hatched in the spring (end of
April--as soon as the first leaves of the mulberry are available--to
the middle of May), summer (June and July) and autumn (August and
October). It takes from three to seven days--according to
temperature--for the "seed" to hatch, and from twenty to thirty-two
days--according to temperature--for the silk-worms to reach maturity.
Half the hatching is done in spring. In one farmer's house I visited
in the spring season I found that he had hatched fifty cards of
"seed." From the birth of the caterpillars to the formation of cocoons
the casualties must be reckoned at ten per cent. daily. Not more than
eighty-five per cent. of the cocoons which are produced are of good
quality. The remainder are misshapen or contain dead chrysalises. As
there are more than a thousand breeds of silk-worm, all cocoons are
not of the same shape and colour. Some are oval; some are shaped like
a monkey nut. Most are white but some are yellow and others yellow
tinted.

In the whole world of stock raising there is nothing more remarkable
than the birth of silk-worm moths. The cocoons on the racks in the
farmer's loft are covered by sheets of newspaper in which a number of
round holes about three-quarters of an inch in diameter have been cut.
When the moths emerge from their cocoons they seek these openings
towards the light and creep through to the upper side of the
newspaper. For newly born things they come up through these openings
with astonishing ardour. In body and wings the moths are flour white.
White garments are suitable for the babe, the bride and the dead, and
the moth perfected in the cocoon is arrayed not only for its birth but
for bridal and death, which come upon it in swift succession. The male
as well as the female is in white and is distinguishable by being
somewhat smaller in size. On the newspaper the few males who have not
found partners are executing wild dances, their wings whirring the
while at a mad pace. When from time to time they cease dancing they
haunt the holes in the paper through which the newly born moths
emerge. When a female appears a male instantly rushes towards her, or
rather the two creatures rush towards one another, and they are at
once locked in a fast embrace. Immediately their wings cease to
flutter, the only commotion on the newspaper being made by the unmated
males. In a hatching-room these males on the stacks of trays are so
numerous that the place is filled with the so