Every Boy's Book: A Complete Encyclopædia of Sports and Amusements

by Unknown

The silkworm feeds, as every one knows, on the leaves of the white mulberry; or, when these cannot be obtained, upon those of the black mulberry; or, in lieu of these, upon the leaves of the common garden lettuce. The white mulberry is especially cultivated for the value of its leaves, its fruit being insipid and very inferior to that of the common species, the leaves of which are equally good in this country for the food of the silkworm. There has been a variety lately introduced from the Philippine Isles (Morus multicaulis), which has larger leaves, and which is easily propagated by cuttings put into a cucumber frame in October, and transplanted in the following May; yet, still, to ensure success in the rearing of silkworms the young naturalist should stick to the old black mulberry, as such trees are to be found in various vicinities. To propagate this, a branch from another tree may be set in the earth, which will frequently grow. The amiable Sir John Philipport of Hammersmith, so celebrated for his “Elysian groves and fountains fair,” and for his sterling English qualities, has in his grounds a fine mulberry-tree, which he reared by placing a very loose branch in the ground in the autumn of 1850, which threw out roots, and started at once into a tree. The story of a gate-post made of a mulberry trunk becoming, and now remaining, a fruitful tree, is well authenticated. The leaves to be used should be those of a large and well-grown, prolific tree, and they should be gathered with care, so that the young buds of future leaves should in no way be injured; moreover, a tree should never be stripped twice in a year.

HATCHING, FEEDING, AND TEMPERATURE.

Having procured the eggs, which should be obtained about the latter end of April—they are generally bought on slips of paper just as they were laid by the moth—they should be placed in trays made of stout cartridge or thin pasteboard of the form seen in the cut, and there should be provided to go over the case some thin gauze. The trays may be placed in a window facing the south, where they are fully exposed to the rays of the sun; there they should remain undisturbed till they begin to hatch; and as the young worms appear they should be removed into other trays, and fed with the mulberry leaves. The temperature should be regulated from sixty-six to seventy degrees, and the room ventilated, and preserved equally free from damp or too much dryness. They should be kept particularly clean, dead leaves and dung cleared carefully away, and in lifting them from one tray to another they should not be touched by the fingers, but removed by threads of cotton passed under their bodies, or with a camel’s-hair pencil.

MOULTINGS.

The caterpillar has four moultings, which may be all accomplished in the period of four days each, if the heat of the room be increased to from ninety-five to one hundred degrees of Fahrenheit. When the heat is regulated to a lower standard, the first moulting takes place on the fourth or fifth day after hatching, the second in four days more, the third in five or six days more, and the last in about eight days. Ten days more are required after this moulting, so that in about thirty-two days after hatching the caterpillar has attained its full size. During all these changes of the worm it requires the nicest attention.

THE COCOON.

At the end of the time mentioned above the worms change to a clear pink or flesh colour, and look semi-transparent; they refuse their food, become restless, and prepare to spin or form their cocoon. At this time care should be taken to raise the walls of their tray habitation, or they will climb over them and be lost. What is called the cocoon nest should now be prepared by twisting the corners of a piece of writing-paper, and raising its edges into the form of the lower shell of an oyster. A number of these should be prepared and affixed to a piece of tape, with their pointed ends downwards; and into each one a single worm should be placed when it quits its food, and seems ready to spin: it will then dispose its web in such a manner as to leave a cavity within.

The cocoon consists of three distinct layers of silk: the first is loose and flossy, and is unserviceable for the silk manufacture; the second is closer, the silk crossing from side to side; and the third is still finer, and is glued strongly together, so as to form a compact inner coating.