176

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

peasants ever produce silk, without being in possession ofthe trees.

A farm has store of mulberry trees; to these are trainedthe vines; below, three or four successive crops of wheat,pease, maize, kidney beans, flax, hemp, cotton, tobacco,barley, strawberries or other crops, are seen to thrive farbetter in the partial shade, than when fully exposed to therays of the sun. No lands at Naples, give less than six cropsof some kind or other in the year, counting the vine, poplar,or mulberries.

While the farmer and his sons, brothers, and servants,attend to the other crops, the women only take chargeof the silk. The leaves, however, are usually collected andcarried by the men.

According to the number of females in a family, one, two,five, or more ounces of seed, as the eggs are called, arepurchased, if they have not been saved from the precedingyear. These silk worm eggs are in size and appearance,exactly like the seed of mignionette. About the end ofMarch rimmed baskets like large tea-trays are provided.Large rooms or lofts with shelves around and others sup-ported in the middle, as in an armoury or museum, arewhitewashed, swept quite clean and sprinkled with vinegar,so as to render them as sweet and clean as possible.

The whole stock of eggs for a large supply of silk, are atthe hatching contained in three or four of the baskets.A few mulberry leaves are strewed upon the basket,on which are placed the eggs. The first fine warm day, thisbasket is exposed to the sun, but towards the evening care-fully covered up and brought into the warmth of a sleepingroom. The like operation is repeated every day, so thatin favourable weather, the eggs are hatched in about fourdays. Fresh leaves are then spread upon them, of which