The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-05-09
SILK WORM JUMPS OUT OF HIS
 SKIN IN VAIN EFFORT TO KEEP
 DOWN PRICES OF HIS PRODUCT

the month that he is allowed to live as worm, with his 29,000 brothers and sisters, an average hatch, he man ages to consume about one ton of full grown mulberry leaves. In fact ne eats so much that every few days, usu- ally four times during the month hs- sheds his skin, appearing in a brant. new, bigger and more stretchable- -onc each time.
 Becomes a Moth.
 When his VoraciouS appetite has at last been appeased, he bethinks himself of sleep and begins to climb about slowly on any convenient twigs, look ing for a suitable place to which to at tach himself This found, he esta4b- fishes himself in a. comfortable posi- tion and then from two tiny holes in his head begins to spin a, glutinous substance from which silk is derived, The slender f1Iaments stick together side by side, forming a flat thread which the worm, by moving his head. forms about his body like a ball of thread wrapped from the outside in ward until he is completely imbedded> in the covering
 If left to himself, the insect would in two or three weeks begin to bore his way out, appearing as a feeble little ashy white moth. As the emerging process cuts the si1ken threads, only enough cocoons are left untouched as will produce suffcient eggs for the next seasons crop of worms The others are placed in heated ovens un- til there is no longer life and then the cOcoons are thrown into hot water to soften the >Hatural gum of the silk La ter the silk flaments are passed through several glass eyes, crossed and formed into single thread. One CO., coon will produce generally 500, but seldom more than 1000 yards of this silk.
 0f +10ea e-I1Tx
 are 5O0,0OO yards to one pound Of course silk, as it is worn. is weighted. Dyers defend this plan of weighting it on the ground that it is
 merely method of giving a. hruaer finish to the material but there is al, ways strong element of deception in the whole proceedings. Then too, the durability of the material is much i'm paired. Lyons silk dyers weight their silk about 400 pounds to 100 pounds that is 100 pounds of raw silk weighs 500 pounds after they have dyed it. No Hope Until After War.
 Apparently there is little hope for the situation until long after Mars has gathered up his hosts and disappeared from the fields Of Europe for it will be | many months before things, readjust l themselves so that the dwellers in the
 war devastated hamlets of France and
 the battle bereft towns of Italy take up dSd1n Ine tranquil WOFk or SILK worm raising.
 In the meantime the average Amer ican woman, she who has not a quan-
 tity of money, but who in the past has been accustomed to simple Iuxu- ries, must forego~ the wearing of silk No longer can she enjoy the sweet con tentment of wearing a silk shirt, no longer will the silk gown be. her DOT tion. No longer, will the bold morn ing breeze seek to disclose the silk clad ankle of the factory girl going her way
 to work. Cotton, or at best lisle, must do it's best to cling at ease where once its favored rival was so proudly worn. r A word to the wise: eff you have any silk hose, cherish them as for silk underwear, count it among your c1foi-e cest possessions, while if you own a. silk dress, away with it, immediately to lock and key, there to remain for
 only great occasions for the price of silk is going up.