166 Si? favor ms in India. [Vol. L 



gradually become tlie colour of the body. After the fourth or last molting, the colour 

 is a dirty white or a dark green. On obtaining its full size, the worm is about 3§ inches 

 long.' According to one series of observations, it would appear that in the hot months 

 the first change of skin occurs three days after hatching, and the rest follow at inter- 

 vals of three days, while the worm begins to spin on the fourth day after the final 

 change, or the fifteenth day after hatching. In the cooler months, the period before 

 each molting is four or five days, making 20 to 25 days between hatching and begin- 

 ning to spin ; and in the winter season the worm lives a whole month or even longer. 

 After the final molting, the worms are transferred from the tray to forked twigs of 

 the castor-oil plant, with the leaves on, suspended across a piece of reed. As the 

 worms attain maturity they cease to feed, and crawl to the top of the fork ; and if held 

 up to the ear, and gently rolled between the fingers, their bodies emit a crackling or 

 rustling sound. They are now placed in the Jdli, which consists of a bundle of dried 

 plantain leaves, or of branches of trees with the withered leaves attached, and this also, 

 like the feeding tray, is suspended from the roof within-doors. Here they begin to 

 spin, usually on the same day, and not unfrequently two worms will select the same 

 leaves for their covert, and join their cocoons together. The time occupied in spinning 

 is three to six days. 



"The dimensions of a full-sized cocoon are about 1^ inch in length by f inch in 

 diameter. The cocoon without the chrysalis weighs five grains. It is destitute of 

 floss. Its proper colour is white, but a large proportion of the cocoons are of a brick-red 



colour, for which it is difficult to account Worms of the same brood, fed on 



the same leaves, will produce dark and light cocoons indifferently. The dark colour 

 can be purged away by boiling the cocoon in alkali water. There seems to be reason 

 to believe that, with proper care in providing the worms with suitable shelter for spin- 

 ning, the proportion of white cocoons could be increased, and the quality also of the 

 silk could be improved." (Mr. Stack instances experiments made by Mr. C. H. Lepper, 

 and adds) : — " Some cocoons spun in a wine-case nearly filled with loose shreds of 

 newspapers, and with the lid closed, proved to be perfectly white and exceptionally good. 

 "In preparing the cocoon for use, the first step is to destroy the life in the 

 chrysalis. For this purpose exposure to the sun during one or two days is usually suffi- 

 cient, and this is the method preferred by the cultivators as enabling them to 

 keep the cocoons longer and avoiding the discoloration which is caused by fire. 

 When fire has to be employed, it is applied under bamboo trays upon which the 

 cocoons are placed. Cocoons intended for immediate use are boiled for two or three 

 hours in an alkaline solution of the ashes of the plantain stem in water, which 

 serves the double purpose of killing the chrysalis and softening the cocoon. Usually, 

 however, the cultivator keeps his cocoons until he has a stock sufficiently large to make 

 it worth his while to begin to spin. He then boils them in the solution described above, 

 or the ashes used may be those of grass, rice-straw, or the stems and leaves of the castor- 

 oil tree, or of various other plants. In this way cocoons several years old, if they have 

 been kept uninjured, can be softened and rendered capable of spinning. After this process 

 the cocoons are opened and the chrysalis is extracted ; they are next washed white, slight- 

 ly kneaded in the hand, dried in the sun, and are then ready for use. The eri cocoon 

 has been successfully reeled in Italy, and experiments have shown that it can be reeled 

 in India, but the only method employed by the cultivator is that of spinning off the silk 

 by hand. At the time of spinning the empty cocoons are placed in an earthen bowl 

 containing water, with which a little cowdung is sometimes mixed. Each cocoon is 

 taken up separately, and the silk is drawn off in a coarse thread, nearly as thick as 

 twine. Uniformity of thickness is roughly preserved by rubbing the thread between 

 the finger and thumb, and in this way also new cocoons are joined on. It is said that 

 six spinners can spin about 4 chittacks (8 oz.) of thread in a day, consuming thereby 



