SILK 



ANTHER^EA PAPHIA 

 Tasar 



INDIAN WILD SILKS 



Supposed Effect 

 of Pebrine. 



Rearing-houses. 



Grainage, or 

 Selec ting- 

 house. 



Hereditary 

 Rearers. 



Wild Silks. 



D.E.P., 



vi., pt. iii., 

 96 161. 

 Tasar. 



Names. 



from those of Europe, America or the Colonies. Perhaps the chief difference 

 lies in the climate enfeebling the insect by causing it to produce too many 

 broods in the year. But the prevalence of certain of the above-mentioned 

 diseases uncontrolled is doubtless the chief cause of the decline of the Bengal 

 industry. Mukerji (I.e. 41-53), in an introductory chapter, discvisses the general 

 aspects of the diseases of the Bengal worm, and makes many highly practical 

 recommendations. About 60 per cent, of the silkworms, he says, die imme- 

 diately after spinning a cocoon and after having eaten the full quantity of leaf. 

 On this account the silk-rearers have for the past twenty-five years or so (in 

 other words, subsequent to the appearance of pebrine) been steadily giving up 

 their ancestral craft and taking to ordinary agricultural pursuits. There would . 

 seem no great reason why this wave of unpopularity could not be stemmed 

 by vigorous efforts to assist and educate the rearers in the methods essential 

 to the control of the plague. 



Mukerji gives many interesting details (I.e. 128-50) regarding the construction 

 of rearing-houses. where the selection and improvement of stock might be con- 

 ducted, and the elimination of disease by the microscopic selection of eggs. The 

 grainage, he urges, should be established close to a large tank or river ; should 

 be surrounded by mulberry trees ; should be one mile away from cocoon- 

 rearing villages, filatures or cocoon godowns ; and should be in a village where a 

 sufficient community exists conversant with the picking of ripe worms, handling 

 moths and planting mulberries. It is not possible to conduct sericulture under 

 hired labour, if the workers are not drawn from the hereditary silkworm rearers. 

 This point is of vital importance, as it takes many years' careful training to acquire 

 the expert knowledge essential to success. 



//. THE WILD SILKWORMS THE SATURNIID^B. 



Out of the long lists of wild insects that have been published by writers 

 on this subject, only three Indian and two Chinese and Japanese species 

 are of commercial importance. These are : Indian-Tosar silkworm, 

 Antherwa paphia ; the Muga, A. assaina ; and the Eri, Attacus 

 ricini : Chinese- Tasar, Anthercen pernyi : and Japanese--Mw</a, 

 Ant/lewd f/aiii<(inf(i. The last two insects are only mentioned here 

 because they come into trade in opposition to the corresponding Indian 

 insects, and on that account have been classed by the trade as forms of 

 tasar and muga silks. 



II. Anthersea paphia, Linn. ; (A. mylitta, Drury) ; Hampson, 

 Fa. Br. Ind. (Moths), i., 18; Rumphius, Herb. Ami., 1750, iii., 115, 

 t. 75 ; Petiver, Opera. Hist. Nat., 1767, i., t. v., f. 9 ; Roxburgh, Trans. 

 Linn. Soc., 1804, vii., 33-42, t. 2 ; Geoghegan, Silk in India, 1880, 139- 

 50 ; Dumaine, Journ. Agri.-Hort. Soc. Ind., vii., 1886, 286-78, 327-30 ; 

 Wardle, Wild Silks of Ind., 13-28 ; Watt, Cat. Calc. Intern. Exhib., 1883-4, 

 iii., 74-87 ; Cotes, Ind. Mus. Notes, 1890, i., 157-62 ; Resolution of Govt. 

 C. Prov., Agri. Ledg., 1893, No. 9; Hailey, Monog. Silk Indust. Pb., 1899, 

 1-4 ; Edgar Thurston, Monog. Silk Fabrics of Madras, 1899, 19 ; Mukerji, 

 Handbook of Sericult. in Ind., 178 ; Yusuf Ali, Monog. Silk in U. Prov., 

 1900, 4-7 ; Dewar, Monog. Silk Fabrics C. Prov., 1901 ; Mukerji, Monog. 

 Silk Fabrics Beng., 1903 ; also Report on an Inquiry into State of Tasar 

 Silk Indust. in Beng. and C. Prov., 1905 ; Hanausek, Micro. Tech. Prod. 

 (Winton and Barber, transl.), 1907, 148-9. 



Tasar silkworm of India, a name which in English commerce is often 

 written " tussur " or " tusser" and in French " tussore." It is usually 

 said to mean a shuttle, and to be derived from tasara or trasara in Sanskrit, 

 but neither of these words are employed by the older authors to designate 

 a particular form of silk. Mr. A. Yusuf Ali points out that the letter 

 " t " in the word for shuttle is the soft dental, while in the word tasar 

 silk it is the sharp palatal " t " two letters that are not often inter- 



1002 



