78 REPORT ON THE DISEASES OP SILKWORMS IN INDIA 



disease assumes serious proportions, it is then said almost always 

 to be traced to the feeding of very succulent leaf got when a rain 

 storm follows a long period of drought. As Mukerji (1899) points 

 out, under the bush system of mulberry cultivation this is bound 

 to result, but if tree mulberry could be grown and used at such 

 times, the bad effects of very succulent leaf would be avoided to 

 some extent, as tree leaf does not become so rapidly charged with 

 watery sap after rain. Like flacherie this disease is to a very een- 

 siderable extent the result of climatic conditions, and it is thus 

 impossible to take any very perfect measures to prevent it, as 

 climate cannot as yet be controlled. The occasions on which a 

 very serious outbreak occurs are strictly limited however, and the 

 sporadic cases can to a large extent be prevented by careful rear- 

 ing. 



Do conditions in India make the disease especially dangerous 

 or difficult to check ? The somewhat slovenly, lazy methods of 

 the rearers in India tend to make sporadic grasserie more common 

 and more dangerous than in Europe. The climate is such that 

 "epidemic" grasserie is bound to occur occasionally under the 

 present methods of mulberry growing and even to some extent 

 under the best conditions that one can achieve in India. There 

 is no reason, however, why grasserie should be on the increase as 

 some rearers say (Appendix II, cases 1, 2, 3, etc.) — this is un- 

 doubtedly a disease which can to some considerable extent be con- 

 trolled by care and good management, and as the spreading of the 

 knowledge of better methods takes place decrease in grasserie may 

 be expected. 



(d) Lali, Rangi or Kur-Kutte (Court). 



The " disease " known as Lali or Court is a typical example of 

 the uncritical attitude of sericulturists, for it is probably not a 

 disease at all but a symptom of some disease. When caterpillars 

 are unable to spin or can spin only a very little silk they pupate 

 in the open, so to say, instead of hidden within a cocoon. The 

 pupa is much shorter than the worm and red-brown in colour — 

 hence the names applied to this condition. When such a state of 

 affairs exists the caterpillar is practically always found to be debili- 

 tated from some disease. An odd caterpillar may be found pupa- 

 ting without being able to spin and no obvious cause may be found 

 — it is not an uncommon thing for worms to die sporadically with- 

 out any definite symptoms of disease, in which cases death is 

 probably due to some previous injury which was undetected at 

 the time, but in all the cases of lali that I have seen pebrine has 

 been responsible for this condition, In bad cases of- pebrine the 



