Review of 

 Literature. 



Dyeing. 



Carding. 

 Heeling. 



Double 

 Spinneret. 



Special 

 Properties. 



Steam 

 Essential. 



Cotes. 



Mukerji. 



Dewar. 



Sambalpur 

 and Chanda. 



European 

 Commerce. 



Yamamai. 



INDIAN WILD SILKS 



spin cocoons in September ; 2nd crop (a small portion of 1st) emerges in 

 October and spins cocoons about January ; the 3rd crop, moths emerge 

 from cocoons of the 1st and 2nd crops about June, which brings us back 

 to the first crop again. A proportion of the September cocoons only 

 emerges in the following August. 



TECHNICAL REPORTS. H. J. S. Cotton, editor of The Statistical Reporter 

 (1876, i., 91-3), wrote a paper on the Development of the Tasar Silk Industry, in 

 which he reviewed the information available up to that date regarding the 

 reeling, bleaching and dyeing of this silk. A gentleman at Lyons had in 1872 

 invented and patented, Cotton tells us, a process which he claimed to have solved 

 these difficulties. Sir Thomas Wardle also discovered a process of dyeing tasar 

 silk in brilliant colours, and of giving it the lustre of Chinese silk. Mention was 

 at the same time made of a patent taken out by Messrs. Gaddum and Bosshardt 

 of carding the silk of different cocoons. About the same time, Mr. Jules Deveria 

 of Rampur Boalia announced that he had discovered a process of reeling tasar 

 on the ordinary filature. 



The Government of India in a Resolution, dated November 23, 1875, fur- 

 nished particulars of the more important investigations that had been conducted 

 both in India and Europe. The chief difficulty depends on an inherent defect 

 in the filaments spun by the worm. It is explained that the silk is produced by 

 the insect from a double spinneret, and that the resulting filaments are not parallel 

 but spirals that touch each other at the exterior points of their curves only, and 

 are held in that position by the natural gum in which exuded. It is to this 

 peculiarity that some of the special properties of tasar silk, such as its elasticity, 

 are due. It is necessary that the degree of croissure should be exerted to bring 

 the filaments into a round thread. This could only be obtained in fully equipped 

 filatures, and nothing but steam could ensure the uniformly high temperature 

 indispensable. At the period here indicated it was accordingly regarded that 

 the complete reeling of tasar silk in the form that would command a large Euro- 

 pean market could not be accomplished as a village industry. A further Reso- 

 lution of the Government of India brings the knowledge of this subject up to the 

 date of February 1879 ; the Resolution and its enclosures will be found re- 

 printed in the Indian Forester (1879, v., 77-101). Cotes brought the information 

 up to the date of 1890, and furnished most admirable illustrations of the worm, 

 the male and female moths, and the cocoons. Mukerji (Handbook of Sericult., 

 India) afforded much useful additional information regarding tasar, but he 

 may be said to have been specially concerned to make the merits of the Japanese 

 and Chinese worms known. Dewar, on the other h-ind, observes that the mere 

 fact that tasar rearing, spinning and weaving are village industries, often com- 

 bined with agricultural pursuits, gives them an interest to the administrator. 

 The aboriginal or low-caste people who rear the tasar worm and gather the 

 cocoons live in the most remote and jungly villages. The weavers form com- 

 munities in the towns which are not too far from the jungle tracts. Dewar 

 remarks, in his chapter devoted to the history of tasar, that the earliest record 

 of its appearance in the Central Pro vices "would seem to be that of Chanda 

 district, where in 1775, under the Mahrattas, the monopoly of rearing silk- 

 worms and making tasar-silk was farmed out by the ruling power, just as is 

 still done in some Feudatory States." Sambalpur and Chanda are the chief 

 districts in the production of tasar, with Raipur and Bilaspur taking good second 

 places. During the latter half of the 19th century the Government of India 

 made repeated efforts to extend and improve the production in the Central 

 Provinces, but with little practical results. Dewar reviews the various efforts 

 that were put forth, and his Monograph will be found of special value and 

 interest in that respect. Paranjpe (Ind. For., 1902, xxviii., 192-6) gives a 

 sketch of the life-history of the tosar-worm in Bhandara. 



Mukerji (Monog., I.e.) observes that there are several classes of cocoons which 

 go by the generic name tasar. Those recognised in commerce, according to the 

 quality of their silks, are: (1) The Yamamai cocoon of Japan (.tnthef<v 

 ytinnitnni) (2) the China tasar (.4. jin-nyi) ; (3) the muga of Assam (A. asuttmn) ; 

 and (4) the Bengal tasar (A. i> t>hi,i). All the other wild silks, he tells us, are 

 in Bengal grouped under the name bharuas. Of the commercial forms mentioned, 

 the Bengal tasar has the greatest length of fibre, though it is inferior to that of 

 the other three. The Yamamai is so highly prized in Japan that, by law, capital 

 punishment may be meted out to any person exporting the seed-cocoons or eggs. 



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