7IO 



tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [ApRit i, 1886. 



bushels ;• in 1884,5 bushels yielded 23 bushels : in ISSf), 

 2J bushels yielded 7U bushels. 



Tiie Ratemahatmaya of Boligal Korale, in the Ke- 

 galla District, reports that he used the new iron plough 

 for 15 lahas of a field, and ouly the native plough for 

 another 15 lahas of the same field. 



From the 16 lahas cultivated with the iron plough he 

 obtained 3 amunams and G lahas, which was rather moi-p 

 than 21-fold, and from the 15 lahas cultivated with llie 

 Dfttive plough he only obtaiued 5 amuuams, which was 

 13-fold. He had before only obtained 13-foId from tlie 

 land which now yiel.i.-d :;i-fold with the iron plough. 



The Schoolmaster of Wallala has also used the iron 

 plough, and his crops are looking much better than 

 those cultivated with only the native plough. They have 

 since been reaped, and he got 52-fold against 20-fold. 



It should be remembered that the proper way to ctdt- 

 iVHte with the iron plough is first to plough with the 

 iron plough about six weeks before the usual ploughing 

 time, and afterwards to mix up the land thus ploughrd 

 by ploughing again with the native plough across the 

 furrows maide by the iron plough. 



With ordinary good luck a much better crop must he 

 the result.— H. W. Green, Director of Public In- 

 struction, 



(JOMMEEICAL aspects of the .SIJ.K 



INDUSTRY, 



Our attention is almost compulsorily arrested by 

 the fact of the decadence of this industry in our 

 own country, a decadence threatened by extinction 

 gradual but sure. 



A few useful figures from the Board of Trade 

 returns of the value of the imports into the l.'nitod 

 Kiugdoni, and of the exports of British and Irish 

 pro, luce from 1854 to 1880, ordered by the House of 

 Commons to be printed in 1882, most seriously shows 

 this. I will only give the totals of various kinds of 

 silk goods manufactured by countries in Europe during 

 two decades, and purchased by England. 



Imports of silk manufactures from the eoutineut 

 of Europe, Decade 1854 to 1863. 



£ 



Total 33,732,335 



Decade 1874 to 1»83. 

 Total 118,310,572 



lu 18»5, our total imports of manufactured silk from 

 coimtries in Europe amounted to a value of £1.826,525. 



In 1880, the total imports of manufactured silk from 

 countries in Europe had grown gradually year by 

 year in value to £13,085,083. 



Thus in 25 years we had come to buy from countries 

 in Europe of articles we ougiit to have manufactured 

 for ourselves no less than £11,258,558, an alrao.st 

 iucredible sum. 



The breeding of silkworms has for a long time been 

 a most important industry in Italy and the south of 

 France. The total production of cocoous from these 

 worms in Italy amourited, in 1881, to 39,300 tons, 

 and in 1880, to 40,030 tons. In France, in 1881, the 

 production of cocoons amounted to 20,3t'2,179 ~ i),090 

 tonf , and were principally laised iu the Departments 

 C4arii, Ardiche, Drome, Vaucluse, Var, and by the 

 mouths of the Rhone. Freuch statistics show that 

 from this large ijuautity of Freuch cocoous was produced, 

 in 1881 :— 



Raw silk. 



lbs. tons. 



Total product iu West Europe. 8,(188,614 3^79 

 From the Levant 1,366,300 611 



It will be seen from these figures what a very 

 Important matter it is that the greatest attention 

 should be paid to the earlier operations in the manu- 

 facture of silk threads, and one cannot be surprised 

 at the Lyons Chamber of Commerce starting anew' to 

 ascertain all the facts reli-tive to the proper .sij;iiig, 

 i.e., producing even threiuis of silk in a more minute 

 and exact manner than herntofore. For if the earlier 

 stages and operations have not for their aim and 

 bffcct tilt) production cf rn; even thread, no after 



manipulation oi winding, warping, dyeing, weaving, or 

 finisuiug can effectually avail iu tm'ning out fabrics 

 of the finest qualities, in all or any oi tUe vaiioue 

 purposes for wuich bilk ie used. Hitherto ihe sizing 

 lias been by ruio of thumb, and dependent on skilled 

 eyesight and fingers, iu first sorting cocoons and 

 alterwards reeling 4, 6, 8, or more together, according 

 to the required tnickiiess of thread, or what at this 

 stage is termed raw silk, that is, the state iu which it 

 comes into the market before it is manufactured into 

 organzine, train singles, &c. An examination ot the 

 thi.kness of Uie ultimate fibre must thtn take first 

 place, and this method has now commenced, and will 

 Oe carried on iu tue new Lyons Laboratory, not only 

 of all species and varieties, or, as the French call 

 them, races, of cocoons, but of the thickness of these 

 fibres throuijhuut the enure length of the cocoons, 

 which 1 have discovered to be very variable. >«'ext come 

 the important eaaminatious, of strength and tension, 

 or elasticity, whicu the toregomg tables illustrate iu 

 both the silks of domesticated and of wild worms. 

 Tbe necessity for exammations such as these is more 

 apparent in the njanutacture of those silks which, 

 some years ago, 1 ventiued lo designate by the name 

 wild. For some of the wild bilks ot India, for examph-. 

 there is a great future, a jirediction warranted by the 

 successful employment of the principal wild silk, 

 Tussur — or as it is ttrmed in its vernacular, Tasar — 

 duriug the last se\'eii years. It would not be right to 

 omit Uere the mention of the name of .Sir (ieorge 

 Birdwood, C.S.L, M.D. in connection with Tussur silk. 

 In my South Kensing on Bluseum " ilanilbook ot the 

 '\\'iUi Silks ot India, ' 1 quotoil a paper which he 

 wrote m luilia, as long since as 1859, m which he 

 advocates the desirability of au attempt being made in 

 l^ugiautl to utilise Xusoui silk, a suggestion which he 

 hat. lived to see now abundantly realised. The extent 

 to which the consumpliou of 'iussur silk in Europe 

 has reached is very large. Franco imported, from 

 one port alone, last year, 0,000 bales of raw Tussur 

 silk. Several Euglish mauutacturers have thrown during 

 last year large quantities as high, in one instance, as 

 1,0U*J bales. Tile whole of these recently-increased 

 imports may be said to be badly reeled from the 

 cocoon, much of it very badly reeled indeed, causing 

 the European manulacturcrs to cry out loudly for 

 injpro\ cii leuliug in the Eastern centres of production. 

 Already has thj improvement begun, and to such an 

 extent has it been proveil practicable by one of my 

 many correspondents and collaborateurs in the East, 

 that raw Tutsur is produced from a .single liave only — 

 that is, so delicate in the imju-ovcd reeling, that the 

 beautilul raw Tussur you sue iiere is simply the double 

 fibre Iroui a r^ingle cocoou reeled into a single thread 

 successtuUy, proving '■ouclusi\ely enough that in this, 

 as in other upeiies of silk, if the (juality of the raw 

 silk put in tUe market is ilefective in any w,Hy, it is 

 not the fault of the silkwoim. which always djes its 

 work with the precision that the honey bee buildii 

 her cell, hut rather the hitherto inadequeucy of ' 

 preceptiou ol man to ascertain and adjust tde natural 

 variations and difference of the fibre of so wondrous 

 a beauty, and so incomprehensible a product. 



Mr. SI. Blair (Glasgow) said he bad recently had 

 the opportunity of rieitiug India, and might gay s few 

 words abouv tae wild siiiis of that country, to which 

 be thought bilk manufacturers in England had chiefiy 

 to look in the future. t>ue of the first things which 

 struck a vimtoi to India was the enormous resourcos 

 of that great euqiire, the vegetable, animal and 

 mineral, thoroughly eNplaining why it was thai all Iho 

 great nalioi*. which bad held the Kast and A\'e3t 

 tiaiiic bail nourished so exceeilingly — irom the llaby- 

 loiiiaus and i'uienicntiis down to the English. The 

 second thing, however, winch struck bun, was the 

 unreliable charactfr of llie people; the apathy anil 

 inaitference lo a»i ideas ot improvement and aavaueement 

 w.xs something which an Englishman, and ceitainly 

 which a .Scutcbmau, couid hardly compielicutl. In 

 India thcie was a large population living, and content 

 tu live, on the verge ot starvation, ami il you increased 

 their income, cue of two things took jiiace.. Either 



