4 REPORT ON THE DISEASES OF SILKWORMS IN INDIA 



their investigations was the discovery that " in Bengal, mulberry 

 silkworms suffer from diseases which have been found to be identical 

 with the diseases known in Europe." Mukerji was then sent to 

 Europe in 1888 to study sericulture there, and on his return to India 

 the Government started nurseries in Bengal for the production of 

 disease-free seed. 



Mukerji was keenly interested in sericulture and published a 

 manual on sericulture in Bengali and his well-known " Handbook of 

 Sericulture." These works are now naturally rather out of date and 

 in some respects are not very scientific, but the latter contains much 

 interesting and useful information. Unfortunately, Mukerji advo- 

 cated what he called a modification of Pasteur's method of seed 

 selection which, as we shall see later, was of very little use. For 

 this reason he has been rather fiercely criticised, but it should be 

 remembered that he was doing pioneer work with really very little 

 encouragement, and that actually, despite all discouragements and 

 opposition, he did effect some improvement in sericultural methods. 

 I have come across rearers who proudly claim to be Mukerji's men 

 or the sons of men who learned from Mukerji, and they are all 

 rearers distinctly above the ordinary level of native rearers. The 

 Calcutta Silk Committee recorded that " with the eradication of 

 disease considerable improvement in the yielding capabilities of the 

 cocoons has already been obtained." But his nurseries seem to 

 have failed in their purpose on the whole — due to the fact that, as 

 I have said above, his method of seed examination was bad. 



No exact investigations of disease had been made, and it seems 

 to have been taken for granted that disease was very serious, but 

 that the establishment of Government nurseries would set matters 

 right. All this time there was much controversy over the subject 

 of sericulture as a cottage industry. Since about 1880 a certain 

 Mr. Lister had been attempting to grow silk on a large scale, first 

 in the Punjab and later at Dehra Dun. After some initial failures 

 he succeeded well, according to his own showing, and in 1889 wrote 

 that ." this great problem is now completely mastered and that the 

 future of sericulture in India is now assured." Unfortunately by 

 1892 his ventures had to be abandoned, evidently on account of losses 

 caused by disease. Mr. Lister's contention was that the native 

 rearer was the cause of most of the " disease." " Disease," he 

 wrote, " about which we hear so much, is only another name for 

 ignorance, neglect, dirt and rearing-houses altogether unsuited for 

 the purpose." Despite the fact that his undertaking failed, Lister's 

 " three or four simple rules " for sericulture are very sound and may 

 be quoted here : " First, sound seed ; second, air, space and cleanli- 

 ness ; third, regular feeding ; fourth, suitable rearing-houses." The 



