We are indebted to Dr. Ure for the two following articles (_extracted from the Journal of the Asiatic Society, for January, 1837_), on wild silk-worms. The first article is from the pen of Thomas Hugon, a resident of Nowgong, and relates to wild silk-worms of Assam. “The Assamese select for breeding, such cocoons only as have been begun to be formed in the largest number on the same day, usually the second or third after the commencement; those which contain males being distinguishable by a more pointed end. They are put in a closed basket suspended from the roof; the moths, as they come forth, having room to move about, at the expiration of a day, the females (known only by their large body) are taken out, and tied to small wisps of thatching-straw, selected always from over the hearth, its darkened color being thought more acceptable to the insect. If out of a batch, there should be but few males; the wisps with the females tied to them are exposed outside at night; and the males thrown away in the neighborhood, find their way to them. These wisps are hung upon a string tied across the roof, to keep them from vermin. The eggs laid after the first three days, are said to produce weak worms. The wisps are taken out morning and evening, and exposed to the sun, and in ten days after being laid, a few of them are hatched. The wisps being then hung up to the tree, the young worms find their way to the leaves. The ant, whose bite is fatal to the worm in its early stages, is destroyed by rubbing the trunk of the tree with molasses, and tying dead fish and toads to it, to attract these rapacious insects in large numbers, when they are destroyed with fire; a process which needs to be repeated several times. The ground under the trees is also well cleared, to render it easy to pick up and replace the worms which fall down. They are prevented from coming to the ground, by tying fresh plantain-leaves round the trunk, over whose slippery surface they cannot crawl; and then transferred from exhausted trees to fresh ones, on bamboo platters tied to long poles. The worms require to be constantly watched and protected from the depredations of both day and night birds, as well as rats and other vermin. During their moultings, they remain on the branches; but when about beginning to spin, they come down the trunk, and being stopped by the plantain-leaves, are there collected in baskets, which are afterwards put under bunches of dry leaves, suspended from the roof, into which the worms crawl, and form their cocoons--several being clustered together: this accident, owing to the practice of crowding the worms, which is most injudicious, rendering it impossible to wind off their silk in continuous threads, as in the filatures of Italy, France, and even Bengal. The silk is, therefore, spun like flax, instead of being unwound in single filaments. After four days the proper cocoons are selected for the next breed, and the rest are reeled.