1837.] Remarks on the Silks of Assam. 31 



smallest number they can wind off in one thread, twenty the number 

 generally ; even the last is often broken from the coarseness of the 

 instrument used, although the fibre is much stouter than that of the 

 mulberry silk. When nearly a quarter of a seer has accumulated on 

 the axle, it is dried in the sun and made into skeins of one or two 

 rupees weight. This is done with a small bamboo frame set in 

 motion by the common spinning machine of the country : if it has to 

 be dyed the same process is followed as with the Eria. The cloths 

 usually made of mooga and their use will be found in the annexed 

 table : besides those, I have seen it used as the warp with cotton, 

 and the cloth so made is a little lighter color than nankin and much 

 stronger ; but this is seldom done, from the trouble of spinning the 

 cotton fine enough. Cotton twist adapted to that purpose would, I 

 thiuk, meet a ready market. 



The exact quantity of silk which an acre of mooga trees can produce 

 could not be ascertained without a trial. Fifty thousand cocoons per 

 acre*, which makes upwards of twelve seers, are considered by the 

 Assamese a good yearly return. Sixty rupees the value of twelve seers 

 must be a very profitable one, for there is little labor or expense to the 

 ryut in making or keeping up a plantation : whilst the trees are young, 

 the ground is available for cultivation besides rearing worms ; sugar- 

 cane, rice, pulse, &c. are cultivated with benefit rather than injury to the 

 young trees. The tax is fourteen annas the acre in this district. The 

 great value of the mooga is, that it enables the weaker members of a 

 family to contribute as much as the most robust to the welfare of the 

 whole. Besides attending to the worms most of them weave, spin or 

 make baskets, while watching them. 



From causes which I have been unable to ascertain, and of which 

 the natives are ignorant, the mooga some years failed so complete- 

 ly in particular districts that none was left to continue the breed. 

 There being very few weekly hauts or markets to resort to, to procure 

 cocoons for breeding from the more fortunate people of other districts, 

 a failure of this kind in one place is sensibly felt for two or three 

 years after in the production. The time of the ryut, who has at most 

 half or a quarter of an acre of mooga trees, is too valuable to allow of 

 his being absent for a month and more, goinj from village to village, 

 and house to house to find out the people who have cocoons for sale. 

 This last season in our Jumna-mtikh (Cachar) pergunnah the mooga 



* An Assamese Poorah of land is a little more than an English statute acre, 

 and such lands hitherto have not been taxed, or at a very low rate, if cultivated 

 with other crops besides the mooga. 



