On the Properties of Cocoons of the Various Silkworm 

 Races of Japan. 



The largest and most important production in Japan is raw 

 silk, and the sum of exportation from our country to America and 

 Europe amounts, at present, to nearly 40,000,000 The method 



of silkworm culture has been known to us for more than two 

 thousand years, and in nearly every province of our empire there 

 are planted large numbers of mulberry trees, and silkworms are 

 raised in innumerable numbers year after year by many practical 

 and competent raisers. The principal varieties of cocoons raised 

 are two : — white (Siromayu) and green (Kimayu)'-', — of which the 

 former is extensively and largely cultivated, while the latter is very 

 few, and cultivated only in a limited district. The white variety is 

 again subdivided into a few hundred races, which are distinguished 

 from each other by different raisers. These so-called races can, 

 however, be reduced into a few principal ones. 



The object of my investigation was to examine the properties 

 of the thread of the cocoons of these principal races with the view 

 of determining which of them can be raised with the greatest 

 advantage. 



The principal races whose cocoons have been subjected to 

 examination are 12 aboriginal, i Chinese, and i Italian : — 



BY 



Jiro Kawara, iVpgaius/ii. 



Annuals 



3 



5' 



2, 



I 



Akabiki (' 



Awobiki ( 



Onichijira ( 



Koishimaru ( 



Matamukashi ( 



(1) . Yen is equal to 2 francs 75 cent. 



(2) . Kimayu means "yellow cocoon," but it is really green, as Europeans call it. 



