MEMORANDUM ON THE CULTURE OF WILD SILKWORMS 

 IN SOUTH-EASTERN MANCHURIA. 



THE wild silkworm of South-eastern Manchuria, commonly called by the Chinese shan 

 /.-'in?. (|Jj =(), and classified by HOSIE as the " Antheren Pernyl, otherwise known as Bombyx 

 Periiyl and Rmiibyx F/intoni," produces much of the silk used in the manufacture of pongees 

 throughout China and Japan. To the farmers of this region the industry has become a most 

 profitable supplement to their agricultural work, for practically all of these landowners whose 

 boundaries include hilly ground make silk raising a part of the regular routine of their house- 

 holds. Although in many places the hills have not the necessary scrub-oaks on the leaves of 

 which the worms feed, it has been demonstrated that these can be readily planted and nurtured, 

 so that, with nearly perfect climatic conditions, there seems every likelihood of the industry 

 expanding indefinitely to meet the increasing demand in many countries for both the wild 

 silk and the pongees. This probability is also increased by the announcement of two recent 

 inventions in Tokio, which should bring tussah upon the market as a competitor with the 

 domestic raw silks of China and Japan : the first is a new process for bleaching the silk, 

 which will render it amenable to dyeing ; while the second is a spinning machine, which makes 

 a smoother and more uniform thread than is now procurable. 



Soil. 



Throughout this region the hills and mountains, which crowd group upon group, broken 

 at frequent intervals by rich valleys and sandy streams, are largely composed of granite and 

 shale, hard or in the various stages of disintegration. The oaks grow at all elevations, from the 

 rich slopes of the hills near the bottom land to the line of the barren steep rocks above, and are 

 found at their best on the sunny faces of the lower mounds, where the soil is often that rich 

 black loam one finds in the depths of a virgin forest. 



Trees. 



Two or three distinct varieties of trees are found in most neighbourhoods to furnish 

 feeding-grounds for the silkworms, although the Chinese generally refer to them all as simply 

 oaks (ft T|C). HOSIE also dismisses the subject with the observation that the worm " feeds and 

 spins on the oak called Qurrcus mongolica." Closer inquiry shows, however, that the Chinese 



