rule it Is found on their
lawns. The berry Is not considered much
of a delicacy by these farmers and is prob
ably never. used ip-%the kitchen These
trees. however, do not hold any attractions
for the Chinese silk worm. The worm
is a domesticated animal and it's taste for
a particular kind Of mulberry leaf is the
result of thousands of years cultivation.
Experiments have shown that when the
imported Chinese silk worm makes a meal
on leaf from a common American null
berry tree one of two regrettable results
follows: Either the silk worm dies, or the
production Of it's mysterious loom is not
silk. When the so-called silk worm that
is found in this country is fed on the leaves
of the white mulberry tree 1t gets enor-
mously fat in a few hours, spins a cocoon
that is as hard as an eggShell, but that
contains not one thread of silk, then pro-
ceeds to bore hole through the cocoon
and sail out into the world butterfly Of
gaudy colors.
The worm from China would bore it's
way out of his silken cocoon, too, if it had
chance, and would fiutter around just
long enough to find its mate but its color
would be modest drab. The Chinese
worms cocoon is so valuable for it's silk
that few worms of it's kind permitted
to emerge from the chrysalis state. How
they are killed in China and in those parts
of Europe where silk. culture is carried on
successfully known.
Secretary Wilson has devised his own
means of checking the development of the
worm in the chrysalis stage. He puts the
cocoons in an alright box and then pours
a half ounce of bi-sulphide of carbon in
the box The creature that is then half
worm and half butterfly diessand the thou
sands of silken threads of filaments are
then not cut by the butterfy's boring Its
way out through the large end of the CO.