70 



RAW -SILK. 



(G.) render irrigation almost unnecessary ; an advantage 

 D^^^Roxburgh Coast of Coromandel cannot boast of, and will 

 Trade ^^^^ render it impossible for that country to culti- 

 23 Nov. 1812. Yate silk at as low a rate as in Bengal. 



The plant is usually cut four times in the year, 

 and stripped of its leaves twice. The latter mode 

 is practised during the rains, when cutting the 

 plants would injure them, by the water penetrating 

 the cut parts : besides, by leaving the branches at 

 this season at their full length, there is less danger 

 of their being overflowed during the inundation of 

 the Ganges. 



The ryots who cultivate the mulberry-bush do 

 not always rear the worm. When they do not, 

 they cut and sell the leaves upon the tender twigs 

 to those who breed the animal but do not cultivate 

 the plant, by the basket-full, in some parts called 

 a coopie, and is said to weigh, on an average, about 

 one hundred pounds avoirdupois : the average 

 price about three coopies for the rupee. While 

 the worms are very young, they not only strip the 

 leaves from the twio:s but cut them small : after- 

 wards, when the worms are larger, the whole 

 leaves upon the twigs are given, and they remove 

 the sticks when the leaves are consumed. The 

 annual value of the crop per begah (the third of 

 an English acre), taking the general average of 

 markets, and also the general average of lands in 

 point of quality of the soil, may be about eight 

 rupees : deduct for the rent of the land two 



rupees, 



