6 



Experience having shown that while the hot lowland plains are wholly 

 unsuited to the constitution of the annuals, and that the multivoltine species 

 on the other hand are checked by the want of leaves for a longer time during 

 the winter season than their period of rest can meet, so that the young 

 worms again appear before there is a sufficiently abundant supply of food, 

 it is clear that the efforts of cultivators should be confined only to those parts 

 of the country in which the worms have thriven well and profitably ; so that 

 while Bengal should redouble her efforts to increase the stock and quality of 

 the silk of the multivoltine species that have hitherto, in spite of much mis- 

 management and want of proper care, manifested their ability to ensure good 

 returns, the annuals should be altogether confined to suitable elevations in the 

 hills from Sylhet upwards to the Indus. Experimentalists who know little or 

 nothing of the constitution and actual condition as to health of the species 

 they would introduce, and who set common sense and experience at defiance, 

 are simply acting upon the sic volo sic jubeo principle, and are certain in the 

 end to throw away their capital. Even in an elevated position there are many 

 points to be considered before entering upon such a speculation : Imprimis, 

 plenty of capital ; 2ndly, the nature of the climate of each district, for it 

 does not follow that the same elevation will be equally suitable to the worm 

 at Simla in the north, and at Darjiling to the eastward ; the elevation may 

 be the same, but owing to a difference of latitude the climates cannot be the 

 same ; Srdly, the species of worm best adapted to each climate ; 4thly, the 

 prospect of a remunerative return upon the outlay, founded upon sound 

 logical and inductive reasoning, and not as hitherto upon mere surmise and 

 guesswork. It must be borne in mind that although good silk may for a time 

 be produced while the health of the insect is unimpaired, even in a climate 

 which will eventually prove injurious to the worm, yet the out-turn will never 

 be what it ought to be in a climate fully adapted to the constitution of the 

 insect. Good silk was no doubt produced both in Oudh and in the Punjab, but 

 in neither case was the yield commensurate with the outlay and expectations 

 of the cultivators. 



Therefore, I ask " cui bono" For if you can only produce good silk by an 

 outlay of double the value of the crop, what kind of a fortune are you likely 

 to make ? In short no yield of silk that does not fully cover every item of 

 expense, leaving the insect in its original strength, and bringing in a really 

 profitable return, is worth the trouble of cultivation. For the question to be 

 solved is not so much whether a district will for a time produce good silk, but 

 whether it will do so permanently, without having recourse to annual impor- 

 tations of fresh seed ; and also whether from a given number of worms it will 

 produce a return equal to that from a similar number of worms, and at no 

 greater outlay, as Bengal or Cashmere. Facts, we all know, are stubborn 

 things, and they have already solved the question by proving that the Upper 

 Provinces are wholly unsuitable to either annuals or multivoltines. 



A word likewise must be said regarding the quality of the food upon 

 which the worms are reared. Much has been said on the score that the 

 facility of rearing mulberry trees proves that India is a country adapted 

 generally to the successful cultivation of silk ; yet this is entirely a fallacy 

 supported by very indifferent logic, for the worms are not generally fed upon 

 indigenous trees, but upon trees from time to time imported from foreign 

 countries possessing climates often quite at variance with that of India. That 

 such importations apparently grow well and look healthy, furnishes no proof 

 whatever that the constitution of the plant is sound, and that the nourishing 

 properties of the leaf remain unimpaired by the change of climate ; no experi- 

 ments have been instituted to ascertain this point, but the logic seems to be 

 that a mulberry leaf is a mulberry leaf, and as the natural food of the worm 

 is the mulberry leaf, therefore they must thrive equally well upon every 

 species. Yet when we reflect that multivoltines prove themselves to be the 

 cieatures of warm climates, while annuals are restricted by nature to the 



