September, 1909.] 



245 



Sericulture- 



silk. The best varieties for growing: 

 specially for silk and the best systems of 

 plucking, etc. ; are under investigation 

 at present. So far as cau be seen at 

 present, an acre of castor, not too 

 heavily picked, should yield fifty to 

 seventy-five inaunds of leaf as well as a 

 yearly normal crop of seeds. When cas- 

 tor is not available, the leaves of Ber 

 (Zizyphus jujuba) can be used, and in 

 Assam the leaves of Fapaw {Carica 

 papaya), Gulasiphol (Plumeria alba), 

 Cassava aud some trees are used, but 

 not for rearing on any scale, only to 

 keep a few worms alive from season to 

 season. 



Utilisation of the Silk.— The cocoons» 

 after the moth has emerged, are col" 

 lected ; they sell at present for about 

 Rs. 70 per maund in Calcutta, but can 

 be more profitably grown for local use. 

 Of good cocoons, 2,500 go to a seer ; of 

 small ones, as many as 4,000. It requires 

 75 lbs. of castor leaf to feed the number 

 of worms, large or small, which produce 

 a lb. of cocoons. A seer of cocoons, 

 after treatment, yields about twelve 

 chittacks of thread (75 %). The cocoons 

 are, in Assam, both brown and white ; 

 in Pusa, by rearing from white cocoons, 

 or from some other cause, only white 

 cocoons are obtained ; the colour is imma- 

 terial as, in the boiling off, the brown of 

 the cocoons is dissolved off. The cocoons 

 are boiled in water containing either 

 castor ash or soda. Castor ash, i.e., the 

 ashes of castor stems and branches, con- 

 tains about 28 % of Potassium carbonate ; 

 on boiling the cocoons in water contain- 

 ing a seer of ash to each seer of silk, 

 with enough water to cover the cocoons, 

 the gum on the thread is dissolved and 

 the cocoou becomes soft. In using soda, 

 one takes for each seer of silk a quarter 

 of a seer of soda and boils for three- 

 quarters of an hour, and this is the best 

 treatment. 



The cocoons are then washed and are 

 ready for spinning. Spinning may be 

 done on the usual spinning wheel 

 (Charka) used for cotton, from either 

 the wet cotton or from the dry one, or 

 on the Taku, used in Assam for this silk. 

 One method is simply to spin from the 

 wet cocoons, the spinner takiug a lump 

 of them in one hand. Another is to dry 

 the boiled cocoons, and to cart out the 

 silk into a mass like cotton or wool, 

 loose, dry fibres, and spin from that. 

 The former gives a finer, closer thread of 

 dirty colour, the latter a white, fluffy 

 thread less suited to fine weaving. The 

 latter thread is readily made by those 

 who understand wool-spinning, as in 

 the Punjab. An improvement in spin- 

 ning has been effected by the use of a 

 new machine, in which the spinning is 



continuous by means of the "flying 

 needle " and is done on to bobbins direct- 

 The machine has been worked out at 

 Pusa and is in use there. It facilitates 

 the spinning of coarse thread suited to 

 the requirements of the country, and is 

 a simple machine easily made and 

 worked. 



The thread produced is woven in the 

 usual way and is suited to the hand- 

 looms of this country. A variety of 

 looms are being employed, but we have 

 nothing original to offer on this subject, 

 and the usual method of weaving may 

 be adopted. In this way, by using either 

 the ordinary spinning methods used for 

 cotton, or by using the new machine, 

 and by utilising the ordinary weaving 

 of the district, one can produce good 

 durable cloth, of white or ecru colour, 

 either fine or thick, with great dura- 

 bility and wearing qualities. The silk 

 lias not the appearance of the fine reeled 

 silk ; it has not the gloss and the 

 sheen, but is best described as being the 

 familiar Assam silk. 



The dyeing of this silk is easy ; the indi- 

 genous dyes of plant origin are especi- 

 ally suited to it ; alizarine or anthracene 

 dyes give brilliant and fast colours ; 

 aniline dyes give a large range of bril- 

 liant colours ; some fairly fast, some 

 fugitive. The cocoons may be dyed or 

 the cloth, and a great variety of colours, 

 fast to light, can be produced. Careful 

 tests have been made of a great variety 

 of dyes, and, while the ordinary methods 

 of using indigenous plant dyes for silk 

 are applicable to this silk, we would 

 urge the use only of fast dyes, whether 

 indigenous or not. It is impossible here 

 to enter further into this question, but 

 there are no special difficulties in dyeing, 

 and full imformation can be obtained 

 from Pusa. Good fast colours are ob- 

 tained with indigo, lac-dye, backam, 

 palas, manjista and jakwood, among 

 indigenous colours ; with the alizarine 

 (mordanted) dyes with some aniline 

 (acid, direct or developed) colours. The 

 reader may consult Bannerjee's Dyeing 

 in Bengal or E, K. Watson's Fastness of 

 the Indigenous Dyes of Bengal (Memoirs, 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. II., No. 

 7, p. 155). 



Eri as an Industry. — At the present 

 time, eri silk is grown in Assam partly 

 to supply clothes to the grower, partly 

 to satisfy a demand for Assam silk 

 cloth, produced at factories in Gauhati 

 and elsewhere. We believe there is a 

 large field for its extension, as a minor 

 or home industry, wherever castor grows 

 in India ; the seed is obtainable and is 

 readily sent by post to all parts of 

 India ; the rearing is simple and can be 

 done on a large scale once it has been 



