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in which the worms are kept require to be cleaned out daily. The moulting 

 worms have to be carefully kept apart, and there should be a frequent renewal 

 of fresh leaf as the leaf withers quickly after being cut. It should be gathered 

 in the morning and late in the evening and kept in the shade and supplied 

 with moisture to keep it fresh. Before being given to the worms they 

 should be carefully examined for ants and other enemies which are likely to 

 attack the worms. The young worms should be fed first on the tenderest 

 leaves and then on the larger leaves gradually. The leaves with about two 

 or three inches of stalk should be placed top uppermost, and stalks downwards 

 to allow of free ventilation and to enable the worms to move freely on the 

 under surface of the leaf. 



The trays should be well cleaned daily and worms that are moulting 

 should be kept carefully apart. There should be just a sufficient" number of 

 worms on each tray to prevent overcrowding, as overcrowding and want of cleaning 

 are two of the chief causes of the high mortality among the worms. When 

 the worms are ready to spin they leave their trays and wander about, and they 

 should be carefully pub into paper cones inside which they will spin their cocoons ; 

 but when there are several thousand worms it is impracticable to make so many 

 paper cones, in whicli case they can be put into a basket in which have already 

 been placed coils of dried plantain leaves whicli have been carefully examined 

 for the different enemies of the silkworms such as ants, spiders, &c. After 

 the cocoons have been spun they should not be stripped off the leaves or paper 

 cones for about four or five days. The cocoons should then be placed on trays 

 lined with paper leaving sufficient space between each cocoon. 



When the moth pierces the cocoon it should be removed at once before 

 the cocoons are soiled and placed in a box or basket, a packing case covered 

 with mosquito net answers very well. The moths which emerge from the buff 

 coloured cocoons should be rejected, of the other, the largest females and the 

 most active males should be paired. Poultry have a great partiality for the 

 moths, and the rejected ones will be very handy as food for the fowls. The 

 cocoons after they have been pierced must be well dried in the sun and kept 

 in a well-closed box with some naphthaline to prevent insects destroying them. 

 A few hours after the moths have paired they commence laying eggs. The 

 best eggs are those laid in regular order and not in detached batches. If the 

 moth is weak the eggs will be laid in one mass, and these should be rejected. 

 Each female moth lays from four hundred to six hundred eggs. After the fifth 

 or sixth day the eggs get darker in colour and ,they hatch out about the 9th 

 or 10th day, when strips of tender Castor leaves may be placed on them ; the 

 busy worms soon swarm on to the leaves. 



Notes on the above Paper. 

 The information in the paper should be published for the purpose of 

 showing what is being done by the natives in the way of silk culture. 

 The following footnotes might be appended :— 



(1) If the worms were provided with sufficient fresh food, they should 

 not have wandered from the trays. The stands for the trays should be isolated 

 by placing the legs in tins or saucers of water and kerosene to prevent invasion 

 by ants. 



(2) The failure of the natural food plant is constantly being brought as 

 a difficulty in rearing the worms. The advice (given by the author further on) 

 to plant a sufficient quantity of castor plants before undertaking the cultivation 

 of the Eri worm should be emphasized. No other plant can be substituted 

 without affecting either the quality or size of the cocoons. 



