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the people, being of cleaner habits and more alive to the absolute necessity 

 of attending strictly to the welfare of the insects in the matter of food and 

 ventilation, than are the obstinate and caste-enchained ryots of India, would 

 at once adopt those modes of treatment which were pointed out and insisted 

 upon by competent instructors. But on the other hand when we come to 

 urge " the mild Hindoo" to adopt a better system than he has hitherto pur- 

 sued, we shall at once be met by the declaration that his poverty and dislike 

 of innovation will prevent his making any alteration ; he cannot afford to 

 cultivate the mulberry in any other manner than that which his respected 

 forefathers pursued ; giving the worms more food and of a better quality 

 would increase his expenses so much that he would be compelled to raise the 

 price of the cocoons. To this the purchaser would object, and a system of 

 " pull devil, pull baker," be introduced which would effectually keep all real 

 improvement at a stand still. The native cultivator however must not only 

 alter the quality and quantity of the food, but he must be compelled to erect 

 more suitable rearing-sheds, free alike from the dirt, smoke, and malarious 

 influences arising from neglect of free ventilation and the non-adoption of 

 common sense sanitary principles. Dirt to a poverty-stricken native is 

 second nature, and you cannot wean him from it, nor from his determination 

 to squeeze as much profit out of the worms as he can, at the very least 

 expense to himself, not considering in his blindness that the more he 

 saves in the feeding and rearing, the less he gains on his cocoons ? The 

 cottage system therefore (that is to say what is so considered in Europe) 

 is the one of all others when applied to India the best calculated to insure a 

 bad supply of cocoons ; in short it is the present Bengal system, and ought 

 to be extinguished. If the quantity of silk cultivated in Bengal is to be 

 increased, and the quality improved, it can only be done by restoring the 

 worm, through a better system of feeding, to renewed health and vigour ; 

 this the ryots will never effect, and the sericulturist in Bengal must con- 

 sequently do it for himself. But how, he may ask, am I to do so it the 

 natives persist in thwarting me ? Simply, I reply, by sending the native 

 to Jericho until he comes to his senses ; and in the meantime, as I have 

 repeatedly pointed out, the European sericulturist must take the entire system 

 of cultivation into his own hands; he must in short become in truth a practical 

 cultivator himself, instead of remaining, as now, a mere purchaser of bad 

 cocoons, or being compelled to shut up his filature ; at present he has none 

 other than " Hobson's choice" bad cocoons or none at all. He will probably 

 tell me that he can reel an excellent silk from these cheap cocoons, and 

 doubtless this is true enough, but the real question is whether he gets as much 

 silk and of as good a quality from these cocoons as he would have done had 

 they been more judiciously attended to, and here I answer for him that he 

 certainly does not. Then why not have the best cocoons by putting his 

 own shoulder to the wheel, and forming a plantation from which he may 

 derive ripe leaves containing in perfection in their juices the best material 

 from which the purest silk gum can alone be secreted by the worm ? The 

 lands now occupied by the mulberry bushes in which the natives put such 

 faith should be thoroughly ploughed, manured, and then replanted with young 

 healthy trees or cuttings of the very bast description procurable, taking due 

 care that such trees are, if possible, indigenous in those districts of China, 

 Japan, or elsewhere, in which the monthly worms are themselves either 

 indigenous or extensively cultivated, for by so doing you may fortunately 

 apportion to the insects the very trees, or some of them, upon which they 

 in the first instance existed. Then as to the rearing- houses; they too should 

 be solely under the control and supervision of the capitalist himself, with an 

 intelligent European superintendent under him, the ryots being employed 

 tinder his eye in picking and bringing in the leaves as frequently and in 

 such quantities as the case requires ; let there be no stinting, but see that 

 the work is properly attended to, for a saving in the feeding will be a loss on 

 the cocoon. By this method the health of the worms would be improved 



