IN SOUTH-EASTERN MANCHURIA. 5 



They follow the same course as the autumn cocoons up to the time when the male and female 

 are separated, when, instead of being tied to trees, the females are placed in baskets provided 

 with dried grass or twigs on which they may lay their eggs. These then must be set aside in a 

 cool place for a fortnight before the process of incubation is allowed to begin, otherwise the 

 worms will hatch before the leaves are sufficiently advanced to provide their food. Again, as 

 in the autumn, about 1 1 days are necessary to effect the metamorphosis to the larva stage ; but 

 here a change of process again necessarily occurs. As the worms appear in the baskets, the edges 

 are lined with leaves, on which they begin feeding and on which they are carried to the trees. 

 From this time on their development follows closely the ancestral lines of the autumn, save that 

 the larva state is apt to occupy a few days more. 



Assuming that the Ch'iiig Ming falls early in April, the fortnight's inhibition added to 

 the period of incubation brings the date of the larva's appearance to early in May, after which 

 the 45 to 47 days of feeding and spinning will consume the month of May and, say, 25 days 

 of June. Adding then the pupa's rest of a fortnight within the cocoon, we come down to 

 the loth to 1 5th July as the average dae of the appearance of the autumn imago, whose life 

 story has already been sketched. 



Silk-producing Qualities. 



Turning to the silk-producing qualities of these cocoons, I nnd that conservative estimates 

 place the amount that can be reeled from 1,000 spring cocoons at from 4 to 6 Hang (^), that is, 

 from 5/j to 8 ounces avoirdupois, and the amount from 1,000 of the heavier autumn cocoons at 

 from 6 to 9 Hung, the equivalent of from 8 to 1 2 ounces avoirdupois. From the pierced cocoons 

 about 4 Hang is expected. 



Prices of Silk and Cocoons. 



The cocoons of different years yield different average amounts of silk, so that their 

 market value depends upon two factors: (i) the price of silk and (2) the silk-producing qualities 

 of the season's crop. 



Seven or eight years ago the average price of a picul of wild raw silk was, according to 

 HOSIE, Hk.ftx. 150 (say, 25 pounds sterling), while the extreme quotations within a few years of 

 that time touched Hk.Tls. 80 and HIc.Tts. 200. This season the highest figure ever known to 

 local merchants was reached when silk sold for Antang Tts. 0.14 a Hang, which works out 

 at Hk.Tts. 206 per picul; whereas the average price has of late years been Antung Th. o.io or 

 Tts o.u per Hang, meaning Hk.fts. 148 and Hk.fts. 162 per picul respectively. 



