Nov. 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



RESTORATION OP THE SILKWORM. 187 



shown by one cultivator proposing to preserve the eggs of Bombyx mori, 

 by sending them from the Punjab to the mountain station of Durrum- 

 sala, as well as by the fact that Jaffer Ali of Mooltan invariably pre- 

 serves his in a cool underground chamber or tykhana. 



It is evident from this, that even the heat of the Punjab is far greater 

 than the egg can bear, and if it be inimical and destructive to the egg, 

 it will undoubtedly be equally so to the insect in every other stage. The 

 loss annually sustained by the cultivator Jaffer Ali, even when the eggs 

 are kept in the tykhana, is said to be " from a fourth to a third," the heat 

 (even under ground !) drying up the eggs without hatching the worms ! * 

 If this can be called successful cultivation, then no one need despair. 



From this admission it is clear that what actual disease effects in 

 France, where " la muscardine " is said annually to destroy more than 

 one-fourth of the worms, is effected by heat, even in an underground 

 cellar, in the Punjab ; how then, in such a climate, can really good re- 

 sults be expected, since the same writer, while trumpeting forth the 

 wonders performed in the Punjab, very naively winds up his laudations 

 with the assurance that " out of tykhanahs the eggs cannot be preserved in 

 the plains at all." 



As to his assertion that those eggs " that survive the heat are not 

 injured, but produce as healthy and fine worms as if the eggs had been 

 kept in a cool climate," it actually amounts to nothing, unless at the 

 same time we can feel assured that the writer is well acquainted with 

 what the worms ought to be, and can prove that they are as large and 

 produce the same quantity of silk as those of colder climates ; and that 

 such is not the case is proved by the testimony of Mr. C. J. Turnbull, 

 who states that Umritsur-reared cocoons are 56 per cent, below the 

 Cashmere standard. 



Indeed, this gentleman, who is undoubtedly a good authority, pro- 

 nounces the cocoons of Oudh and Umritsur to be about equal, so that 

 they had degenerated in those localities in one season 56 per cent, below 

 the standard of Cashmere as furnished by Mr. Cope himself a couple of 

 years before. 



Again, cocoons raised at Lucknow in Oudh by Dr. Bonavia required 

 5,200 to the pound of silk ; at Candahar in 1849 the Afghans reckoned 

 about 4,500 to the pound of silk ; while in France, previous to the late 

 epidemic, 2,500 cocoons were, on the testimony of Mr. Bashford,f equal 

 to a pound of silk. 



Here, then, we have positive evidence that the climate of the Punjab 

 and other parts of the plains of India is injurious to the health and 

 general well-being of the insect. 



Now it is also the opinion of Mr. Turnbull that the Candahar and 

 Cashmere yield of silk is pretty nearly on a par ; and as from the above 



* Powlett's Report in Proceedings Agricult. Soc. of India, 9th July, 1862. 

 t 'Journal Hort. Soc. of India,' vol. ix., part 3, p. 261. 



