811 K 



MULBKKin I'l.v.NT OWBYX 



Cnlttratton 



for tin- liKliiin MlU,,,m is M. ttuliea, Ltnn., of whirl, there are many Mulberry 

 distinctive varieties or noes. Thin in the most Plant. 



Bengal and Assam, as also of the Nilgiri hill-. Thr pUnu an* iwually 



I under whut is call. -I tti<- bush Mvwtein tin- M.nrUrd or fr*M system ta* 4 TVW 

 hardly if ever seen in these localiti. I 



that slirut) mulberries are produced systematic.! ,t a cost 



to 25 per bigha (one-third acre). There is b tdvanUgr 



u, namely that the leaf produced is preferred bv th chhotajxtlu in- 

 Mukerji strongly recommends that mulberry trees should also be 

 grown within or around the plantation, and for that parpOM he suggest* 

 M. til tut, mr. fitrojmrimrfti. It is a fast-growing plant ; the leaves 

 are large and thick and at the same tim.- loculeot. 



.17. serratfi. Roxb. (the karun or fcwnu), M. la*ri<f>it<i. M -/'/ (th- Other 

 kimbu and tawpwesa), though wild, the former on the western and Mulberries, 

 the latter on the eastern Himalaya and the mountains of Assam and 

 Burma, are not to any material extent employed as food for the true 

 silkworm. 



Buchanan-Hamilton (Slot. Ace. Dinaj., 210-3) gives particulars of Historic 

 the method of cultivation of the mulberry and the feeding of the worm Haoordaof 

 that prevailed in Bengal during the closing decade of tin- I nth 

 In the volume of official papers on the cultivation of mulberry, issued 

 by the Bengal Board of Trade from 1813 down to 1836 (I.e. 63-1 n. 

 130-163) will be found a special report by Roxburgh entitled Obtervatiotu 

 on the Indian Mulberry Tree, M. indica, Linn. (I.e. 69-71), and also a 

 similar paper by Wallich (I.e. 130-3, in whi h lie describes /. ///fjo, 

 M. atroftnrj>iir<-<f. M. /r/tfnxf(irhi/u and '/. -< / / >it<i. These re- 

 ports give a full record of the early experiments at improving the Indian 

 silk by the production of better food for the worms, and are exceedingly 

 instructive and valuable. Mukcrji (Handbook of Sericult., 1899, 1-4 ; 

 also Monog., I.e. 5-9) deals with present methods and opinions. " All 

 varieties of mulberry are not equally suited," he says, " for rearing every 

 kind of silkworm. The mulberry tree which we usually see in gardens, 

 which yields large-sized black-coloured and luscious fruits i- '/. / 

 The leaves of that tree are rather coarse and not quite suitable for rearing 

 silkworms." He then says that if the chhotapalu worm be reared on 

 .>/. n if/ i-d it readily takes the disease flacherie, and the other forms of tin- 

 insect, if reared on the black mulberry, yield a less proportion of silk ami 

 that of an inferior quality. Mukerji then adds that / . /// MtM mini may 

 be regarded as the best for rearing silkworms. He doubtless means the 

 Chinese and Philippine plant described by Perrotet.and which Rafinesque Philippine 

 discusses in detail. [Cf. American Manual of Mulberry Trees, 1839, 64-6 ; Plant. 

 also Fl N. America, 1836, pt. iii., 48.] The attention of the Madras 

 Government was drawn to this species of mulberry by Col. Sykes in II 

 and a supply was procured by Wight and grown in the Horticultural 

 Society's gardens, Madras, about 1840, and a little later was taken to 

 Bangalore and the Nilgiri hills. The leaves are large and tender, 

 are thick but not coarse. The tree grows fast and attains a greater 

 height than other varieties. The internodes are short and the yield 

 of leaf accordingly high. It is doubtless one of the many varieties 

 races of M. <t1ba. As a curiosity it may be added that the American 

 Osage orange (Mtu-fnrn r<uii>,,,. \uU.) has be*n introduced into ^ 

 India and found useful for rearing mulberry silkworms of all kinds. 



999 



