52 



RAW-SILK. 



Silk Cocoons MoOga 

 of Bengal. 



Is the most common and plentiful ; the thread 

 coarse, but winds easily. The goottees are sold 

 direct from the forests. 



Modes of rearing the Goottees. 



The seed is purchased from jungle people and 

 others, who collect it in August. Plots in the 

 forest are appropriated for rearing, where the 

 ashan, saul, and sejah trees predominate, par- 

 ticularly the first, which constitutes the best food 

 for the worm and is preferred by it. These spots 

 are carefully cleared of other trees and shrubs 

 annually. The same spots answering for several 

 years, each man occupied in the business pays a 

 yearly tax of eight annas to the jungle-farmer or 

 zemindar. 



In all Baudoon (Aug. -Sept.) the grub eats its way 

 out of the goottee, and is immediately placed on 

 the trees within the plots. Its impregnation by 

 the male does not seem to be noticed by the 

 rearers, but when eggs are produced on the leaves 

 they are carefully folded into a kind of cup and 

 gently rubbed with turmeric : in a few days the 

 young worms appear and are removed to the trees 

 on which they are to remain. The rearers live in 

 huts erected on the plots, keeping guard with 

 pellet-bows, to drive away kites, crows, and other 

 birds, Mhich otherwise would destroy the worms. 



These 



