SILK 



ANTHER^EA PAPHIA 



Tasar 



INDIAN WILD SILKS 



Propagation of 

 Trees. 



Guarding the 

 Caterpillars. 



Female Moths 

 Eetained. 



Feeding in the 

 Open. 



Eesent 

 Interference. 



Early 

 Experiments. 



Collection of 

 Young Worms. 



Seed Cocoons. 



Efforts to 

 Simplify. 



Failure to 

 Domesticate. 



Would not Pay. 



of greater success from special cultivation over restricted areas, as com- 

 pared with collection by the ordinary method from wild sources, were 

 misleading. The semi-domestication that ordinarily prevails is to en- 

 deavour to grow (or rather to encourage the natural growth), within a 

 certain tract of country, the tree or trees on which it is intended to rear 

 the insect. The seed cocoons are collected from the jungles and tied on 

 to the trees. Thereafter men and boys, armed with pellet-bows, guard 

 the insects, as far as may be possible, against their enemies chiefly flocks 

 of birds that would greedily devour the caterpillars. In some few localities 

 specially selected cocoons are reserved from last year's supply for the 

 purpose of seed, and it is even occasionally the practice to allow the moths 

 to make their escape from the cocoons under confinement, and to retain 

 the females as prisoners in a position where they may be visited by the 

 wild males, and thereafter to tie the little cages or baskets containing 

 the eggs on to the trees. But it has been proved beyond dispute that 

 the worms will not feed properly in captivity. The pairing of the moths 

 and the production of the eggs may be accomplished under cover but the 

 feeding must be done in the open air. Moreover, the worms are very 

 timid, and must not be disturbed while feeding. In some localities 

 they are carried from one tree to another when the supply of leaf runs 

 short, but even this degree of interference is resented, arid the worms 

 seem never to form proper cocoons when any such interruption has oc- 

 curred during the vigorous feeding stage. 



For more than a century continuous efforts have been made in India to 

 improve and extend the traffic. In 1796 Michael Atkinson (a correspondent 

 of Roxburgh's) wrote : " This species cannot be domesticated. I am informed 

 that the Natives cannot even retain any of it for seed. The hill people say 

 that they go into the jungles, and under the byer and asseen trees they find the 

 excrement of the insects ; on which they examine the trees, and on discovering 

 the small worms, they cut off branches sufficient for their purpose, with the 

 young brood on them ; these they carry off to a convenient situation near their 

 houses and distribute the branches on the asseen tree in proportion to the size 

 thereof, but they put none on the byer. 1 ' The Board of Trade of Bengal published 

 in 1819 a series of reports on the " tusaah " silk, one of which is entitled Modes 

 of rearing the Gutis (gootee = cocoon). " The seed is purchased from the jungle 

 people, who collect it in August. Plots in the forest are appropriated for rearing 

 where the ashan, sal and sejah trees predominate, particularly the first, which 

 constitutes the best food. Those spots are carefully cleared of other trees and 

 shrubs annually. Just before the perforation, the seed cocoons are tied on to 

 the trees. The rearers live in huts erected on the plot, keeping guard night 

 and day with pellet-bows to drive away kites, crows and other birds." 



These two passages may perhaps suffice to show that a century ago the system 

 pursued was in every detail that followed to-day. But, as already mentioned, 

 some thirty years ago Major Coussmaker conducted, on behalf of the Government 

 of Bombay (Admin. Rept. Bomb.,1816-7, 172; Coussmaker, Kept., March 14, 1883), 

 extensive experiments in order to ascertain how far the Native system might 

 be simplified and improved. He made many important discoveries and solved 

 most of the obscure problems of the life-history of the insect, but at the same 

 time his results demonstrated conclusively that in Poona at least, the insect 

 could not, under any degree of domestication, be reared profitably. Accordingly 

 his final report expressed the opinion that systematic tasar silk-growing would 

 not pay. Another practical investigator, Mr. W. Coldstream, though he formed 

 a slightly more favourable opinion than Major Coussmaker, admitted that the 

 future of the industry would depend on whether it could be made to pay. Cold- 

 stream, moreover, worked with a view to discover if tasar silk production could 

 be engrafted on the village industries of the Panjab, rather than the establish- 

 ment of a large commercial industry. Mr. H. C. Cookson wrote a monograph 

 on The Silk Industry of the Panjab (1887), which republishes, as an appendix, 

 Coldstream's report of his experiments. Later on a second monograph on The 



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