2 7 



On receipt of this letter I at once wrote to my correspondent 

 J.Lancaster, Esq., Secretary to the Agricultural and Horticultural 

 Society of India, and on Nov. 6th I received his reply with en- 

 closures as follows : — 



Me. J. Medley Wood, A.L.S. 



My Dear Sir, — Your letter of 8th Aug. last is duly to hand. 

 I enclose correspondence re the variety of silk producing moth, 

 and also by post a box containing coccoons of the Endi variety, 

 these are said by another person to sometimes take the castor 

 leaves, but I doubt it. From Mr. J. A. Anderson's letter you 

 will see what he says about " Eri " moth to which I think you 

 refer. You will see that the coccoons sell for Rs 45 per maund 

 of about 40 — 501bs. which does'nt pay. I will try and get a few 

 coccoons of the Eri moth and send bv post. Kindly let me 

 know how the box and contents reach you. 



Yours sincerely, 



(Signed) J. LANCASTER 

 Oct. 14th, 1895 



The following are the enclosures in Mr. Lancaster's letter. 



18/9/95. 

 Mr. J. A. Anderson to Mr. J, Lancaster. 



My Dear Lancaster, — The only worm that will eat castor leaf 

 that I know of is the Eri and it is not worth sending down as 

 the coccoons can only be carded, and are worth about Rs45 per 

 maund, which wont pay the native growers here, so would be 

 useless in Natal. I think I saw it stated on Mookerpies 

 authority that he found ordinary Desi and Cheenee worms did 

 well on castor leaf, but I dont know if it is true. If you write 

 to him he will tell you all about it, and can give you seed, but 

 no use to send it till the cold weather * * * 



Yours, 

 J. A. A. 



The following two letters are from the Deputy Collector in 

 charge of Silk Experiments to Mr. Lancaster in reply to his 

 enquiries. 



Berhampore, 20th Sept., 1885. 



Dear Mr. Lancaster,— My Eri silkworms have just hatched 

 out. I can send you some live coccoons 18 days hence. I think 

 Mr. Anderson meant having seen an article in which I mentioned 

 all kinds of mulberry silkworms feeding on tender leaves of 

 " Peepul " Ficus relicjiosa at their earl^y stages. I have nowhere 

 said the mulberry silkworms eat the castor oil leaf. 



