itself with a resistant tunic, in the interior of which all
the tissues seem to fuse into a pulp of homogeneous ap-
pearance. It is in the midst of this magma that, little
by little, the tissues of the moth are formed and become
differentiated.

The moth has only a rudimentary digestive canal,
for it no longer has any need of eating: the worm has
eaten for it. It has wings, but, in our domestic races, it
makes no use of them. It is destined only for the re-
production of the species, and the sex-union takes
place as soon as it comes out of the cocoon. The female
then lays a very considerable number of eggs, which
may reach 600 or 800 and in the races that we call annual,
which are the most sought after, this "graine" does
not hatch the same year as its production. It is de-
layed till the reawakening of vegetation the spring of
the following year.

It is only when the grower wishes to have "graine" or
to induce the laying of eggs (faire grainer) that he awaits
this coming forth from the cocoon, in which the trans-
formation of the worm into a moth requires about 15
days. By adding thereto the 35 or 40 days required
for the culture of the worm, and the time necessary for
the laying of the eggs, we see that the complete evolution
of the silkworm, from the egg around to the egg is about
two months. The period of industrial life is sensibly
shorter. When the grower wishes to use only the cocoons,
he must not wait till the moth, in coming forth, has
opened them and thereby rendered them unfit for
spinning. They are smothered 5 or 6 days after they have
climbed the heather twigs. That is to say, the cocoons
are put into a vapor bath in which the chrysalids are
killed by the heat. For the silk grower, in this case,
scarcely six weeks separate the time of egg-hatching
from the time when he carries his cocoons to market--

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