Description |
Wool was available from the sheep and goats, but cotton, silk, and other kinds must be 1earned. Sometime in the 1890' s my mother, worms. It was funny to see the long lumber table covered with worms. Screen wire formed an edging all around. Newspapers covered the bottom of the cage. The worms ate the tender interesting to watch the worms, like chickens, hurry to the fresh leaves from the skeletons of leaves fed the day before. It was my assignment to provide the leaves from trees in yards of the Molenites. Peter Larsen, Chris Larsen, David Killpack, Fj els teds, and hungry livestock. The silkworms grew from eggs about an eighth of an inch across to worms maybe four inches 1 ong. My father said, "They had to be fat. " Square pieces of paper were twisted into cone shaped scoops and laid before the worms which crawled into them and with a movement of the head waving from side to side they built a round, oblong cocoon. When movement ended i ns i de, theworm had fi ni s hed its j ob and died. 1twas 3 summer job for all concerned. Somehow a reel could it done. Some of these cocoons are still in some of my beloved relics. No tiny strands, like spider webs, though of stronger texture were tightly woven with a sealing substance to hold them now is a curiosity and a remembrance of childhood life. Brigham Young had requested and urged the 32 |