17 



and the cocoons become well stuffed with silk of a superior quality ; ventila- 

 tion, cleanliness, temperature, all being properly attended to, the yield oi silk 

 in the hands of the sericulturist would in all probability be double what 

 it now is. The greatest difficulty to contend against would no doubt arise 

 from the dislike to introduce a new system. Yet this I am confident will be 

 the only means of putting the present vicious system on a better and more 

 remunerative footing. It may be said that it is advisable to " let well alone," 

 but unfortunately the present hue and cry and stir at Home for the extension 

 and improvement of Bengal silk at once proclaims that there is very little 

 that is good enough to be let alone. A radical change must be effected, for 

 after all it simply comes to this, that if you wish to increase the quantity of 

 silk you will never be able to do so under the present faulty system of feeding 

 and rearing ; consequently you must either change it for a better, or be con- 

 tent to remain as you are at present. Let your efforts, however, be confined 

 to Bengal and Southern India, for if you attempt to introduce the monthly 

 worms into the Upper Provinces, nothing but failure and loss of capital will 

 b the result, and as you cannot with all your skill " make a silken purse out 

 of a sow's ear," so neither can you force these worms to thrive in localities 

 and climates where nature has decreed that they shall not thrive. 



By the term " extension of silk cultivation in India" I apprehend is meant 

 a more general diffusion of the worms, a greater quantity of silk from a 

 given number of worms, and greater attention in the reeling; if such be 

 the case I warn the sericulturist against the diffusion of the monthly worms 

 beyond Bengal, for the reasons already given, while with respect to the 

 Boropooloo, or B. textor, it should be at once removed from Bengal, where it 

 is said to be fast dying out, to a colder climate in some parts of the Sub- 

 himalaya, where it could be profitably cultivated side by side with Bombyx 

 mori from Cashmere. 



It is an utter fallacy to suppose that the silkworm requires a climate free 

 from moisture ; it is the want of humidity in the climate of the Upper 

 Provinces that enfeebles the worm and makes it languid and limp, thus 

 rendering it incapable of yielding a full crop of silk. This has been well 

 proved this season (1869) at Mussooree, among the wild silkworms (B. 

 Huttoni), for while last year this species was found in hundreds on every 

 tree, there is now, from the great heat and want of rain and humidity, not 

 one to be seen. The eggs of last autumn still remain upon the trees ; a 

 few have hatched and the worms have been literally shrivelled up by want 

 of rain and by the prevalence of scorching heat, while other eggs are still 

 unhatched in June and are waiting for the setting in of the periodical 

 monsoon. If then the heat thus injuriously operates upon the indigenous 

 worms in our climate, what must be its effect in those scorching districts 

 which are subject to the furnace-like blast of the hot winds ? ^ Where the 

 speculator possesses " more money than brains" the best possible way of 

 equalising the two will be to attempt silk cultivation with Chinese worms 

 in the North-western Provinces of India, Taking it for granted, however, 



nothing but the doctrine of chances to guu .. 



safely predict a rapidly approaching time when prejudice and red tape will 

 be cast aside, and a new era be ushered in. The time for mere^experiments 

 has passed away; the mulberry worms have been introduced into districts 

 where they had previously had no fair trial, and in every instance sigral 

 failure has been the result ; we have now hard facts and experience before 

 us as a guide, and if we do not profit by what we have thus learnt there will 

 be nothing but failure in the future. 



Secondly, with regard to " the introduction of silkworms wherever the 

 mulberry is capable of giving food to the worms," I view the doctrine 

 simply as a piece of claptrap, calculated only to spin out a speech and lure 



