VI. CONCLUSIONS. 



It is extremely difficult to make any satisfactory generaliza- 

 tions regarding silkworm diseases in India. As I have already 

 pointed out, there are five distinct diseases to be considered and 

 three genera of moths involved, besides climates and peoples as 

 different as are to be found within the same compass in the world. 

 What may be true in Bengal will not necessarily hold in Mysore 

 — what is correct for mulberry worms is not necessarily so for 

 muga. There are, it seems to me, five important questions that 

 demand answers. 1 What diseases are found in India ? 2. What 

 amount of disease is found and what loss is caused by disease in 

 India ? 3. What are the chief causes of diseases in India ? 4. Can 

 disease be controlled in India ? 5. Has disease caused degenera- 

 tion of the worms in India ? These questions have all more or 

 less been answered in the preceding pages, but it may be well, 

 before making any recommendations, to summarize these answers 

 shortly. 



1. What diseases are found in India ? All known silkworm 

 •diseases are found in India. I believe that the different diseases 

 found in one genus of silkworms in India are the same as the 

 different diseases found in the other genera. The parasitic diseases 

 are certainly the same and the rot or wilt diseases seem to me to 

 be exactly alike — the symptoms are the same, the same organisms 

 can be isolated from the diseased worms, and the origin of the 

 diseases is the same. 



2. What amount of disease is found and what loss is 

 caused by disease in India ? The amount of disease varies 

 greatly according to the kind of worm, and the season of the year. 

 Mulberry worms are most subject to disease and eri least subject. 

 In mulberry worms the parasitic diseases are the most important, 

 in muga the rot diseases, and in eri probably the fly. At times 

 the whole rearing may be lost from pebrine, muscardine or flacherie. 

 As a rule, in mulberry worms the rearers used to reckon on losing 

 about one bund in five, and they may still do so if they use 

 unexamined seed. On the average even with examined seed they 

 frequently lose up to 25 per cent, of a crop — their usual estimate 

 being " 1 to 2 annas." It is almost impossible to decide what 

 proportion of this almost constantly recurring loss is due to actual 

 preventible disease and what to bad rearing, underfeeding, over- 

 crowding, etc. In connection with this point it must be remem- 

 bered that the rearers in their estimate of 1 to 2 annas loss do not 

 count the poor quality of cocoons spun, that is included in my 



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