10 



The parts italicised in the foregoing extract are these : 

 First " The irregularity of hatching ;" showing that the cross was already 

 acting injuriously upon the eggs. 



Secondly " The choice between cocoons of pure French stock and those 

 of the cross was altogether on the side of the former" Proving the unmixed 

 to be the best. 



Thirdly Fondly imagining that he had succeeded in amalgamating or 

 fusing the two natures, he did not reduce them by further crossing, and what 

 was the result ? Simply that from the moment when crossing ceased, 

 nature stepped in and asserted her authority by again casting out the effects 

 of the cross, and causing the hybrids to revert to annuals. In this like- 

 wise we perceive the folly of declaring that " everything is most successfully 

 crossed, and the improvements are permanent." I can only suppose, if 

 this be the fact, which however it is not, that there were no improvements 

 in these hybrids to become permanent. 



Fourthly The dark colour of the eggs " indicated that the hybrid had 

 still too much French nature ;" that is to say, that the influence of the 

 stronger Boro-pooloo (B. textor) was prepotent over the weaker monthly 

 worms, and had reverted them to annuals. 



Fifthly The worrns^ became annuals " after there had been a complete 

 break in their nature." The fact is otherwise : There had been no break 

 in the nature of either species, but simply dire confusion for a time, succeeded 

 by reversion to their natural condition, by which the temporary union was 

 dissolved and again contemptuously cast out. 



Sixthly Mr. Bashford thought it a very extraordinary thing that rever- 

 sion should have succeeded to what he considered the accomplishment of 

 his wishes ; yet there was nothing extraordinary throughout these changes ; 

 they were simply indications of a struggle between nature and Mr. Bashford 

 for the mastery, the^one being determined if possible to preserve her species 

 pure, and the other if possible to destroy them by the application of what 

 he termed " the arts and sciences." However the long and the short of the 

 matter is, that all these experiments signally failed, as fail they always 

 will, and I therefore advise the cultivator, if he wishes to possess good silk, 

 to eschew all crossing, and to busy himself with a more careful management 

 of the pure races. Such experiments are well enough in the hands of a 

 naturalist who wishes to learn what can possibly be effected by such crosses, 

 but for a practical sericulturist to enter into them will ever prove but time 

 and labour thrown away. 



Let us now consider the subject of silk cultivation in India from another 

 point of view. The first thing that appears to arrest attention is the ardent 

 wish in England to extend the cultivation of the worms generally over 

 districts where at present none exist. I have however already shown that 

 this desirable object cannot be obtained ; all efforts, and they have been 

 zealously pursued, having failed with considerable loss. Let not the some- 

 times over-earnest advocate for such extension run away with the very 

 erroneous impression that all parts of India enjoy the same climate and are 

 equally favourable for the growth of silk, for nothing can be farther from the 

 truth. The very geological features of the land will at once point out that 

 from the coast line upwards, for more than 1,200 miles, the climates must 

 necessarily be modified by outlying hills and mountain ranges of consider- 

 able elevation. These mountains are often densely clothed with forests and 

 other vegetation ; at other times are bare and rocky ; and while well adapted 

 in many parts for the larger wild species, such as the Tussar (Anthercea 

 paphid) and its congeners are, totally unsuited to the growth of the finer 

 silks. Yet these wild species are by no means to be despised, and excellent 

 silk is even now turned out at Beerbhoom, Palamow, Bhagulpore, and lately 

 at a place near Sasseram. Tlje cocoons of Palamow, especially, are sometimes 

 of very large size, and in all these, and such like localities, careful manage- 

 ment in reeling appears to be all that is necessary to insure a very profitable 



