152 



RAW -SILK. 



(K.) the year 1823; first at the Dharwar jail, and 

 Letter from theiice amons* a few Mussulmen about Dharwar, 



Superintendent t> ' 



of Botanic Horblee, and other towns in the province. These 



Garden ' 



a^'D^pooree, persons had leases of seven years and advances of 



21 March 1833. ^ ^ 



cash, and are cultivating one or two acres or so 

 each of mulberries,* producing a few maunds of 

 silk merely for local consumption, which are sold 

 in the bazaar at Horblee at from three and a half 

 to four rupees the seer of eight ounces avoirdupois. 

 Some silk was made at the Poona jail from worms 

 sent from Dharwar during two or three years ; but 

 on Signor Matti, an Italian, offering to produce 

 silk at Poona in the year 1830, a grant of land was 

 given to him, and the Government experiment 

 given up. 



Subsequently to this, Mr. Graham, civil surgeon 

 at Ahmednuggur, obtained a grant of four hundred 

 beegahs of garden-ground for mulberry planting. 

 This gentleman has been compelled to return to 

 Europe on sick certificate, and I believe his farm 

 has not produced any silk. Signor Matti made a 

 few specimens of silk the first year, but has pro- 

 duced none since, as he conceives that it will re- 

 quire two years more before his mulberry-trees are 

 sufficiently large to enable them to bear stripping 

 ofi* their leaves. I do not understand how such 

 an experiment is likely to lead to any pecuniary 

 advantage. 



Excepting then the few maunds of silk made in 



the 



* Dassee variety. 



