^ 0< 3, ] Silkworms in India. 131 



generation batch soon after being laid ; also tre vol tines 1 , which pass through 

 three generations in the year, and quadrivoltines 2 , which pass through four. 

 There is an annual, or univoltine silkworm, Bombyx textor, known in 

 Bengal as the Boro polo, which produces cocoons of loose texture, which 

 are therefore more difficult to reel than the firm cocoons made by the 

 univoltine silkworms of the temperate zone. But the most important 

 varieties in India are the Besi {Bombyx foriunatus), Madrassi {Bombyx 

 oroesi), C/wta pat {Bombyx sinensis) , and Nya paw {Bombyx arracanensis), 

 all four of which pass through a succession of generations, sometimes 

 amounting to as many as eight, in the course of the year, the eggs 

 'Hatching out healthily without exposure to cold, and the cocoons contain- 

 ing comparatively little silk, and that so loosely wound upon the cocoon 

 as to be difficult to reel off without entanglement. It is these small multi- 

 voltines which yield the bulk of the silk produced in India; but three, 3 

 or at most four, of the generations produced in the year being raised in 

 sufficient numbers to yield cocoons for the production of silk, and the 

 intermediate generations being only reared in comparatively small quanti- 

 ties by men who devote themselves to the work of raising seed (eggs) 

 from which the regular cocoon crops, or bunds, are reared. 



Neglecting varieties which are not reared in large quantities, we 

 may say that the general silk crop of Europe is produced by a variety 

 of silkworm which thrives in a temperate climate, requires cold for the- 

 hatching of its eggs, and produces but one crop of cocoons in the year,, 

 these cocoons, however, containing a large amount of silk which can be 

 easily reeled. In India, on the contrary, the general silk crop is produced 

 by smaller varieties, which thrive in sub-tropical climate, do not require 

 cold for the hatching of their eggs, and produce each year a series of 

 crops of cocoons which contain, comparatively, a small amount of silk, 

 itself perhaps equal in quality to that produced by the European variety, 

 but so loosely wound upon the cocoon that it is almost impossible, in 

 reeling it off, to prevent entanglement and thus to produce a thread 

 equal in value to that easily obtained from the European variety. 



In the steamy plains of Bengal, where the silk industry is chiefly 

 carried on, the mulberry will yield several crops of leaves in the year. A 

 multivoltine silkworm, therefore, which can be raised several times in 

 the course of the year, suits the requirements of the country. The 



1 Rondot, I. c, writes that there is a constant variety of trevoltine silkworms to be found 

 at Fistoria and other places in Tuscany. 



2 Riley : U. S. Department of Agriculture Bull. No. 9. 



s In Bengal, where most of the silk-rearing is done, the regular crops or bunds are known 

 as the November bund, the March bund, and the July bund; a fourth bund being only 

 attempted on a small scale, after the close of the July bund, by such rearers as happen to 

 have leaf to spare ; the fourth bund therefore is of but little importance. 



A 2 



