I did well. A spade full of
garden soil was thoroughly sifted, baked in the oven to kill
parasites and insects, cooled, and put in a box, and the pupa case
buried in it. Every time it rained, I opened the box, and moistened
the earth. Two months after time for emergence, I dug out the pupa
case to find it white with mould. I had no idea what the trouble
was, for I had done much work over that case, and the whole winter
tended it solicitously. It was one of my earliest attempts, and
I never have found another caterpillar, or any eggs, though I
often search the poplars for them.
However, something better happened. I say better, because I think
if they will make honest confession, all people who have gathered
eggs and raised caterpillars from them in confinement, by feeding
cut leaves, will admit that the pupa cases they get, and the moths
they produce are only about half size. The big fine cases and
cocoons are the ones you find made by caterpillars in freedom, or
by those that have passed at least the fourth or fifth moult out
of doors.
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