HINTS ON SILKWOBM-REARING IN <$HE PUNJAB. 



6. The best instrument for making cuttings is a sharp 

 knife, but when large numbers are required, cutting with a cuttings. 

 knife is too slow a process and scissors or secateurs are 

 used: the best make being the "parrot's beak" pattern. 

 These have two cutting edges, and if they are discarded as 



soon as they become .blunt, bruising will be reduced to a 

 minimum. They cost about Rs. 2-8-0 per pair, and, if care- 

 fully used, will make from 10,000 to 20,000 cutting before 

 blunting, and can afterwards be used for rough work where 

 clean cuts are not so important, 



7. Mulberry trees should usually be planted along Tree 

 roadsides or around fields and gardens. The distance between P lantations - 

 these should be about 30 feet. 



8. Bush plantations give a supply of tender young Bush 

 leaves earlier than large trees, -and, as it is most important plantations. 

 to have tender leaves available as early as possible in the 

 Punjab, every silk-rearer should have a small bush planta- 

 tion. To make a bush plantation young plants may be 

 planted about two feet apart in a single line, or in lines four 



to five feet apart. After planting, the plants are cut down 

 to the level of the ground. Hoeing, etc., should be done 

 when necessary. In the spring following that in which the 

 leaves for the young worms have been gathered the plants are 

 cut down to about one foot from the level of the ground. 

 This is repeated yearly until the plants become worn out. 

 New plantations should be started two years before they are 

 actually required. One hundred bushes will supply the 

 worms from one ounce of eggs with food at least up to the 

 second moult. 



9. A sharp knife should, if possible, be used in all Pruning of 

 prunings. Scissors are apt to bruise the wood and leave a young trees * 

 ragged end, liable to be infected by disease germs. All 

 wounds should be cut clean, and large wounds should be 

 coated with tar. The aim in pruning, is to remove all 

 diseased or dead wood as well as branches likely to interfere 



with the development of others, and to shape the tree so that 

 it may produce the maxinrum amount of good wholesome 

 leaves. In the case of a young tree, a suitable number of 

 main* branches should be selected which, if developed, would 

 form a symmetrical tree. All others should then be cut 

 away close down to the main stem, and the leaves from them 



