12 CTTLTUEE OF SILKWOKMS. 



as stores for keeping cocoons. They should be subjected to 

 thorough disinfection between the rearing of each brood, by 

 fumigation with sulphur and washing all the trays, cocooning 

 frames, tray-stands and l)askets used to hold the leaves with a 

 carbolic acid soap solution. The trays used in one house should 

 not be moved to another house imless disinfected first. 



All the refiise leaves, excreta, dead worms and sweej^ings of 

 the rearing houses should be removed from the houses daily, and 

 burned at once. On no account should they be used as manure 

 for the mulberries until after burning. 



The stands for the trays should he placed in the centre of 

 the houses so that they can easily be in-otected from insects and 

 1 »e got at to disinfect, and if necessary, readily enclosed in netting. 

 Houses of fifteen feet wide would be most convenient, with a six- 

 feet six-inch stand down the centre, so as to use a double row of 

 three-feet diameter trays six or seven tiers high, that is, that 

 each fathom (^f length of tray stand would accommodate from 

 24 to 28 three-feet diameter trays, giving an area of from 169 to 

 197 square feet. A house 46 "feet by 15 feet would therefore 

 give 1,379 square feet of tray sm-face, which would be suflicient 

 for the production of from one-and-a-half to two pikiils of co- 

 coons per l)rood, or say eight pikuls jter year. 



The stifling, sorting, storing and packing of the cocoons 

 should 1)0 done as far as practicable from the rearing houses, and 

 all refuse from these oi>erations should be carefully burned. 



To be a success, a good variety of worm should be introduced, 

 and apparently bomhyx Madrassi would be the most suitable to 

 the climate and conditions of Perak. 1 have already remarked 

 on the inferiority of the bomhyx sinensis, so that it need not be 

 gone over again here. 



Having obtained a good breed of worms, they should be sul)- 

 jected to careful treatment hj the Pasteur system to eliminate 

 any hereditary taint that they may have, liefore they are given to 

 the cultivators. From what has already been said, it will lie 

 evident that it would be necessary to maintain a breeding estab- 

 lishment for the supply of pure eggs. This should be some way 

 from any other establishment, and s])ecial precautions should be 

 taken to avoid infection from wild moths, by the use of wire 

 netting to all windows and doors of the rearing houses. With 

 care in tliis respect there would only remain the rather remote 

 chance of infection by means of the mulberry leaves used as food, 

 having been soiled by some diseased wild moth or cateii^illar. 

 This no j)Ossible means could be taken to })revent. 



As great difficulty has lieen experienced in India in the 

 attempts which have been made, for some years past, by the 



