7S2 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May I, 1884. 



inteii'.l to entrust a rather considerable capital to one of my 

 correspondents in French Guiana, for the purpose of cultiv- 

 ating on a large scale the Attacus At'rota, a ^^^ld South 

 American silkworm common in Brazil, the Guiauas, and 

 other parts of South America. No doubt, if the project is 

 carried out, the rearing of this species will be easy, and 

 the quantity of cocoonh obtained will be enormous, for this 

 silkworm has six generations every year in French Guiana. 

 But I was asked before anything was done respecting that 

 enterprise to give ad\ace, and state what would be the com- 

 mercial value of the silk, which was a difficult question to 

 answer. 



Cocoons, as is well known, are of two sorts: the closed 

 cocoons like those of Pernt/i. Y(ima-3Iai^ Mi/litta, Poh/phemus^ 

 and others, and those cocoons which are naturally open 

 at one end, such as those of Ci/nthia^ Atlas, Cecropia, Aifrota, 

 &c. The open cocoons, und A uroia is one of them, remain 

 exactly the same after the moth has emerged, as they were 

 before, aud no opinion on the quality of the silk can be 

 formed till these cocoons have been carded. The close J 

 cocoons, on the contrary, are cut open (or are apparently 

 cut) by the moth when it emerges from it; then the threads 

 can be pulled and the silk examined and appreciated to a 

 very gie^at extent. Such is not the case with the open co- 

 coons, the silk of wliich cannot be pulled by hand. 



For the last ten years my work has been the reproduction, 

 rearing, and study of the various wild silkworms of China, 

 Japan, India, and America, of which I could obtain live co- 

 coons or ova. Many persons in Europe aud America, through 

 my exertions, have also been able to rear and study them. 

 But this work has occupied all my leisure hours. I have 

 had, therefore, no time left to study the quality of the 

 silk of the various species. All I know is that the silk of 

 J*eni//i Varna- Jfa'i and Jlli/litta is valuable, and, if well worked, 

 is almost equal to that of the Bomhyx Mori ; the silk of 

 Polyphemus seems equally fine. I had always thought, and 

 I still think, that the silk of these species, with closed co- 

 coons, is superior to the silk of those with open cocoons, 

 and my opinion also was that reeled silk was of more value 

 than carded; but from a letter lately received from Mr. 

 T. Wardle, of Leek, a great authority on such a subject, 

 I see that carded silk is as good as reeled silk, a very im- 

 portant fact to laiow, as it would make some of the open 

 cocoons as valuable as the closed ones, if the thread obtain- 

 ed by carding were as fine as that obtained by reeling. In 

 his letter of the 5th of November last, on the subject of 

 sericiculture, Mr. T. Wardle says: — "Have you visited No. 

 71, New Bond-street, London, where all my Tussur {Mylitta 

 or Pdphia of India) developments are? My partner, Mr. 

 Brough, would be glad to explain anything to you. I think, 

 if anyone went to India to collect Tussur cocoons and any 

 other wild silks, that it would pay, and I think any enterprise 

 of that kind would receive some Government encouragement 

 To cultivate any cocoons would be a good specul- 

 ation, if they could be produced in sufficient quantity; because, 

 if they cannot be reeled, they can be carded, and, of the two, 

 there is more demand for carded yarn than reeled, and a 

 carded yarn fetches more money than reeled one." 



I twice \isited I\[r. AVardle's place in New Bond-street, and 

 I examined with the greatest interest the splendid and various 

 articles manufactured with the Tussur silic, and I would re- 

 commend all persons taking an interest on this subject to 

 visit the place. A visit to Mr. AVardle's wouhl show of what 

 importance would be the cultivation, on a large scale, of the 

 Tussur aud other equally valuable wild silkworms in such 

 countries as weuld be suitable to them. 



The collecting of wild silk cocoons in the forests of India, 

 or other parts, would be profitable to reproduce and rear the 

 various .species, but I do not think sufficient quantities of 

 these cocoons coidd be collected in this way for manufact- 

 uring purposes, and for the latter, rearing in the open-air 

 and on trees must be resorted to. 



Worms reared in a state of domesticity in warm rooms, 

 or in " viayiwneries,^^ as the mulberry silkworm, woidd be 

 liable to the terrible contagious diseases which, for years, 

 have attacked the latter, to such an extent, as to make the 

 supply of mulberry silk very much smaller than it used to 

 be. in France, some fifty years ago. one of the most terrible 

 of these diseases fwhich fortunately has now, it is said, 

 dis.ippeared) vvas the "imiscardinc,'" a. white vegetable parasite 

 which was developed inside the worm or in the chrv-^Mlis. 

 Whilst the musoii'dine preyed on the niulbi-rry silkworms. 



the other epidemics has disappeared; but, from 1845, two 

 other distinct diseases made their appearance one after the 

 other. The first was ih.Q''^ pehrine'''' (pepper disease), a very 

 ancient affection of the worms, which, when attached by 

 it, are covered with black spots, and grow smaller and smaller 

 till they die. Later on, a second, very distinct from the 

 first, and a worse disease, made terrible ravages among the 

 worms; this is the "T^ncAer^V." Tha jiacherie is worse than 

 the pihrine, because, after all the expense and the labour 

 of rearing the worms, which eat and grow well, showing 

 apparently no signs whatever of disease, they die within a 

 few d;iys before the spinning period ; hence, a great Joss and 

 disapi>uiutment. The contagious diseases may co-exist, but 

 when they are intense, it often happens that one excludes 

 the other, according to the ordinary law of epidemics. 

 These diseases, created by the overcrowding of worms in hot 

 rooms, may also be the consequence of rearing from eggs 

 containing the germ of disease, for, it must be remarked, 

 that a certain number of diseased worms live and procreate 

 in spite of that germ of disease in them. On the contrary, 

 silkworms reared in the open-air, on trees, and in suitable 

 climates, could not be attacked by these contagious diseases. 

 Since the deficiency in the production of mulberry silk, the 

 cultivation in India of the Tussur sillnvorm has been con- 

 sidered of the highest importance. As yet, it does not seem 

 that the rearing of the Tussur worm has been attempted on 

 a large scale, though, no doubt, it will be so before long. 



Major G. Coussmaker pubhshed in 1873 a most useful 

 and interesting pamphlet on *' The Tussur Silkworm," and 

 every year, in spite of the difficulties in his way. Major 

 G. Coussmaker reared this valuable silkworm in a state of 

 semi-domestication in the neighbourhood of Poena, with a 

 success which increased every year, as may be seen by read- 

 ing his annual reports. In his last report to the Secretary 

 of the Bombay Government, dated Poona, 1-lth February, 

 1883, previous to his final departure for England, Jlajor 

 Coussmaker, however, says that he regrets he cannot recom- 

 mend Government to continue these experiments in that 

 part of India, owing to three causes, the princij)al one 

 being that the climate there was an insurmomi table obstacle. 



On a visit I paid to Major G. Coussmaker last October, 

 I had the pleasure to converse with him at length on the 

 subject of sericiculture in India, and I have since read the 

 manny letters which were sent to him on the subject by 

 correspondents in various parts of India. A persual of these 

 letters shows that that the rearing of the Tussur silkworm 

 could be successfully carried out on a large scale, if assist- 

 ance were given to an experienced sericiculturist. 



From the knowledge acquired by the reading of numbers 

 of reports and letters, I think that a warm, moist, temper- 

 ature, such as that of Ceylon, is the best for the Tussur 

 and some other wild silkworms. 



I have also examined Tussur cocoons sent from Calcutta, 

 Madras, Ceylon, and Bombay, the last havmg been kindly 

 brought for me by Major Coussmaker. Major < !oussmakcr 

 complains in his last report of the small size of the Bombay 

 cocoons, as compared with those of other parts of India. 

 Now, those from Ceylon are quite as small, if not smaller, 

 than the Bombay cocoons, but the silk of the Ceylon cocoons, 

 in my opinion, is finer and softer ; they are, for the most 

 part of a yellowish white, and similar in shape and texture 

 to the Japanese oak silkworm (J rtm(7-7Hrtt) cocoons. 



In January, I8S.S, I saw in the offices of the Society d'Ac- 

 climatation tie France, in Paris, cocoons which had been sent 

 when alive from Cochin-China. These cocoons, seemed to 

 me exactly like those of the Ceylon Tussur in size, shape, 

 and colour; but the moths varied in their shades of colour, 

 just as those of the Tussur found in various parts of India. 

 The moths of the Ceylon species, on the contray, as far as 

 I have observed, are all of the sann- colour, the male being 

 dark reddish brown, the female bright yellow. An inter- 

 esting article on the Cochin-China silkworm, which I saw 

 in Paris, written by M. J. Fallou, may be read in the June 

 number, 1883, of the '• Bulletin," of the Soci6ti' d'Acclim- 

 atation. The species was at first considered as being Anthe- 

 rcpemi/litta 1 the Indian Tussur), but subsequently it was 

 found to hv Anthera'a Frithii (Moore), a species described 

 in the '' Proceedings of the Zoological Society," 28th June, 

 1859. . , , 



By con^i>ariug the species which I have considered as 

 the Ceylon A. mi/Htta with the other Indi.in MylitUi, an 

 entomologist might be lead to give the Ceylon race ft dill'erent 



