August, 1912.] 



117 



teaching of the principles of chemistry, 

 for example, to those who are unfamiliar 

 with this subject ; whereas there is no 

 need for this teaching in the case of those 

 who already possess a knowledge. This 

 does not prevent it from being true that 

 the method of education should be 

 thoroughly scientific — 



THAT EXPERIMENT SHOULD FORM THE 

 BASIS FOR INSTRUCTION, 



and that nothing should be taken for 

 granted. It will be evident, in any case, 

 that the proper correlation of the educa- 

 tional work in the secondary schools 

 with that if institutions of a higher order 

 will give such instruction in the elements 

 of useful science subjects as is necessary 

 will greatly simplify the work of the 

 higher coarse. 



Matters of this kind have not reached 

 such a stage, in the West Indies, that 

 attention can be given in a brief and 

 general way to the subject of the provi- 

 sion of agricultural colleges. Sufficient 

 has been said to show that experience in 

 education, that is of a more directly 

 agricultural nature, in this part of the 

 world, has resembled in many ways that 

 which has been met with in other coun- 

 tries ; and that the West Indies have 

 been saved some of the delay that would 

 be caused while knowledge was being 

 gained in order to rectify those mistakes. 

 — (A gricul tural News, ) 



TUSSORE SILK INDUSTRY IN 

 THE DECCAN. 



The Tussore Silk Cocoons are as a 

 rule brought from the jungles by the 

 Kolies (a sect of wild tribe) and sold to 

 Koshtees (a sect of Hindoos who reside 

 in remote villages). The price varies 

 from Rs 2 to Rs. 4 per 1000. It is gener- 

 ally the Koshtees women who reel the 

 silk from the entire cocoons. 



Reeling is done as follows :— 

 100 cocoons are put in a pot and boiled in 

 water mixed with a small quantity of 

 soure (probably an alkaline deposit 

 obtained, in winter when the floods in 



the rivers have subsided). Besides soure 

 a small quantity of the ashes of gingelly 

 plant, til, obtained by burning dried 

 stalks, is also added. The quantity of 

 water, ashes and soure for 100 cocoons is 

 adjusted by experience as is the time for 

 boiling. The Koshtees engaged in this 

 industry have been engaged in it for 

 generations. When the cocoons are 



sufficiently boiled 

 they remain separate from each other ; on 

 touching with the finger and thumb the 

 coarse network is easily peeled off and 6 to 

 10 of them are kept in a flat dish wrapped 

 up in a woollen cloth (wet) and put in 

 another flat dish containing a wet wool- 

 len cloth, by the side of a woman holding 

 the middle bar of a wooden frame by the 

 left hand, with her index finger resting 

 against a projection of the middle bar. 

 The frame is oblong, about 6" by 35""; 

 the upper and lower bars and the con- 

 necting middle bar are made of wood, the 

 side ones are of strings shaped thus 



rr~( 



With the hand dipped in water the 

 ends of all the threads are united and by 

 a peculiar movement of the left hand, 

 these combined threads are twisted 

 as a single thread on to the top bar of 

 the frame as a figure of 8. The two 

 loops of the figure are around the two 

 side strings of the frame thus 00. By 

 constant practice 



A WOMAN BECOMES SO ADEPT 



that directly the threads break, she 

 picks them up with the index finger 

 and thumb of the right hand and unites 

 them on the bared thigh (right) with the 

 palm which is wetted. When the thread 

 of one is finished and the boiled pupa 

 exposed, another is picked up from the 

 boiled stock and the process is repeated. 

 By experience of generations the oper- 

 ation seems almost mechanical. 



The old woman I watched reeling was 

 practically blind. This reeled silk, after 

 being dried in the sun, is sold to another 

 sect of 



HINDOOS KNOWN AS KHUTRIES, , 



who weave it into cloth. Sometimes this 

 silk is dyed red with a vegetable dye 

 (Patung wood) or yellow with a de« 



