crop of the United States, but produced on less than one-eighth of the area.
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Fig. 185.—Feeding silkworms. One of the 16 bamboo trays, on which the silkworms are feeding, has been removed from the racks and Japanese girls are spreading over it a fresh supply of mulberry leaves.
According to the observations of Count Dandola, the
worms which contribute to this vast earning are so small
that some 700,000 of them weigh at hatching only one
pound, but they grow very rapidly, shed their skins four
times, weighing 15 pounds at the time of the first moult,
94 pounds at the second, 400 pounds at the third, 1628
pounds at the fourth moulting and when mature have
come to weigh nearly five tons—9500 pounds. But in
making this growth during about thirty-six days, according
to Paton, the 700,000 worms have eaten 105 pounds
by the time of the first moult; 315 pounds by the second;
1050 pounds by the third; 3150 pounds by the fourth, and
in the final period, before spinning, 19,215 pounds, thus
consuming in all nearly twelve tons of mulberry leaves
in producing nearly five tons of live weight, or at the rate
