6 



HINTS ON SILKWOEM-REARINa IN THE PUNJAB. 



Quantity of 

 seed per 

 household 



Incubation 

 of seed. 



a temperature below 45 E. : a higher temperature during 

 this period will prove injurious. In the first week of Febru- 

 ary, in time to commence the hatchings, the eggs are 

 brought down to the plains and distributed to the rearers. 



15. Sericulture can be developed only as a cottage 

 industry : large roarings have always been shown to be un- 

 profitable. Small families of three persons can rear only one 

 ounce of seed 30,000 eggs). Bigger families may try 

 two ounces but that should be the maximum in all cases : 

 for beginners half an ounce per family is quite sufficient. A 

 very general mistake is to take too much seed. To rear 

 an ounce of silkworm seed 25 full-grown mulberry trees 

 are necessary, a point which should be carefully borne in 

 mind. 



16. The incubation of seed is effected as follows : 



(j) DATE OF STARTING INCUBATION. 



The incubation of the seed should be started as early as possible in 

 February so that the cocoon crop should be finished before the setting 

 in of the greater heat about the middle of April. The incubation period 

 is two weeks, and the life of the worm to spinning time is 45 days. 



Eggs should be put out to hatch after, if possible, being dipped in 

 1 to 2 % copper sulphate solution and then dried in the shade, see 

 paragraph 27 (2) and (3} as soon as buds begin to sprout on mulberries, 

 so that the hatching out of the worms may coincide with the opening of 

 the young leaves. The Desi Katha mulberry trees produce buds about the 

 15th of February which come in leaf at the end of that month, Hence 

 where early-leafing mulberries are not available incubation cannot be 

 started before the middle of February. Where, however, even a small 

 amount of Phillipine mulberry is available, incubation can be started 

 earlier, as they produce leaves about twelve days before the desi mulberry. 



(2) METHOD OF INCUBATION. 



Incubation is effected by keeping the seed at a uniform tempera- 

 ture of about 77 F. till all the worms hatch out. Any sudden varia- 

 tions in temperature during this period are extremely injurious and 

 should be avoided. 



Various methods of incubation are in practice, 

 most primitive. Of these the commonest are 



Some of them are 



(a) Keeping the seed in small bags suspended next to the 

 body. 



