SILK 



BOMBYX 



Races of Insect 



this insect 



INDIAN MULBERRY SILKS 



Intermixing. 



Most Inferior 

 Kind. 



D.E.P., 



vi., pt. iii., 

 2, 19-22, 

 235. 



Bara Pat 

 or Palu. 



Introduction. 



Annual. 

 March Band. 



Best Quality. 



Delicate to 

 Rear. 



Objections. 



Distribution of 



Hatched 



Worms. 



Storing and 

 Hatching Eggs. 



Hatching in 

 January. 



White 

 Mulberry. 



the reports are unfavourable, and speak of the breed having de- 

 generated in Bengal. Of Cossimbuzar, for example, it was observed that there had 

 been a great intermixing of deai cocoons with the China stock. The latter pre- 

 dominates in the April band, the distinctive mark being the length and thinness 

 of the cocoon. This is considered by the rearers as the most inferior kind 

 and " is nearly exploded as a distinct species." 



(f) B. textor, Hutton, Trans. Entom. Soc., 1864, ii., 313 ; Wardle, Wild 

 Silks in India, 1881, 2 ; Louis, A Few Words on Sericult. in Bengal, 1880, 20; 

 Rondot, L' 'Art de la Soie, 1885, i., 320 ; Quajat, Dei Bozzoli, 1904, iii. ; Cotes, 

 Ind. Mus. Notes. 1889-91, i., 154 : Mukerji, Handbook of Sericult., 1899, 155-62. 

 The boro polo or barapalu Large Pat the annual silkworm of Bengal. Speed 

 (Agri.-Hort. Soc. Ind. Trans., 1839, iii., 19-20) fixed the date of the introduction 

 of this insect into India, viz. 120 years before the date of his paper, etc. He further 

 says that it came from Italy. There is no confirmation of these views in any of 

 the records I have been able to consult. 



Cotes speaks of this as an annual mulberry silkworm, larger than either the 

 desi or the madrasi. In the official papers issued 1819, it is stated that in the 

 district of Cossimbuzar this insect predomirated in the March band ; moreover it 

 was added that in the Cossimbuzar factory that band was second in quantity but 

 first in quality of all the bands in the year. Of Bauleah it was remarked in 1817 

 that not a cocoon of this description was produced. On the other hand, the 

 Resident at Hurripaul spoke of it as the most valuable and as yielding the best 

 silk in the March band. Of Jungypore, it was stated that notwithstanding every 

 exertion, the production of this cocoon had become exceedingly precarious and 

 uncertain. Radnagore reported that in a good season this insect was very 

 abundant and profitable and produced in the proportion of at least two to one of 

 the other species. The Resident of Soonamooky observed that the eggs are 

 brought out for hatching about the end of January and in 40 to 45 days the 

 cocoons are complete. This insect, he added, is, however, most difficult to rear 

 and is much more delicate than the others. But the silk is of fine fibre and strong, 

 and ought to be very mellow to the feel and of clear yellow colour with some 

 white. The yield is about 103,500 khauns, which ought to yield about one hundred 

 and fifty factory maunds of silk. 



It is at present occasionally reared in Assam and Bengal, but owing to the fact 

 that it produces but one crop of cocoons in the year and tha.t its eggs do not 

 hatch simultaneously, its cultivation has now been almost abandoned. To-day 

 Mukerji deplores the decline in production that has taken place. " The Bara- 

 palu is reared," he says, " by very few people. There are two reasons for neglect- 

 ing such a superior class of cocoons : (1) The eggs of the Chhotapalu, the Nistri- 

 palu, or the Cheenapalu take only eight to ten days to hatch, but the eggs of the 

 Barapalu hatch after ten months ; (2) Barapalus go on hatching for seven or eight 

 days or still longer, while the eggs of the other varieties of Bengal silkworms 

 hatch completely in two or three days, when once the hatching does commence." 

 Mukerji makes the practical suggestion that if arrangements could be made for 

 hatching barapalu eggs in certain central establishments and distributing hatched 

 worms to villages instead of eggs, the rearing of barapalu could be made to assume 

 some importance. Mukerji (I.e. 159) gives many useful particulars regarding 

 the methods of storing and hatching the eggs, and shows that by subjecting them 

 to a fairly low temperature for a fortnight, followed by a similar period of warm 

 temperature, the eggs may be caused to hatch at any time desired, thus producing 

 pseudo-broods as leaf may be obtainable. Naturally, they hatch in January 

 and the cocoons are obtained in February, and from them four pseudo-broods may 

 be taken, viz. a second brood in March, a third in September, and a fourth in 

 October. Rondot writes that this variety spins a white cocoon smaller than that 

 of B. i oi-f and differing from it both in form and structure, being generally 

 pointed at both ends, a little soft, the silk not closely wound and containing 

 comparatively little gum. 



M ULBERRY-PLANT CULTIVA TION. (see Morus, pp. 784-5). In the 

 temperate tracts of India various forms of Morus alba, Linn, (the mulberry 

 of the European silk-producing countries), are grown specially as food for 

 the silkworm. This is the case in many parts of the plains of Northern 

 India, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, and along the Himalaya at 

 altitudes up to 11,000 feet. The other species even more largely grown 



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