Silkworms

Source: What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games And Pastimes
Category: PETS



Silkworms, if kept at all, ought to be taken seriously and used for
their true purpose. That is to say, you really ought to wind their
silk carefully. Few owners of silkworms in this country seem to
trouble to do this. Silkworms' eggs can be bought of any naturalist,
or some one who keeps silkworms will willingly give you some. The time
is about the end of April. They are usually laid on scraps of paper,
and these you put in shallow paper and cardboard trays covered with
gauze, and place them in the room where the sun can reach them. As the
worms hatch out you must move them--it is done best with a small paint
brush--to another tray or trays and keep them supplied with fresh
mulberry leaves or lettuce. The worms continue to grow for about a
month, and then, when full-sized, they prepare to spin. You may know
that this time is reached by their refusal to eat, and you must then
make a little paper toilet, about two inches deep, for each worm, and
drop it in. You have now nothing to do (except to watch the worms
regularly) for some weeks, in which time the cocoon has been finished
and the worm has become a chrysalis. When the chrysalis inside the
cocoon rattles the time has come to wind the silk, or the moth will
shortly emerge and eat it. The outside of the cocoon is useless and
can be removed by placing the cocoon in warm water. Once that is out
of the way, the silk can be wound on a card. The moth soon afterward
appears and, after growing to its full size, lays its eggs--some two
hundred--and dies. It must be remembered that with silkworms a little
practical demonstration from any one who has kept them is worth much
more than many pages of hints. One thing is of the highest importance,
and that is constant attention. Silkworms must never be neglected.

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