CULTURE OP SILKWORMS. 6 



Wlieu killed and. dried the cocoons are sorted into yellows 

 and whites, or as the Chinese express it, gold and silver, all 

 damaged cocoons being put by themselves, together with the 

 ])ierced cocoons which have been used for breeding purposes. 



The cocoons are sent to Hongkong and from there to Hang- 

 kau, where they are sold. A man being sent with each consign- 

 ment of silk, the transport expenses are very considerable. In 

 China the silk is reeled and sent back again past Penang to 

 Europe. The price of well reeled silk in China is i^S per kati, 

 while badly reeled silk only fetches $3. 



An attempt was made to introduce some female reelers from 

 China, but without success, owing to the difficulty of getting 

 them out of the country. There is one woman in Larut who can 

 reel, but she left China when very young and is therefore 

 not an ex])ert hand. The apparatus used in reeling is very 

 simjile, and only costs from !?3 to !i?5. 



In some observations that I made on the yeild of silk I 

 found that the average weight of the cocoons when fresh was 

 10"75 grains, 651 going to the pound. I estimated that 5,833 

 cocoons would yeild one pound of reeled silk, besides the floss 

 silk. 



Mr. F. Light sent samples of the Ayer Kuning cocoons to 

 Messrs. C. S. Tennent & Co., of Penang, who obtained the follow- 

 ing interesting report on them from their correspondents at 

 Marseilles. "We thank you for your cocoon samples marked 

 L and D, which we have submitted to our broker. The cocoons 

 you send are unpierced and are similar to what are received from 

 Beiigal, and very good samples of their kind. Our broker has 

 never seen anything of exactly the same kind. You will notice 

 that each cocoon has an outer envelope of tough silk, and this 

 should be removed in Penang and shipped as silk waste : it is 

 worth from 1 to 1.50 francs per kilo, landed terms (this is, about 

 17| to 26 cents per kati). To give an exact valuation it is however 

 necessary to know what the silk contents of your cocoons are, 

 that is, the weight of cocoons required to give one kilo of silk, 

 and before this is known it is impossible to say what the cocoons 

 would fetch, as spinners themselves are in complete uncertamty 

 before making a spinning trial of the cocoons. Bengal and China 

 unpierced cocoons are frequently sold with the guarantee that 

 4 kilos weight of cocoons at a certain temperature shall give one 

 kilo weight of silk, and if the 4 kilos weight of cocoons give, say, 

 riOO kilos silk, the buyer ])ays 10 per cent over contract price, 

 and vice versa if the silk out-turn is less than one kilo. Tliei-e 

 is a Silk Trade Association here and at Lyons, by which the 

 spinning trials are made, and the spinners' na.nies are unknown to 



