808 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD EXTOilOLOUICAL MEETING 



most of them, as oiir silk is woven for experiments to show what can be 

 done with difierent kinds of silk thread. Our silk could be sold easily if 

 our production were increased by five times. People can easily invest 

 their capital in a weaving centre and we can show them the way. 

 Many applicants from different provinces as well as from foreign 

 countries want silk from us but we transfer their requisitions to silk 

 merchants of different places. 



[Mr. Be exhibited cocoons of the various races and crosses mentioned in 

 his paper.] 



Our crying necessity in Madras is disease-free seed. The mulberry 

 cultivated with us is for multivoltine races. Have you any variety, 

 Mr. De, that yields as well as Mysore and that can stand disease ? 



I cannot suggest a better variety than Mysore. Your own race is 

 . the best, so you need not go in for new races. 



The silk industry is going down and we badly want a disease-free 

 race. We have no market for reeled silk. 



That is because the weavers in China and Japan can produce a 

 standard quality of thread and we in India have no arrangements for 

 producing thread of uniform thickness in large quantities. 



You sent us a cross between Madagascar and Pusa races. \Vhat 

 do j'oii think of that ? 



It is superior to the Mysore race so far as disease is concerned. If 

 we breed Nistari and Mj-sore races under similar conditions we find 

 that the Nistari race stands the climate better than the Mysore but 

 Mysore gives a good result as regards yield. Many rearers in Bengal 

 want to get the Mysore race, but it is a Uttle delicate. One maund of 

 the Mysore cocoons will give three seers of thread whilst one maund of 

 Nistari cocoons will give only two and a half seers. 



We got a quantity of silk well reeled but found no market for it. 



Silk is in such demand in India that large quantities have to be 

 imported. It is strange that you found no market for your silk. 

 Is it better to select or to hybridize to obtain a disease-free race ? 

 I have not worked on those lines. 



44.— PEBRINE IN INDIA. 

 By C. M. Hutchinson, B.A., Imperial Agricultural Bacteriologist. 

 [This paper was given as an evening lecture illustrated by lantern- 

 shdes from micro-photographs. This paper will be pubhshed separately — 



Editor.] 



