JOKB 3, 1890.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
jvjuha), which the worm can thrive on in its later stages, 
if other food is not procurable in stifBoiont quantity. 
The eri worm is a multivoltine, and is reared entirely 
indoors. The castor-oil plant grows abundantly in the 
ryot's garden, springing up from dropped seed in 
every little patch of unooonpied land around his 
house. The tending of the worms devolves princi- 
pally upon tbe women of the family, and goes on 
all the year round. As many as eight broods can be 
obtained in twelve months, but the number actually 
reared never exceeds five or six, and depends a good 
deal upon the quantity of food which chance has 
provided for ihe worms, since no care is taken to 
ensure a supply by planting out trees. 
Their 6upply of food is occasionally intercepted by 
swarms of caterpillars* appearing on the castor-oil 
plant about the moDth of June. These must be care- 
fully removed from the leaves that are given to the 
silkworms, and the leaves themselves washed in 
water. It is at seasons like these that the leaves of 
a variety of treeB are used as substitutes for the 
favourite food of the worm. 
We next notioe " Muga," Anthercea assama'. — 
A semi-domebticated silkworm which is cultivated in 
the open in the Assam Valley, muoh in the way that 
tusser is cultivated in the Central Indian plateau ; though 
the muga is somewhat more domesticated than the 
tu&ser, its eggs being hatched, and its cocoons spun 
indoors. 
It is reared on the sum tree (Machilus odoratissima), 
and on the sua In tree (Tetranthera monopetala), but will 
also feed on th» leaves of other trees, e.g., ihe mezankuri 
(Tetranthera polyantha), Bnd the champa (Michelia sp.)' 
upon both of which it is said to have been reared in con- 
siderable quantities in former years, the silk produced 
by the worms fed on these trees being known as 
mezankuri and champa respectively, and being considered 
as whiter and oi better quality than ordinary muga. 
The following is extracted from Stack's Eeport 
on Silk in Asiam dated February 1884: — 
"The scientific name of the muqa silkworm (Anthe- 
raa assama) ilenotes its peculiar connection with 
Aseam Its Assamese name is said to be derived 
from the amber colour of the silk, and is frequently 
used to denote silk in genera!, to that erimvga means 
eri silk, kutkuri muga, tust.er silk, and so on; the genu- 
ine muga beirfj distinguished by the title of Somputia 
muga, or silk yielded by the worm that feeds on the 
sum leaf. It it- a multivoltine worm, and is commonly 
suid to be terni-domesticated, because it is reared 
upon trees in the open air ; but in fact it is as much 
domesticated as any other species, being hatched in- 
doors and spinning its cocoon indoors, while during 
its life on the tree it is entirely dependent on the 
cultivator for jroteotion from its numerous enemies. 
The sum tiee {Machilus ordoratissima) furnishes its 
favourite food ; but in Lower Assam it is extensively 
bred on tbe sualu (Tetranthera monopetal). The leaves 
of certain othtr forest trees the dighlate. (Tetran- 
thera glauca), the patichanda (Cinnarnomum obtusi- 
folium) and tbe bumroti (Symplocas grandiHora) can 
be eaten by the worm in its maturer stages if the 
supply of its staple food begins to fail; but the sum 
and the sualu are the only trees upon which the 
worm yielding ihe ordinary muga silk (as distin- 
guished from champa and mezankuri, which will be 
mentioned heir, after) can be permanently reared. 
The sH/M-fed worm is considered to yield the more de- 
licate ttiik, mid sualil trees on tbe edges of sum planta- 
tions are gene; ai ly left untouched, though small planta- 
tions of sualu only may occasionally be met with. 
" An accoui.t of muga si k would not be complete 
without a few words on the two varieties assumed by 
* Specimens flf a caterpillar, reported on by Mr- 
Mackenzie hs having proved most destructive to castor- 
oil plants, usi d for rearing eri in Carhar, have been 
forwarded to tbe Indian Museum by Mr. R. S. Groen- 
shitlds, Officiating Director of Land Records and 
Agriculture, Assam. They prove to belong to the 
speoies Achaea melicerte, a Nootues moth which has 
also been reported as destructive Lo castor-oil plants 
in Lower Bengal and in Madras. See Indian Museum 
Notes, Vol. I, pp 52 and 104. 
it when the worm is fed on tbe champa (or more 
properly chapa) and the mezankuri or adaknri (Tetranr 
thera polyantha). Champa silk seems to be qnite 
forgotten now. It is described as a very fine white 
silk, which used to be worn only by the Ahom kings 
and their nobles. Mezankuri silk is still to be pro- 
cured, but with great difficutly. In 1881 there does 
not seem to have been a single piece obtainable in 
Jorbat. One of the reasons alleged for this falling off 
is that the new rules restricting clearances in the 
forests are unfavourable to the growth of the mezan- 
kuri tree. This tree springs up spontaneously in 
abandoned clearances, and it is in this early shrub? 
like stage tbat it is fit for the worms to feed on. In 
its second year the worms fed on it give coarser silk; 
in the third year the silk is hardly distinguishable 
from the common muga. Thus the mature tree 
is quite out of the question, and as the menankuri ia 
never cultivated, forest clearances were tbe only places 
wheie the breeders could look for young trees. When 
fed on the mezankuri, tbe muga worm spins a fine 
silk of almost pure white, about tbrice as valuable as 
the common muga— in fact the me st costly of all the 
silks of Asf am. The thread was selling at R24 tbe seer 
in Jorbat in 1883. This silk is altogether an article of 
luxury. 
Although sericulture is not likely, we suspeot, 
to be added to the successful industries of Ceylon, 
there is popular as well as soientifio interest in 
such a pamphlet as tbat briefly noticed, in which 
so many Bilk-producing insects and the trees on the 
foliage of which they feed are mentioned. 
♦■ 
TEA IN AUSTRALIA. 
GOOD PROSPECTS OF INCKEABED DEMAND FOR CEYLON 
AND INDIAN TEA. 
The S. S. "Aroadia " brought among other pas. 
sengers Mr. H. M. Rowbotham of Rowbotham' & 
Co., Tea Brokers, Sydney, with whose Tea Circular 
as quoted from mail to mail, our readers are 
generally familiar. Mr. Rowbotham has been 
absent from Oeylon for eleven years, so that very 
considerable changes both in Colombo and upoountry 
await his observation. In his old district, Dimbula, 
as we have mentioned to him, it will be difficult 
Foon to find a coffee-bush (save in the Agras divi- 
sion) so prevalent has tea become. Letters are 
likely to appear in the Melbourne Age and a Sydney 
paper on " Ceylon Revisited " which may increase 
the interest in our staple ; for Mr. Rowbotham, we 
are glad to Bay, believes that we are on the eve of 
a very considerable development in the Ceylon and 
India tea trade with Australia. We are naturally 
interested to learn that the China tea trade with 
the Colonies is steadily falling in repute — the 
finanoial losses of late have been very considerable 
— and Foochow dealers are largely blamed, the 
explanation apparently being that seeing the end is 
approaohing.they have begun, in regard both toEngland 
and Australia, to endeavour to make the very most for 
themselves in tbe few seasons left to them, irrespec- 
tive of the consequences. At any rate, it is a good 
sign when Mr. Rowbotham who is now widely- 
known as a Sydney tea-broker, sees bis way to leave 
his LueinesB on a special mieBion to Colombo and 
Calcutta — supported by several big Colonial tea firms 
— in order to make all necessary arrangements for a 
considerable extension of business in buying and 
importing our own and Indian teas. One drawback 
presented to the Ceylon trade is the comparative 
dearness and occasional scarcity of freight. In the 
case of Calcutta, tbe trade is so much larger that 
at intervals, speoial steamers are run to Mel- 
bourne and Sydney with teas. These can at least 
get a cargo of Australian coal back, apart from 
oopper from Adelaide, stock, wines, <tc. The day 
may shortly oome when it may be possible to fill 
