LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. SMfJ^M UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. \ / Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/breedingrearingoOOcroz BREEDING AND REARING OF THE SILK WORM. A FEW HINTS FARMERS OF THE SOUTH. \> v BY L. S. CROZIER. C O P Y RIGHT SECURED L. S. CKOZIER. NEW OELEANS: PRINTED AT THE DEMOCRAT OFFICE. 1880. S" £ C°i$ BREEDING, BEARING AND CULTURE OF SILK WORMS. PREAMBLE : Is there any need for me to demonstrate the immense advantage of the silk worm? These are too generally known, and the limit of this small treatise too narrow for me to explicate at length on that part of the sub- ject. I will content myself with having you to observe that this culture- brings into existence numberless first-class industries, and imparting life and motion to all those great or small, already established in the country, and to the agriculture as well, by drawing and settling in the country a considerable population of workmen and traders who con- sume the products of the farmer, and constitute at his very door a per- manent market, by reviving and increasing the commercial movement in all its various branches, by bringing in the cash capital and increas- ing four -fold the value of land. There is not one person in the country who can remain unconcerned in the progress of silk culture ; not one but has a strong interest in it. The rich will find there a profiable use for his funds ; the workman a steady employment ; the mining industry a powerful help on account of the large amount of fuel used in the factory and spinning mills, and the farmer a sure resource. One of the peculiarities of this industry is its aptitude to be divided and sub-divided indefinitely. Silk is like a precious manna, which every one may gather according to his strength and ability to work. There is even something more than this, for the poor can reach to it as easy and more surely than the rich, for experience has proven, long ago' and everywhere, that breeding on a small scale is almost always a sure success, and at all events runs much less risk than breeding on a large scale, which is the more exposed to disease as the worms are more in number. Another advantage of a limited breeding is, that it requires scarcely any expense. Every year, a few weeks in the smallest cottage with an acre or two of young mulberry trees, one will make first $50 then $100 or $400 worth of cocoons,' without neglecting the other culture, bring into usefulness the girls, children and the old dur- ing the first stage, and men only for eight or ten days, when the work needs hurrying. Then money will come, truly a discovered treasure for the poor family, coming in so fast it will seem as if it had been dropped directly from above. And why should we not see done here what we see done in France '? There even the highly educated ladies participate in this interesting business, as they would in a plaything making, at the same time realizing a nice little profit of $90 to $100 or more. To sum it up : Breeding on a small scale is so easy that in silk grow- ing countries you see it multiply indefinitely and become the true source of wealth, for they make at least three-fourths of the general production of silk. For more extensive breeding, which needs costly buildings and other Rearing and Breeding expenses, though it requires more care, more practical instruction, and is more exposed to failure than limited breeding ; it is likely to suc- ceed better here than in any other place in the world owing to the remarkable qualities of the climate. Further, it is useful and indis- pensable to impart impulse to industry and to spread it in a new country. It is not expected from a poor farmer to go into planting mulberry trees and raising silk worms in a country where he supposes there is nobody to buy his cocoons, because he does not know that he who has cocoons, secures the whole Avorld for his market ; that should his country refuse to buy them, Italy, France, Spain and even England will always send hun gold for his goods. This the rich man knows, and he is to set an example and take the lead. When the most intelligent, the most de- voted to public progress and their own personal benefit have seen and handled the results and proved how easy and surprising the success is which await them in that direction, it will then happen with the cul- ture of the silk worm in America, as it happened in France with the culture of the potato, tame grasses, etc., once so difficult to introduce, and which afterward spread so rapidly, becoming a great resource for the whole world. I say it will be the same story again with the silk worm in Louisiana, Mississippi, etc. The experiments made at Silkville with the breeding of silk worms, have already proven how particularly adapted to that culture your cli- mate and soil are. By erecting his factory for milling and reeling, M. de Bossiere, will go one step farther, and set up in your midst a ready market, even in advance of the production, so that the most obstinate cannot preserve the slightest objection to oppose. As for me, I shall feel happy and proud to tiring ail the intelligence and strength I may have to help this important enterprise and make it a final success. This I shall do with entire confidence, for with a leader so enlightened, so alive to the interests of all, and at the same time so resolute, with the abundant means at his disposal, and above all that, with a nation so full of intelligence and instruction, so anxious of improvements as the one we live with, the success is assured. I mean success in establishing and spreading the culture of both, mulberry and silk worms ; as for the success of the crop, three years' experiments have thrice proved how easy it is. THE MULBERRY TREE. It being proved by facts that the naturalization of the silk industry in this country is not only possible, but even easy and economic, more so than in any other region of the world. Persons desirous of engaging in the silkworm business must, first of all, plant mulberry trees. A regular cocoonery need not be erected till the trees have grown up larger, the small temporary accommodations that may have been used are no longer spacious enough to hold silk worms. In the Mississippi valley buildings are plenty. The mulberry tree belongs to the Urticn family ; its flowers are monoic and dioir, disposed in close spike, oval or elongated, of which the females grow into compact juicy berries, containing the seed. Many (authors) writers say it originated in China, still it grows spontaneously in Persia, India and many other places in Asia, as well as in North America. There are two kinds or varieties quite distinct; the black mulberry tree and the while mulberry tree. The black one to the family of which the American belongs, vieds a great variety of excellent fruit. The leaves, strictly speaking, might be fed to the silk worms, still they are coarse and tough, and the worms do not eat them readily Those fed on them exclusively yield an inferior quality of silk. The white mulberry tree will grow fifty or sixty feet high with a trunk four to eight feet in cir- cumference. The leaves, which produce the most beautiful silk, are alternate glossy on the upper side, smooth on both sides, oval, tough, with a little heart-shaped cut at the base, denticulate on the edge, often too, diversely divided in lobes when the tree grows wild, and whole on the grafted varieties. Sometimes on the same tree, no matter of what vari- of the Silk Worm. ety it is, leaves are found of different shapes. In color, the berries pre- sent numberless shades, from pure white to most perfect black. Fowls and pigs grow fat on them. Sweeter than raspberries, they taste agree- ably when mixed with them. The second leaves, gathered and dried in the fall, form a first class f|dder for all herbivorous animals ; green they are eaten still more readily. The wood of the white mulberry tree has a fine compact grain, nice citron-yellow colored, and apt to take a beautiful polish. These qual- ities make it fit for several different uses ; cabinet-makers, cartwrights and coopers work it to advantage. It has, too, a well deserved reputa- tion for fence posts and vine stakes, lasting very long in the ground. For kegs and barrels it is as good as the best oak. The bark of the young limbs yield a kind of tow, smooth and pretty near as fine as silk. Olivier de Serre, the father of French agriculture, had some tablecloths worked out of it, worthy to be presented to Henry IV., his king and friend. Out of the same bark the Chinese and Japanese make the most strong and beautiful paper. As an ornamental tree the mul- berry cannot be beat. Its natural tall bearing fits it nicely to border roads and public grounds, while with suitable pruning it will submit to any shape wanted, bower, hedge, etc., and more than all that, its growth is rapid ; it stands the drouth so well that no other tree can be compared to it in that respect. For these many reasons the mulberry tree ought to supersede as ornament and shade tree quite a number of other kinds which are badly wanting in usefulness Gay, healthy foliage, so reposing to the eye, succulent berries, a delight of your children and birdies, without recalling to y<5u its immense practical utility for the silk culture. Do not these points entitle it to a place of honor around your cottage ? Plant mulberry trees then, men of the South, give it its due of care, and —my word for it— you will be paid for your trouble a hundred fold. See next chapter how to do it. THE MULBERRY TREE PLANTATION AND CUL- TURE. The mulberry tree is propagated from seed, cuttings and layers. From seed the trees are hardier and live longer, but they are born wild. and bring forth so many different varieties that out of a hundred there are not twenty alike. Very good stock has been sometimes obtained from seedlings, but, as a rule, they need to be grafted. We want two good points in a mulberry tree for our purpose, viz : good quality of the leaves and facility in gathering them. This implies large, soft, tender leaVes, growing on long, smooth shoots without side twigs. This is very important, for on a good tree a man acquainted with that work could pick 100 pounds of leaves in one hour's time, while, on the other hand, some trees present such small tough leaves, and so very hard to pick, that it is better to let them alone and save time, except if it hap- pens to be on the very first stage of growth, both of the worms and leaves ; these last are then tender enough to be fed to the tender worms. Young, tender leaves are milk for them, leaves of wild mulberry trees are desirable too, for the first meal after every moulting period, which is a critical time for the worms, who, somewhat indisposed yet, need food fine and light, for which they show a marked preference. Since, then, that seedlings are not to be'relied upon in that respect, it is nec- essary to set the largest number possible of grafted or selected trees in view of economy and facility in breeding. The mulberry tree may be grafted or budded ; the graft is either cleft or flute, the first one being seldom adopted. The flute graft is easiest and succeeds best. It is practicable from April to August. A smart man can set from 250 to 300 grafts a day. Whereas the white mulberry tree succeeds admirably from cuttings, the silk growers of America will do well to adopt that way of propaga- tion to procure their stock, provided they take the cuttings from good 6 Rearing and Breeding trees, possessing all the qualities described in this chapter ; in that case there is no use for grafting. The ground being prepared by deep plowing and harrowing, take your cuttings, make ready beforehand (we make them six or eight inches in length,) and set them three or four inches apart, in rows three or four feet distant. Two precautions are to be remembered. First. to press the ground firmly around the lower end of the cutting, and tr shelves in rows, one above the other, and shutting hermetically. When the boxes are full of cocoons, steam is turned in during ten minutes ; the wardrobe being well shut up, let the steam do its deadly work for ten minutes more, then dry them in the sum. 4 Here the cocoons need only to be fully exposed to the rays of the sun, from nine o'clock in the morning' till four o'clock in the afternoon. Two or three days of such exposure is sufficient. But, as some time, strong wind can anihilate the effect of the sun warmth, it is good to have for that purpose long boxes, four feet wide, sides six inches high, to be covered with glass frames. This will increase the heat, and by absorbing the air of the box, stifle your chrysalis most surely. BUTTERFLIES. Cocoons selected for seed are usually preserved in chaplet or chain. Great care must be exercised to take with the needle the least possible of the stuff, so as not to hurt the chrysalis nor to spoil the moth. These chains or chaplets are hung in a well ventilated passage or room, protected from mice. As early as the twelfth or fifteenth day the butterflies commence to show themselves. You can readily single out the males ; they are smaller, more slender, with incessant fluttering of the wings ; from the more quiet females, with their large belly full of eggs. They will pair themselves together naturally ; still they" hap- pen sometimes to be too far from each other to meet readily. You then bring them together, and as soon as they are joined, take both of them by the wings and set them on a piece of pasteboard or paper, disposed in a room or corner made as dark as possible, to prevent the males from uncoupling themselves. They begin to emerge out of the cocoon from four to eight o'clock in the morning. Supposing, as is generally the case, that by half -past eight they are all paired, six hours later, that is about two o'clock p. m.. you separate them. Meanwhile visit them two or three times, and if some have uncoupled themselves before com- plete impregnation, unite them agarm Should you have males to spare, put them in a closed box and preserve them for the next day, for it might happen that some other day females would outnumber the males. If, on the contrary, on the first day you have fewer males than females, instead of separating them at two o'clock in the afternoon, take as many males as you want, by uncoupling some pairs at ten or eleven o'clock. Take the best looking, they are always the strongest. 20 Rearing and Breeding As you go to uncoupling, put the females on a cloth or paper hung oh the wall or on a rod, to insure cleanliness in the seed, for if you should spread them on a table they would soil each other and stain their eggs, too, with their droppings. Preserve the males in a box by themselves, avoiding to mix them with those not yet used, which are preferable ; but sometimes both are wanted, particularly the last day. As the females, whether paired or not, never fail to lay their eggs at two o'clock p. m., one needs always to have males to spare in store. As soon as she is uncoupled, she commences laying small eggs, yellow the first day, and which gradually acquire their natural color in three days. The moths live for about twelve days from the breaking out of the cocoons. If the seed has not been impregnated, it remains ever yellow and after a while dries up, while that which has acquired the lilac color stays round, slightly flattened, but always full till the next spring. It is left to dry where it was laid, for some days, when it is removed to a place cool and dry, as already explained in the forepart of this book. Never forget that rats are very fond of silk worm chrysalises, moths and eggs. They will cut through the cocoon to get the worm. In short, they feast on that insect and relish it, no matter in what dish or shape ; keep them off carefully. If stained, ill-shaped, feeble moths are found, feed them to the chickens. It is better to have less seed than to have some of inferior quality mixed with the good. Especially never procure seed from a region where silk worms are affected with certain particular diseases, and such districts are many, but apply to capable and, above all, to honest persons. I will now speak about silk worm diseases, though I think it may be Eerfectly useless, owing to the excellency of this climate. Still it would e possible for you to kill your silk worms by feeding them wet leaves, or gathered too early in*the morning with the dew on. Let them fast a whole day, rather than to impose them to such risk. Always have at least two meals gathered in advance, and near the close of the breeding one day's food for the next in extensive large breeding. In small breeding it is practicable to cut whole branches, and put them in-doors to dry, after shaking off the rainwater, or, to make the best of a propitious hour, to gather in a few moments the needed provision. If there is any dew, never pick your leaves before the sun has dried them. DISEASES OF THE SILK. WORMS. It is useless to go back in the history of the silk worms, previous to 1869, if we will not be exposed to renew some old error about the dis- eases of the silk worms. The progress of the microscope has since clearly demonstrated that the characteristics of all the diseases of this precious insect are the rapid growth and multiplication, of myriads of inferior organized beings, in vital concurrence with the Bombyx, which kill it very often after a short resistance. Sometimes, all the larva" die before they have built their cocoons, after all expenses have been made, then it is a complete failure. These diseases are : First— The flatness, or flat died worms ; a most terrible sickness which kills the stoutest larva? almost instantly, just in the very moment when it is ready to spin. Its characteristics are a kind of cellular chain or chaplets discovered in the digestive tube of the larva? of the chrysalises and of the moths, by Mr. Pasteur, a celebrated French Academician. These cellular ferments have been scientifically named Bombycis mi- orosimas. This' disease, accidental and hereditary, but not contagious, can't be seen in the eggs. It can be avoided by the careful examina- tion of the moths, provided that each one of them has laid its eggs upon a small sheet of linen, where it has been pinned up, for ulterior examination. This way of isolating the moth is called Pasteur's or cellular system. Second— The pebrine, from the provincial word pebre, pepper ; so palled because the larva?, in the last period of the sickness have of tfie Silk Worm. 6 21 their white skin covered with small, black, pepperlike spots. It is characterized by the vibrating Cornalia's corpuscles, so called from the learned Italian 'Cornalia, who first discovered them under his powerful magnifying glass. These oscillating or vibrating corpuscles, bright sil- ver colored, of an oval shape, are found in the eggs, in the bodies of the worms as well as in those of the chrysalises and of the moths. It is peculiarly sometimes, say three or four months after the moths have laid their eggs and died, 'that the job of examining is the easier, be- cause the corpuscles have grown and become adults in the dead bodies ; they multiply considerably too, and then it is very difficult to make any mistake in the selection of the pure or of the diseased cells ; neverthe- less, the operation must be made carefully, for this disease is heredi- tary and contagious to the last degree. Third— The Muscardine, characterized by a microscopic mushroom, discovered by Dr. Bassano, botritis bassania, which attacks peculiarly the breathing apparatus of the worms. This plague is accidental, not hereditary, but it is sporadical, and its rapid propagation is to be feared. The worm first dies suddenly, white and flat, then a few min- utes after it turns rigid and snow white or pink, seemingly covered up with mill flour, or pink dust ; such are the characteristics of this re- doubtable plague ; I never heard of in the United States, but common enough in northern quite rainy latitudes. All these diseases and a few others of a less dangerous character are the result of domestication, of a wrong way of breeding, of the ier- mentation of the litters, and of the infection of the air. The asphixia, or suffocation of the larvae, is brought about too often by shutting the doors and windows after lighting fires, in order to get a certain degree of temperature. i The diseases of all kinds are surely created by a bad hygienic condi- tion, bad kind of food, such as many varieties of mulberry trees, fermented leaves of the best kinds, in so many words, all of which produce in mankind rheumatism, purulent infection, typhus, and yellow fever. Let us see, now, what is to be done to fight or prevent these disas- trous epizootics and what means have been employed to this day. For the muscardine, we have only aeration and cleanliness. Disinfect the room, if you have been forgetful of this important rule ; that is all. A s for the pebrine and flatness, all means have been employed. The dis- eased breeds have been crossed with sound or wild breeds — Chinese, Japanese, etc. — by importing at a great cost, every year, eggs from silk countries thought free from disease. Later, Cornalia examined the eggs, and declared them worthless, when they were found to have more than four per centum of corpuscles. Pasteur mashes the dead bodies of the butterflies, submits that dirt under his microscope, and keeps only the eggs of the ones pure of vibrating corpuscles and of cellular chaplets and chains. These cases have given the most brilliant results. Cornalia found the means to discern and surely state the disease. Pasteur, helped by his discoveries, has found the means to procure good, sound seed. Both have equal rights to the eternal gratitude of all the silk-growers ; both have immortalized their names, though neither of them found the means to regenerate the silk- worm breed definitively, completely and absolutely. And to reach this end it is only necessary to restore them to their natural primitive state, or, at the least, breed them after nature as near as possible. I will not mention here the experiments made atBoissere's by myself and by Mr. Clair, though we have seen our fine French — but quite peb- rined — breeds completely restored to health upon the mulberry tree. There they have enjoyed the dew, the rain, the sun, and once a light snow ; and not only none of them were sick, but they have engendered a stout breed, which did very well in France and in Italy last spring, while European and Japanese breeds were dying at the rate of seventy ££ Rearing and Breeding to ninety per hundred. The fait of Dr. Baley, from Jackson, Miss., who succeeded so well with the same breeds regenerated at Silkville, and bred by himself in his gallery, in full open air, is not to be men- tioned either as a conclusive experiment; but both these cases, with many others, may be quoted in order to enforce the experiments of eminent observators and sericicole authorities, who, long before us all, solved this important problem. In 1859, at Milan, Italy, Mareschal Vaillant attempted, with great success, a small breeding in full open air. The same was repeated on a larger scale by learned Taverna, of the same city, in 1860, with same encouragement. The eminent sericulturists and learned men, Martins, from Montpelier, Prollin, Andre, from Anduze, and many other natu- ralists in France, have deposited the young worms, or even the eggs, upon lots of mulberry trees previously covered with nets, in order to protect the larva? against the birds, etc., and succeeded, with sound and diseased breeds, to perfection. But, in spite of their universal success, these means are impracticable— the ants, rats, mice, spiders, etc. , or the hail, being a constant and unavoidable danger to the crop. But if the breeding upon the tree is not feasible, Mr. Gintson, from Bordeaux, has proven by breeding lots of not less than 240,000 to 400,- 000 silk worms in full open air, that this way is the best, as it is the cheapest and the surest. In 1869 he began with 240,000, or four ounces of eggs, belonging to three different provinces, one of which was quite infested with pebrine and flatness. The young worms were kept the first ten days at Bor- deaux in a room whose doors and windows were constantly kept open ; then for eight days in a greenhouse largely ventilated. ' In spite of these good conditions, the disease beginning to appear, and many worms dying every day, they were brought upon two rows of shelves, supported by posts fixed in the middle of a large meadow — the shelves made out of willow canes or lattices, between which the air circulated easily, drying the litter so rapidly that cleaning was judged an unnec- essary operation . A shelter of rough boards protecetd the worms against the hail, but not against the rain. The side walls were made of rough linen or nets, just good enough to keep the birds away ; the posts sur- rounded with a piece of tin to prevent rats and mice from climbing up the shelves. The temperature went as low as sixty Farenheit twenty- four times, and as low as fifty Farenheit four times. In these conditions not another worm died— 400 pounds of cocoons out of four ounces of eggs. Such was the result. The experiment has seen its fourth repetition on a larger scale with the same success. Whether the eggs were diseased or sound, there was no difference in the splendid product. In China, in many provinces of Japan, in Syria, in Asia Minor and other Eastern countries, I have visited for six years for the purpose of selecting the best breeds and the soundest for the Sericultural Society, of Lai'gentiere, my native country. I have seen the worms bred in the galleries or in full open air, protected only by rough nets or carpets hanging round the shelves for the time, and returned to their destina- tion "after the silk season was over. It is true to say that in northern regions the breeding in such condi- tions would be very long and tiresome, but in southern latitudes noth- ing cheaper nor easier, as the cane sheds, the gins and house galleries Avill be there the best spots to raise the silk worms, after the second transformation or molt has been performed in a smaller room. I hope this demonstration will show the northern breeder, obliged to light Are in the cocoonery, the necessity of combining heat with ven- tilation, and the southern Avill understand that the rules made for Kan- sas or Iowa, Valakia or France, are useless and hurtful for Louisiana and Alabama, or Syria and Portugal breeders. Since the only mean's to restore to health the diseased worms is to raise them in nature's fashion, approach, imitate nature, save trouble, save money, and go on in security. of Silk the Worm. 23 COCOONERY OR MAG-NANERY. Whether the breeding is small or large, it is necessary to be able to give heat or ventilation at will. "With small breedings these conditions can be easily obtained, for often the silk worms there raised will fail much to fill up the premises, whether room, kitchen or stable, which they are to be accommodated with. Then the bulk of air beiug pro- portionally very considerable for the small quantity of worms, the air could not be vitiated ; still, if the apartment is hermetically close, it should be renewed once in a while. To do it one needs to have each window fitted outside with a frame covered with light cloth. At about 9 o'clock in the morning, when the warmth makes itself felt, open the windows; the air infiltrates slowly but continually through the cloth, and cools the apartment without blowing too directly upon the worms, while a sudden change of the temperature might prove hurtful to them. When it is getting dark let down the window sashes again, and start a fire in the stove before going to bed and after feeding the last meal. Never start a fire without at the same time feeding leaves, too. If you have no thermometer, remember that where you feel comfortable, clothed in light breeches and shirt sleeves, the worms, too, feel com- fortable. When a larger quantity of worms is to be raised, the construction of a special building becomes a necessity, and as it will be used for that particular purpose only for a month, every one will be at liberty to use it the balance of the year for something else, such as stable, hay loft, store-room, etc., which lessens the expenses to be charged on that crop. Still, while disposing your cocoouery, with an eye to the corn, wheat, cows or horses, you must keep in view its first destination. Therefore, if you can afford it, you will have a cellar underneath, to keep your leaves fresh. In the floor, between the cellar and the co- coonery, valves should be disposed at distances along the passages, so as to be opened or shut up at will, to admit cool air in sultry, warm weather. I have not seen such case here yet, and I do not know if it can hap- pen in this country, where the wind blows constantly. I only foresee the occurrence for such as might meet with it, whether here or else- where. By the way, it is not expensive. ]f the ceiling is made of nailed and grooved boards, let there also be an equal number of valves, corresponding to those in the floor below. Loose boards for the ceiling- would do better, or at least have one loose board above each passage that could be opened or shut at will. There will be one or two chim- neys for one or more stoves, according to the size of the building or room. Have the windows on the east and west sides, and the door on the south, all fitted with sashes of light cloth, a means of ventilation which I believe to be quite sufficient for our climate. I have not used any other here, and succeeded well. Still, it must be borne in mind that I do not speak for Louisiana only, and the years may not be all alike. Beware, then, of neglecting such easy means. Build up your cocoonery with bricks, stone or boards, with one or two stories, as you please, or as you can ; if the ventilation is good, all will go Avell. DISPOSITION OF THE TABLES IN THE COCOONERY. The tables or trays, which are to receive the silk worms, are made in various ways ; sometimes with wide, rough boards, but fitting well to- gether, leavinsr no cracks through which worms might fall; sometimes they have hurdles made of willows or cleats, covered with paper. These tables are supported by four posts, connected by cross pieces, on which the table rests. Their maximum width must not exceed six feet, so that a person can reach with the hand to the middle of the table in feeding or removing the litter. There needs then be a passage left between each row of tables; if there are two row r s the passage in the middle must be a little wider than the other two. Three feet are enough, and even less would do when circumstances require it. Verti- 84 Rearing and Breeding cally the space between one table and the next above must be one foot, or a little more, if you have room to spare, so that in the last days a room seven feet high can contain six tables placed over each other. If there are too many worms, part of them may be put on the lower floor and part on the upper, which will make eight tables for seven feet height of the room. If each table is six feet wide by nine feet long, that is,Jftfty-four square feet, you have with eight tables 432 square feet, which may hold from 180 to 200 pounds of cocoons, or about 50,000 silk worms, who will eat 3600 or 4000 pounds of leaves. PrOm the number of mulberry trees, two, three, four. or ten years old, one can see at once how many times he can have 4000 pounds of leaves, and therefrom how many rows of eight tables, or much belter often tables, he will need in his cocoonery. Ladders are generally used to tend to the upper tables ; stands or shelves are handier, by far. At man's height crosspieces, sufficiently strong, are set across the passages, resting on the vertical posts on both sides for the middle passages, and on the posts and wall for the side passages. Then a strong, thick board is laid on the crosspieces along the tables, 'to stand upon. In this way the work is more rapidly and easily done -of course this is only in rooms higher than seven feet. VARIOUS DETAILS OF ATTENDANCE. Removing the litter is done in this way : Whole leaves are thrown to the worms; then both leaves and worms 'are taken by handfuls and set aside, while an empty spot is made and swept clean immediately so that the worms do not remain piled up too long, and so forth, for which operation small, short brooms are used, made of weeds, briars, or no matter what. In the Ardeche they make use of tame or wild thyme, which perfumes the floors and embalms the apartment. Our farmers fancy that the worms like the perfume, btit it would be difficult to prove that they are right, for if the worms are more quick, active and in bet- ter appetite, it may be due perhaps to their liking for cleanliness, with- out caring for the perfume. They succeeded with or without it. In large breedings nets are used, which are spread on the worms, taking care in lifting them up to pull evenly by the four corners, in or- der that the middle does not hollow T itself into a bag. As soon as two or three meals have been fed, the first net is lifted up and removed with the worms on ; the litter is cleaned. This makes room for another net, and the job is soon done in this way, for it is the most expeditious way to do that work ; for the first ages, once at each moulting, and for the last ones, at least twice. Some make use of perforated paper instead of nets. It is well understood that two sets of nets are needed, for the first spread remains where it is till the second operation takes place, and is then removed with the litter to make room for a new net with worms and leaves, and so forth. Whatsoever way is used to clean the litter at the last ages, let doors and windows be wide open, except in case of particularly cold weather, and that day, as always, remove all dirt as you proceed cleaning the trays, and then sweep clean. To pick the leaf and to distribute it in the easiest way, bags must be fixed to the waist by strings or leather straps, having the bag just long enough so as not to drag on the ground and interfere with the worker's movements. Women use smaller ones, easily filled up and emptied. Any other utensil is heavy and cumbersome. If the worms are fed very often, say five or six times a day, each meal needs to be very light, spreading one leaf in thickness on the woims; but if, on the other hand, they are fed but three times a day, more leaf is thrown at a time. But in all cases it must be spread with the utmost regularity, lest the worms should eat more in one place than in the other, otherwise it would be altogether impossible to keep them even. As I said before, the worm that eats six meals in one day is as much forward as the one that takes three days to eat the same number of meals. Therefore, if in the distribution of the leaf some places get. of the Silk Worm. 25 double the quantity that others have, the worms of the first will have two meals, while their neighbors get but one. They will undergo their moulting while the others keep eating, and at the cleaning you are pretty sure to throw away either the first or the last ones. Yet, if such a thing should happen, there is a simple way to remedy it. Here it is : When you see many of your worms asleep— that is, which stop eat- ing and allow themselves to be covered with leaves, while others con- tinue eating greedily, throw them large leaves, and as soon as those who eat have crept out, take them up with the leaves and remove them to another place ; then wait till the others are done moulting before you feed again. In this way out of one party you make two, one of which is ahead of the other, but in each of which all the worms are respec- tively even. Such operation is rapidly done with nets. It is necessary to have a cellar or any other cool place to keep a pro- vision of leaves, particularly in rainy climates where one often has. to pick leaves for a day or two in advance. In our Southern climate I be- lieve that two meals picked beforehand will be enough, so that one needs' not gather them too earlv in the morning with the dew on, or in case of a sudden storm which might overtake you when you are without leaves picked up, and compelled to let your poor worms' fast. The good keeping of the leaf is most essential, and it is very easy too. In putting it in the cellar, or elsewhere, care must be taken to shake and stir it thoroughly; so as to admit air, notwithstanding the thickness of the heap. When it has settled some, it must be stirred again, if it com- mences heating, but above all that, such leaf must never be fed before it has been shaken, once or twice, and before you are satisfied that none of it has been spoiled by fermentation, or is fermenting yet. Do not forget that, for such an oversight you might have to pay dearly by kill- ing a good many silk worms, when the expense is already made, or nearly so, for the leaf is put in large heaps only near the end of the breeding, when plenty of it is wanted every day. Rain or pure water on the leaf never injures the silk worm, but the dew or dampness resulting from the fermentation will kill them surely. In its natural state the silk worm— bombyx mori -remains benumbed during the night and the whole morning, till the heat of the sun or air quickens it from its tor- por ; it then never eats any dew. The hurt resulting from wet leaf by rain does consist sometimes in suddenly cooling an animal used to a warm atmosphere, which brings death. ' It does, too, always maintain too much dampness in the trays and in the room, and causes the fer- mentation of the litter. If, out of necessity, you are obliged to feed wet leaves, set up a bright fire— blazing fires are' best -to dry up and renew the air. EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF THE SILK WORM. We have already seen through what series of transformations or changes of skin the silk worm, like any other caterpillar, encloses itself in the most admirable tissue, and becomes a chrysalis and then a but- terfly. Let us examine with a magnifying glass the insect's head, its mand- ibles, its thread-spinning apparatus, legs, skin, and all its organs inter- nal and external. A marked swelling, covered with wrinkles, at the fore part of the body looks like the worm's head, but has only the appearance of it, and contains a greasy liquid. The hard part, which forms the snout, is the true head ; it is composed of indented mandibles, set side by side, hard, strong, movable, very fit to take hold of the leaf every way, making the first cut on the sides as well as in the middle, from their very birth ; the other part of the head is the (filiere) threader, a kind of membraneous apparatus, set with muscles, which presses as they pass, and strongly joins together by means of a gummy substance, two silk threads so adherent that they can be severed only by means of powerful chemical agents. These two silk threads are slipped out of 4 ®6 Hearing and Bn^dku/ two inner reservoirs, full of a transparent liquid, which hardens in the air and becomes thread by a phase of nature, easier recorded than ex- plained. Two black points adorn the head of the silk worm ; some people think they are eyes, and some say they are not. The feet are articulate, membraneous and fitted with hooks, whose principal nse is to fix the insect in any position. There are six of them in front, articu- late, used for motion, and eight at the back, membraneous, whose principal use is to fix the insect in any position ; they are called false feet, and are lengthened, taken in, and expanded, accordine; to the insect's wants. Twelve rings, alternately widening or nearing each cither, are used for locomotion; last of it, upon the "extreme back is a protuberance, a kind of tail, the use of which T ignore. At each side of the body there are nine black points. They are apertures which supply constantly to the larva the amount of air which it needs so much. Inside nearly five thousand muscles have been counted, used for loco- motion. The intestinal tube extends in straight line along the whole length of the body; it presents many inside divisions, and is externallv surrounded with many small channels, used for digestion. On each side of that tube are the two long reservoirs which contain the silky liquid ; they extend to the head where they unite with the threader or flliere, thus forming two threads that join on the outlet, as we have be- fore said. It was an error, very generally received, that the silk thread was already formed inside of the worm, but it is now proved that it is nothing but a liquid, which hardens as soon as it conies in contact with the outer air. At each moulting the silk worm changes the whole of its outer en- velope ; snout, skin, feet. When at its greatest development, about twelve or fifteen meals before the going up, the yellow silk worm is three inches in length. When just hatched, it is hot one-twelfth of an inch ; yet God, who pleases to snow the perfection of his work, as well in infinitely minute beings as in colossal ones, supplied it already with every thing. This animalcule is provided with a breathing apparatus, its five thousand muscles of locomotion, and its threader. It spins when being born, even before its first meal. Take the paper or cloth on which it has been hatched and you will see it hanging by the silk, an almost invisible thread, which in state of nature protects it against falling from the foster tree, and by the help of which thread the wind shoves it softly to the nearest limb or leaf from the rough bark on which its egg was affixed. A WORD ON SPINNING- AND MILLING. Spinning is the art of extracting silk out of the cocoon. It is not very long since when, in France, every cultivator used to spin his. own crop. In many parts of the Cevennes they do it yet. In the corner of the vard. under a temporary shelter built up out of rough boards used in the cocoonery, they set up a small stove fitted with a grate, and a copper or cast ironround wide basin. The whole is just high enough to be in the reach of the spinning woman sitting on a common chair ; an axle is fitted with a reel of about two yards in circumference, of six or eight bars parallel, and fixed on suitable arms, in the same position as the reel of a harvester used to bend the standing grain against the sickle. Such a reel is mounted on a stout, square, long bench, with four legs, and motion is imparted to it by means of a crank, pitman and footboard (the pitman being simply a rope). A boy or girl dance on that for a whole day at a time. The cocoons being in the basin with hot water, the silk that comes out of them passes "through four glass needles. The two first, placed close above the copper pan, are set on a small table, on one end of the bench, which receives all the trash, such as bare worms issued from completely-reeled cocoons, bad cocoons, etc. These glass needles are set about five or six inches apart ; the two others are set "on a wooden strip in the middle of the bench be- tween the first needles and the reel, which, by a combination of cogs and wheels, imparts from them a. back-and-forth motion, whose extent deter- oftkeSilk Worm. & mines the width of the skein, which winds itself around the reel. The reel itself is covered with a white cloth, intended to keep the silk from com- ing in contact with the wood. The spinning woman, when her first water is sufficiently warm, and stained with smashed chrysalises pro- ceeding from already wound-up cocoons (worms' water), takes about a half pound of cocoons in the basin and beats them softly with a broom made of fine briars ; after a moment she draws and shakes off all the downy stuff (bnnrrette), which by that process appears to be loosened from "the cocoons, then the cocoons also upon a long, smooth board which she keeps before her. That being done, a few cocoons are thrown in the pan, and let the thread be -seen which joins them to the heap laid on the boxes. The spinner takes four of these threads, passes them through a needle, then four more which she passes through the other needle, after which, gathering the two quadruple threads between the thumb and forefinger, she twists them together, in order to make what is called the crossing. The longer the crossing is— say, twenty to thirty turns, one thread on the other— the more each four cocoons' thread is even and strong. That crossing done, the reel-turner takes the two thread ends, passes them through the moving needles, the threads forming an X from the two first threads to the other two, and then, last, fastens them to one arm of the reel, which she then starts in motion with all the elasticity of her strength. I have seen women spinners to wind in that way one pound and a half in a day, when the cocoons were good. At night the silk is taken off, folded, and little by little is piled aw'ay in the the walnut chest, where it waits for the right time to be sold! In the good breeds, with a careful and experienced woman spin- ner, ten pounds of cocoons give one pound of silk. Put the cocoons at sixty cents a pound ; that will bring the cost of one pound of silk to $6 or $7 ; it may be sold for $8, $9, or $9 50. It is well understood that I speak of the prices in France for five or six years. The girl of the house, assisted by her little brother, have learned the difference ; and, besides, there is the refuse silk, which pays three-fotirths. and some- times the whole of the spinning expenses, when strangers have to be hired. The home industry tends every day to disappear. First, because the silk spun in that way, cannot stand the competition with those pro- duced in the large spinning mills, which cost less and yet are better, and of course of easier sale. Indeed, a farmer needs a woman spinner, a reel turner, then a stove for each basin ; while 200 or 300 reels or more are moved by one engine, the same that supplies the two or three hun- dred basins with hot water put instantly to the right degree of heat by means of two cocks with which each spinner is provided, one for cold and one for hot water. Add to that enormous economy, the perfection of the work due to the classification and selection of the cocoons, and sometimes to the rapidity too, with which it is impossible to get rid of all poor and stained cocoons. These kinds want to be spun when fresh ; dry, they yield very little, with much difficulty and very bad ; fresh they are worth the others, if well spun. The owner of 200 basins can do it, the farmer cannot. Last of it, there is more profit for the farmer, and it is easier for him to sell his cocoons as soon as they are ready ; instead of waiting four to six months to sell his silk, sometimes at retail week after week, he will sell his goods and be paid for them all at the same time, which is pleasing enough. If he happens to be of small means, if his children have to earn their living, they will find in these very factories a steady and well paid occupation. The spinning stands foremost in order, and importance among all the silk industries. With the improvements brought to it, and which are being made to it constantly, the most admirable works are executed . almost all to order ; they ship three, four, twelve or twenty- five cocoons, according to the order received, whether it be at three or four for the finest fabrics, or at twenty- five or thirtv for the most beautiful musical instrument strings, and the strongest known. 28 Rearing and Breeding The annual breeds, green and a few white Japan, the yellow and white of France, Italy, Syria and Adrianople, are spun at 3-J-. They call a half cocoon that which is nearly finished, almost clone winding-. The last end of the thread is much thinner than the first one and the middle. Among these breeds, it is not unusual to make one pound of silk out of nine or ten pounds of cocoons, but from eleven to twelve pounds is generally considered to be a fair average. The double cocoons forming a catalogue by themselves, which sells for only one quarter the price of the single ones, are in these breeds in the propor- tion of from two to ten per cent. Their value, and that of the silk made out of them, keeps them almost constantly at a good price, even in time of commercial crisis. People going into silk culture, will do well to content themselves Avith the raising of the most improved breeds. The breeds of second quality, yellow of Caucasus, yellow and white of the Balkans annual breeds, green and white of Japan Bivoltines and annual too, use often from sixteen to twenty-four pounds cocoons for one pound of silk. The thread of these is generally downy, and has but little sinew in it. The prices of these are invariably inferior, and they can be sold only at a loss, in time of commercial crisis. Bivol- tines of Japan average from twenty-five to thirty per cent double cocoons, to add to these other defects. The white Trivoltines yield a pretty fine silk, at twelve cocoons for one thread, they are very hardy too, and succeed admirably; they go through their five ages in twenty-two days, but they include from sixty to ninetj' per cent not double, but treble, quadruple and sextuple cocoons ; like some breeds of Portugal, beautiful yellow cocoons, very fine, who have likewise the defect to join sometimes eight or nine in number to make one cocoon, which of course sells for ten cents a pound. If I speak to you about them at all, it is just to tell you that they do exist, and to advise you to keep away from them, avoiding to apply to unknown parties to supply you with seed. For it is sadly true, that among silk worm dealers there are many unprincipled men, who will sell under good breeds these worthless, ruinous kinds consuming much, to yield nothing. Happily, too, respectable firms are not Avanting ; one need only to procure reliable information. And then too, let us hope that in a short time we are to become the supplying market of the silk world. From the spinning mills, silk goes to the milling factories, so called. Spinning and milling form together the richest, the most vital, most productive of all known industries. Spinning makes the silk, milling gives to it consistency and fits it for all subsequent operations, whether ft be intended to become dress silk, velvet, ribbon or sewing thread, etc. Coming from the spinning mill in the shape of skeins, silk is wettened with purified olive oil and superfine soap, to remove the gum, to supple it, and to make the A\ 7 inding easier and less costly. Winding implies the tieing of every broken thread the removing of all down or other ob- struction which stops between the piece of cloth, silk or leather through which the silk-threads are made to pass before winding themselves around a spool and in a ball. The spools or balls are again wound off, in order to undergo a cleansing operation, through very tight sheets of cloth, between two Y-shaped iron pieces, which do not let anything pass, the least knot, the smallest particle is there stopped. Thence to the milling, where they undergo a first preparation after the doubling, and last to the second milling, called twister, where they are submitted to the torsion and last preparation. There the skeins are tied and kept ready to go to the dyeing and weaving. There is now nothing left to do but the folding and packing ; two del- icate operations entrusted only to special and well paid men. In fac- tories overseers generally have these last cares in charge, of which the most delicate and difficult is the matching of the various shades. According to the quality and breed of the cocoons, from which they proceed, silks want more or less working, and average a greater or less of the Silk WbrrU. percentage of waste. There are China and Bengal silks which require four hands to manage each row of twenty spinning wheels, and they do not enjoy a minute's rest, besides making an enormous waste, while they will manage a hundred wheels each, and take it easy, if they work silk from Broussa, Fossombrone, or other first rate silk, spun in first class factories. As a matter of course, too, the waste in these last silks is scarcely worth mentioning, for its only source is in the thread wasted in tieing, when it breaks, and in the downy obstructions which need to be removed. The whole of it then lays in this principle : To cultivate none but the finest breeds of cocoons, in order to reap the fairest, the most remuner- ative products, with the least possible expense, and to secure an always sure sale. RECAPITULATION. I receive so many letters, so many questions about silk culture, that it is not possible for me to answer them singly. This last chapter will answer better for all. Many ask if their climate or country is good for silk worms. It has been said wherever the mulberry tree finds a congenial climate and soil, the breeding of silk worms will succeed. The silk worms require a pure atmosphere. It has been observed that when raised in poor peasants' huts, enjoying the pure air through the cracks and broken windows, they succeed better than a large lot nursed in a spacious and costly building. Then it is better to have four cocooneries, of eight hundred pounds capacity each, than only one con- taining thirty-two hundred in a single large room ; that plan is now followed by every rich intelligent farmer in silk growing countries of Europe. Some claim noise, storm, thunder, to be prejudicial to silk worms. It is an old error ; for the poor farmers in France have lost many and many nice crops, by shutting their windows and their doors hermeti- cally when the storm was threatening. But that precaution and the heavy atmosphere, without a single breath of air which always pre- cedes thunder and lightning, they would choke or stifle an ox as well as worms. In such a case, let the air penetrate in the cocoonery through the sash of every door and window, and every means of ventilation you have. Burn some straw, or dried bushes through the passages, to purify and renew air abundantly, instead of shutting doors and win- dows, and let lightning, thunder^ storm, shocks of electricity of every kind do their best, your worms will be the same after as before. Another argues that work is dearer here than in France, and silk will cost too much. My mother shall give you an answer. The following is an extract from her letter: "We have had plenty of cocoons, grapes, figs, chestnuts, apples, plums, peaches, etc., all of the best quality, "but workmen are dear and the price of labor increases every day. A girl is paid 100 francs per month, and men fifty cents per day in silk time." They feast, you know, all the time with wine and every thing. "You are happy," she adds, "to raise your silk worms without fire; here we must pay very dear for coal or wood, and a special woman or man to regulate the fire from the beginning till the end. " That only constitutes half the expense of the breeding. Then the difference in'the price of labor here and in France, does not exist any more. We can raise silk cheaper with less than half the trouble. If the farmers consider that there is no culture more remunerative, and with that culture they will grow rich and enrich the country too, they will enter into the business directly. Silk worm breeding is so simple, that after the the first experience made the first year with the few leaves you will pick in pruning your young trees, this small book in hand, the wife or the eldest daughter shall superintend the work of feeding, clearing, etc., and tell to the younger ones what they have to do. Farmers blessed with a large family, let your children have a lot of > ! >0 Itearing and Breeding mulberry trees, in that way they will cost you nothing; they will be able to give you a nice profit, be independent md able to support them- selves from the product of one acre, going to school ten months— two months being sufficient to plow or cultivate mulberry trees, to feed silk worms and clean the cocoons. The feeding and taking care of the worms and cocoons, the reeling of silk, all this work in silk countries is done by ladies. This will also be the case in America, and a great improvement and benefit for them. They will certainly be proud to wear fine dresses made by their own hands. It is as natural to the woman to dress in silk cloth, to which she gives a new glare, as to the butterfly to shine among flowers, as to the flower itself to bloom in the sun ray. I have read somewhere that only one of our States sends about seven millions of dollars annually, to import silk for our ladies, our dear ladies. How immense, then, must be the amount sent by all the (States. Farmers of America, it depends on you that every girl might wear a silk dress, for in a, short time you can raise silk for your consumption and also for exportation. I have said enough in this little book to enable you to carry on a profitable business all over our country, but experience will teach you and me from year to year. I will be grateful to any one who shall suc- ceed in his first trial, to tell me how, under what circumstances and by what means he succeeded, taking peculiar notice of the origin of the seed. If you fail, I would also thank you to send me the cause of your failure, that in the future we can enlarge this little book, and cover all the points of instruction Avhioh future experience will give us. Remember that I am at your service, always ready to explain to you what I have omitted or what you do not understand "in this small trea- tise. Now my last Avord is : go into this business immediately, both for yourself and for the country; the sooner the better. COMPLEMENT TO SILK CULTURE IN AMERICA. WHAT SERICULTURE PROMISES TO MILLIONS OF IDLE HANDS. We have at this moment to maintain a polemic against the enemies of silk culture (sericulture) in America. Those enemies are— who would believe it ?— mill owners and manufacturers forming the Silk Association of America. Let us hear their reasons and meet them squarely. I do not intend to reopen the errors published in 1876 in a book entitled, "A History Prepared for the Centennial Exhibition ;" facts have refuted them a hundred fold, and it is well settled that the silk worm, reared under good conditions, thrives marvelously in sev- eral States of the Union. Their suggestions about persons who expect to raise silk worms, tending to discourage beginners and to hinder the general trial of this culture, are already swept away by the success of more than a hundred fruitful attempts before and since 1876. Their most serious allegation is the high price of the labor, which renders spinning impossible. Take their own words as found in the report of 1876, page 48 : "In China or Japan the skilled labor of the artisan, inherited through more than thirty centuries of the same kind of toil, is amply repaid by from five to ten cents per day. A good reeler there will reel two pounds per week, and is satisfied with eight to ten cents a day. Hero even the poorest Chinese reeler would demand from seventy-five cents to a dollar a day. None of our Yankee girls would be willing to undertake it, though perfectly ignorant of the process, for less than SI a day. * * * Our friends who are determined to raise silk worms can do it in one way, and only in. one. There is a good market, and is likely to be for years to come, if it is not glutted, for silk worm eggs in France and Italy. * * * The needs of that of the Silk Worm. 31 •market will furnish employment for a reasonable number of silk growers, while the pierced cocoons will find a ready sale, though at a Tower price, to our manufacturers who are producing spun silk.' - In speaking thus, these gentlemen are completely in error. They are ignorant, or affect to be ignorant, that distress is engendered in a coun- try for want of industrial pursuits to occupy millions of idle hands, which is refused to them even when they offer their services for life. Women, at least in the West, have no sort of occupation ; every farmer has children to place out, and when they are lucky enough to find in stores or hotels places for their daughters at $1 50 per week, they accept with joy. Not one of them selling corn at fourteen cents or sixteen cents a bushel, and his meat at $1 75 or $2 a cwt. has means to pay a work- man, and scarcely to dress his children decently. Lack of consumers and high freights, these are the causes of poverty in the midst of plenty. Let us see whether in this State sericulture would not be of some use, without caring whether the Japanese or Chinese are paid by ten cents or ten blows on the soles of their feet. It has been proven that one man can raise in a very limited space -a corner of his barn or his cottage— a hundred kilogrammes (a little over 200 lbs.) of cocoons. To be quite within compass, let us give him four children. If there are four children, from the 1st of May to the 10th of June, on an acre of mulberries of good stock, these four children woidd pick 400 pounds of fresh cocoons. No doubt about it ; but then arises the question of the Silk Association in particular, and everybody in general. What will they do with it V Where's the market? A spinning factory cannot exist and flourish unless the country for forty or fifty miles can' supply an abundance of cocoons. It is not more than fifteen years pgo since the silk growers of the Cevennes, in France, were spinning their own cocoons, and they were in a prosperous condition. We might do the same here ; every farmer, for the sum of $5 or $10, might fit up a spinning wheel. His sixteen year old daughter could run it ; another of ten or twelve could tend the reel, and in three weeks they will run off four to six, then eight to ten ounces, a day of white or yellow cocoons of good quality. There we have three pounds a week. I will not put the price at $12 a pound (which was offered me in 1876), although the spinner, a Yankee girl, had had only two months' oractice. We had better put it at curient rates, say $6 50 a pound. The figures quoted by the association itself are $8 to $ 9 a pound. At this rate three pounds of silk will bring $27 in money to the family stock. Ten or eleven pounds of fresh cocoons will make one pound of silk,- the same as three and a half to four pounds of dry cocoons. Thus 400 pounds of cocoons, picked by four children, four weeks, would give thirty-six to forty pounds of silk, or $360 in full. This would have employed two girls for nine or ten weeks under the mother's eye. I simply put these figures, and I need not ask fathers of families whether they would prefer this position to that which hard rimes imposes on them. When the production of cocoons is not enough to induce any one to start a factory, there certainly would be speculators who could esti- mate the cost of a small engine for heating the water for 300 basins, and do away with the hands of 300 or 400 boys almost by the same power. This would be self-evident when they remember that the de- fective cocoons and other waste are worth ait the lowest price $2 or $2 50 a kilogramme, and pay for a good deal of the labor. At first the spinner would have to gather his cocoons in small lots for perhaps hundreds of miles, and with a heavy charge for railroad fares. He would have to train workwomen that might waste stock and never be worth their teaching, or would leave him at last to go off and act as teachers in new shops. He might have a lot of apprentices to train, and his product would be inferior to that produced by more skillful hands. For these reasons it would be expedient that for the first ten years, whether the industry be in the hands of farmers or large capital- Rearing and Breeding ists, it should be protected by a tax on raw silk, the same as now on manufactured -silk, so that the manufacturer should pay a fair price for the raw material. Here the association would cry aloud, of course— we touch them to the quick. Then let us try another way. In place of duties, why not pay the silk raiser a premium of 80 cents to SSI for dry cocoons, or %\ to $1 50 for spun silk ? In this way the difficulty of encouraging production without injuring manufacturing would be avoided. And now for a word about the mulberry. The mulberry accompanies the vine to the highest range of tempera- ture. It will grow on any soil that is not swain py. In old times, only the black mulberry was known. ■ The old naturalists, Pliny and Dios- corides, make no mention of the white mulberry {moras alba). In l57o one Mercuriali, a physician of Forli, in Italy, attributed the tardy de- velopment of silk culture to their only having the black variety, of which the growth is slow and difficult and the siJk inferior. The white mulberry was introduced at Constantinople in 1552'. Thence by degrees it passed to Greece and Italy, and at last into France, where the ear- liest importations still exist. It is difficult to exaggerate the national importance of silk culture. En a work largely statistical, giving tables of exports and imports of raw and manufactured silk for the last half century, and bringing out clearly the steady growth of the silk manufacturing industry in this country, Professor Riley shows how, from 1740 to 1790, in the Southern and Middle States, the industry has flourished at times under the stimulus of State aid. He traces the causes of the failures, and the point is strongly brought out that they were transient, not permanent ones. Experiments that have been made in the past, and a series the author has been carrying on for the last ten years, establish the fact that the larger portion of the United States is admirably adapted to silk cul- ture. This is not only proved by the healthfulriess of the worms, but oy the fact that we have a larger number of silk-producing insects than any other country of the same extent, and that American" grown silk is of superior quality. Mr. Riley shows that the time has arrived for sys- tematic, intelligent effort in the line of silk raising. With a large tramp element, with a considerable portion of the population of the Eastern cities out of employment, etc.. the cheap labor argument can no longer be successfully made against silk culture. He concludes by advising Congress to build reeling mills, and the silk worm rearers not to plant any mulberry trees, but to raise the silk worms on Mac- lara, or hedge plant— osage orange. Strange to say, he argues as to whether we can compete with foreigners either in living as cheaply or producing as cheaply, and he recommends the osage orange exclu- sively as silk worms' food. He finds at first the means to make silk as dear' as possible, and to produce cocoons hardly worth reeling, that will not be bought at any rate by any experimental reeler, though I ad- mit that silk produced by osage fed cocoons is fine and good. But let us demonstrate Professor Riley's error— a very pardonable one, as it is the result of inexperience. All sericulturists recommend breeding on a small scale ; Professor Riley does, too. Let us fix by a given number what we understand by breeding on a small scale. 'In "Prance and Italy raising silk on a small scale signifies operations with from 20u to 800 or 1000 pounds of cocoons. Lai"ge breeders raise from 40 to 200 ounces of silk-worm eggs ; a great success to obtain 30 to 40 pounds per ounce, while the breeder of from 2 to 8 ounces of eggs seldom gets less than 80 pounds per ounce, and often 100 pounds or more. Now, take for example, a very small breeding-— say, four ounces of eggs, or about 100, d00 worms of first-rate breed. I suppose they will not give 500 pounds, as I have .got from such a quantity at Silkville only 400 pounds. I set this question : What quantity of leaves is needed of the Silk Worm. . 33 for such a quantity of cocoons, and in how many meals or in how many days must they be picked ? Answer.— Fed on white ungrafted mulberry (Morus alba), one pound of cocoons eats up twenty pounds 'of leaves ; fed on Moretti, fourteen ; fed on. rose-leaf mulberry, a variety of the white, eighteen ; fed on Morus jacopnica, or mulberry lhou, fourteen or fifteen pounds of leaves make one pound of cocoons. Let us suppose the osage orange equal in quality to the Morus alba. We will need just four hundred times twenty pounds of leaves, say 8000 to re-open the crop, iiow it is a fact that from the hatching uutii three days after the fourth moulting, .the worm has consumed just half of the food he needs to be ready for spin- ning. At five to sis days for every molt, and three after the fourth, we have about twenty -three to 'twenty-seven days for picking 400; > pounds. Three days after the fourth moulting each quantity of worms representing 100 pounds needs 100 pounds of food from the Morus alba during two or three days, called in French, Les jours ties /raise, on grande %>resse (great hurrying time) ; then the appetite of the worm diminishes day after day. * For five days after the fourth moit they require 4000 pounds of leaves or 800 pounds a day. The mulberry and the rose allow a skilled man or boy to pick 100 to 120 pounds per hour. I have and can do it myself. A man could easily pick on such trees all the food needed in the most busy time. His wife could feed, alone, the noon-time meal, and together they could feed the .evening meal just before supper. Thus a newly married couple, could raise 400 times 50 or 75 cents, the average price of the best cocoons that the United States can grow. I wonder how many pounds a day the same man would pick on hedge plant. If any picker knows it by experience I would gratefully receive his estimate, but I should not like to learn by experience. In conclu- sion, a commission of learned men and silk culturists was appointed by the French government, at the time when the disease which killed all the silk worms in Europe was in ail its fury, to investigate and prevent the scourge. There was then an opinion that the mulberry u'ee itself was sick, then the osage orange was tried, declared worthless, and set in rank very far after the muiticaulis of deceitful fame. As for the trees I speak of and other choice sorts, they have been created or introduced in China and Europe little by little, by grafting or by selecting the seeds ; some, as the lhou, are supposed hybrids, and represent 500 years of constant study and progress. The first axiom to be known by a silk grower is borrowed from Count de Gasparin, one of our most prominent writers on agriculture and silk culture : "The first thing to do for a silk grower is to cultivate the kinds of mulberry trees which give the larger quantity of silk for a given weight ; they produce the best, too," and are picked easier. Lessen your work and expenses, and increase the value of your crop. Among the thousands of varieties of mulberry trees I have introduced the four kinds hereafter described, which have been set in the first rank by all silk culturists for their excellent qualities. They are : The white mulberry tree. This kind furnishes a great number of varieties, and can be planted as standard, ornamental or forest tree as well as for a silk-producing tree, sound wood, beautiful leaves and sweet fruit. Eose-leafed mulberry tree ; a variety of the white which furnishes it- self many other, has larger and heavier leaves ; giving one pound of cocoons per eighteen pounds of its leaves, splendid as ornamental tree, not so good as the white as a forest tree ; it produces the finest silk known. The Moretti Elata does not degenerate by r seed, sustains the hardest winters better than any other kind. It is fit for standard, ornamental and forest tree. It grows straight up with an elegant shape and luxuri- ant foliage. As the white and the rose, it does not fear the grasshop- pers, rabbits and borers nor the many kinds of vermin which too often 5 34 Rearing and Breeding of the Silk Worm. ruin most of the trees in this country. It gives one pound of cocoons to every fourteen pounds of leaves. Medium trunks can be set from fourteen to sixteen feet apart ; dwarf four feet in a hedge, the rows being from twelve to fifteen feet apart. Moras Japonica, said lhou or Japanese mulberry tree. This kind was introduced in France by Camille Beauvais, and has the largest leaves, giving the same quantity of silk as the moretti. It is so easily picked that French breeders prefer to plant it to any other kind as a cheap silk producer. Its standing well the hard winters, is proved by five years' growth in Kansas. It grows so well by cuttings, that many stems grow eight feet high the first year in our Southern States. Plant them as dwarf trees, three feet in the row, the rows twelve feet distant. They can be planted from the first of October until the middle of May, and sometimes in June, after the leaves have been picked for the worms. The eggs of the silk worm must be free from disease, or failure is un- avoidable. A price of sixty cents or more will be offered by a society newly estab- lished, which will spread reeling factories throughout the United States, wherever they can And a supply of cocoons for making raw silk. It is reported, and I know by the inventor himself, that a new reel which reels with greater perfection and six times faster than any other known to this day, will be used by the company. Send stamps when you want an answer to your inquires, and details will be gladly given on the matter by Your obedient servant, L. S. CEOZIEE, Bayou Sara, La. A. TBEATI8E CCTLTUKE AND RAISING OF SILK WORMS A FEW HINTS FARMERS OF THE SOUTH. BY L. S. CRO COPYRIGHT SECURED L. S. CROZIEE. NEW ORLEANS: PRINTED AT THE DEMOCRAT OFFICE. 1880.