SILKWORMS' STIMULUS

Evening Star, Issue 19520, 30 March 1927, Page 12

SILKWORMS' STIMULUS

The discovery is reported that silk worms, if fed on sake—Japanese rice wine—work harder, produce a superior grade of silk, and live longer and healthier lives (writes the Tokio correspondent of the ‘Daily Mail’). Mr Y. Nakai, an expert of the Okayama prefcctural laboratory for sericulture, who has been experimenting in an effort to find something 1 tho silkworms will eat besides mulberry leaves, 'of which,the supply is not always too plentiful, makes the announcement. He worked' on 400 selected worms, first weighing their daily ration of mulberry leaves, and then feeding them, or trying to get them to eat various substitute foods. The worms refused to eat anything' hut mulberry. The investigator mixed sake and wheat I'cnr together, and offered it, and the worms crowded each other, for places at the feast, falling to and feverishly, spinning silk when tho sake came to an end. In making known his discovery Mr Nakai says: The new method of feeding is a great benefit to sericulturists, economically and technically. Tho alcohol improves the silk worms’ appetite, betters their digestion, and kills .harmful bacteria, at the same time resulting in a saving in mulberry leaves.