94 REPORT ON THE DISEASES OF SILKWORMS IN INDIA 



not give them away. It will probably be necessary therefore for 

 all seed examination of this sort to be done by Government 

 examiners who might also be the officers selected to tour in the 

 villages. The attempt made in Bengal to issue microscopes to 

 rearers does not seem to me to have given any promising result. 

 This need not, however, in. any way interfere with the production 

 of disease-free seed by the villagers. If they found that the micro- 

 scopic examination of seed was a thing to be desired, they might 

 bring their moths to an examination room in a nursery or a mem- 

 ber of the nursery staff might go to the villages to examine the 

 seed. 



If the ryot is to make any advance in sericulture, he must spend 

 money on disinfectants, on renewing the stands and trays after a 

 big outbreak of disease, on altering his house, where possible, to 

 secure better ventilation. He cannot afford to spend this money 

 in most cases — indeed he does not have it to spend. It will there- 

 fore be necessary to arrange to supply the money somehow-or-other. 

 Probably, it could be obtained through co-operative banks, but 

 found it will have to be before progress can be made. Another 

 point may be noted here. I have been told that village rearers 

 would sometimes prefer to have Government nursery seed in 

 Bengal, as they recognize that it gives a better crop, but that they 

 cannot get it advanced to them by Government and so buy from 

 the village cocoon seller, who will give the cocoons and take pay- 

 ment in the future. Here again a co-operative society would be 

 of real assistance. 



The Government nurseries will, of course, continue to distribute 

 disease-free seed. It will be impossible for them to slacken any 

 efforts in this direction for a long time, if ever. It is perfectly 

 possible that it may be found impossible to get the village rearers 

 to improve sufficiently to satisfy Government requirements, in the 

 event of which it would probably be found advisable to extend 

 the Government nursery system. There are two points to be 

 noted in this matter — first, Government seed must be absolutely 

 the best in the district, and second, Government must not under- 

 sell the local seed-producer and so take his trade away from Tnnv 

 Government seed should be worth the top price and it should 

 take it. By keeping up a high standard the seed-producers will 

 be induced to produce the best article they can in order to com- 

 pete with the nursery stock, and any attempt on the part of Gov- 

 ernment to undersell them would be fatal to the best interests of 

 sericulture. Not only would underselling probably kill out the 

 village seed-producer — the man we most want to keep going, for 

 he is the best rearer — but if the rearers got cheap seed they would 



