REPORT ON THE DISEASES OF SILKWORMS IN INDIA 95 



very likely not appreciate it however good it was — they would 

 rear it carelessly because it was cheap. And again the latter state 

 would be worse than the former. 



The Government nurseries should be run as nearly as possible 

 in a way that the village rearer could emulate. For this reason 

 I am opposed to any elaborate fittings or expensive buildings. A 

 certain amount of experimental work should, however, be done in 

 some of the nurseries, but that should be of quite a simple nature. 

 The different varieties of food plants should be tested and the best 

 selected ; various methods of cultivating these, including manuring 

 and pruning, should be tried ; the optimum amount of food, space 

 and light in the rearing house should be determined ; improve- 

 ments in rearing-house furniture should be tested and new pieces 

 and methods devised. 



Another point that will have to be considered will be the pro- 

 vision of stock for the nurseries themselves. Probably, it will be 

 necessary for one nursery to keep the stock going during the whole 

 year for all the other nurseries. ' In any case this stock should be 

 of the very highest grade. It ought to be selected from the best 

 cocoons in all the nurseries so that in-breeding is avoided. It 

 should be carefully watched during the caterpillar stage for a great 

 deal about the health of the race can be found out in this -way. 

 And finally the microscopic examination of it should be of the 

 most careful sort — the gut extraction method as advocated by 

 Mr. Hutchinson should certainly be used for the selection of the 

 seed in this case. 



It is essential that the officers in the sericultural departments 

 should be in touch with modern advances in sericulture, and for 

 this it is necessary that they should have access to the literature 

 of sericulture both past and present day. This literature is of a 

 very considerable, volume and difficult to get — practically none o£ 

 it is in India. It would be impossible for any one sericultural 

 department to get it all. Perhaps, here the Imperial Government 

 might help. There is already a nucleus of such a library in Pusa ; 

 this might be added to and the provinces encouraged to borrow 

 books from it. A small catalogue of these works might be pre- 

 pared, containing not only text-books but references to papers in 

 various journals. In this way there would be a method whereby 

 all who were interested could get access to the literature. 



It is also very desirable that sericultural officers should see how 

 things are done in other provinces and countries. For this reason 

 they should be encouraged to visit other seri<jritural organizations, 

 ^oth in India and especially in Madagascar, French Indo-China and 



