562 
ST. HELENA SILK WORMS. 
Simply a water 
jar, of about 2 feet 
(tiameter, cut into 
two parts, which 
cap thetwo stoves; 
each havinsa valve 
or smoke pipe to 
draw off the smoke 
to the usual circu- 
lar chimney shaft 
of the pottery 
gbje* 
Found to ave- 
rage between 2 
and 3 chittacks 
per raaiiiid, Fe- 
bruary 1833. 
At the trifling 
outlay of Rs. 287- 
15-4, paid for out 
of the profits on 
the potteiyghyes. 
hemispherical tops (ia sub- 
stitution of the cocoon 
basins). Thus a moderate 
temperature, by no means 
oppressive, regulated by a 
thermometer and ventilator, 
may at all times be kept up, 
and the room being glazed, 
the process of weighing, 
sorting, and packing, will 
all be carried on with great 
security in the worst wea- 
ther, now altogether im- 
practicable without the cer- 
tainty of the bales being 
packed damp, an evil so 
much complained of at the 
Export Warehouse, and by 
the brokers in London. 
The injury increasing by 
the heat of the ships hold. 
3. The new silk of each 
day will be hung up in the 
usual mosses, or bundles 
of skeins, or distributed on 
horses and shelves made 
for the purpose, and thus 
remain 24 or 48 hours, ac- 
cording to circumstances, 
before being weighed, sorted 
and embaled. The decrease 
in weight will be very tri- 
fling, no factitious practices 
being resorted to by the ope- 
ratives in Bengal, as in 
Europe by the throwsters, 
to moisten and increase the 
weight by soap and dirt, 
which is there paid for as 
silk by the manufacturer. 
6. I am induced to hope 
that the elFect of this ar. 
rangement may prove be- 
neficial to the investment, 
consequently satisfactory to 
your Board. And that it 
may accordingly be brought 
to the notice of Govern - 
mentas an expedient hitherto 
1 believe never thought 
of or had recourse to at 
any of the Honourable 
Company’s Factories. 
“ Quinonproficit, deficit.” 
Mr. Secretary Macnaghten^s Reply of the llth 
of June, 1832, to the foregoing. 
“The Board being persuaded that you 
were actuated by the most praise worthy 
motives in incurring the expence of Sa. Rs. 
287-15-4, as reported in your letter of the 2d 
instant in the preparation of a “ drying 
room” at the Rangamattee Factory, they do 
not hesitate, in the present instance, to sanc- 
tion that expenditure.” 
(A True Extract.) 
Colin Shakespear, Resident. 
REMARK. 
Of the advantages of this scheme I can 
now speak with confidence : many hundred 
bales of Raw Silk having been packed in the 
past year, in a state of “ dr^agre” and per- 
fection hitherto unknown. 
\ 5th February , 1833. C. S. 
The following paper on disease among silk 
worms is important. 
TRANSMITTED TO THE SOCIETY 
THROUGH GOVERNMENT. 
To L. R. Reid, Esq. 
Secretary to Government. 
Sir, — I have the honour to inform you 
that 1 have dispatched from Darwar a fur- 
ther quantity of St. Helena silk-worms’ 
eggs to the address of the Secretary to the 
Bengal Government, Territorial Department. 
2. I had found that most of the country 
worms in and about Darwar were cut off by 
disease within the last two months, and that 
the portion of the Italian worms already 
hatched from the St. Helena eggs had shared 
the same fate, I therefore took the liberty of 
sending off the remainder to Bengal as the 
only chance of saving them. 
3. With reference to your letter of the 13th 
ultimo, enclosing the copy of a communica- 
tion from the Commercial Resident at Soo- 
namooky, 1 have to report that I have com- 
menced supplying cuttings of the white mul- 
berry by the letter post as desired, and that 
I shall continue to do so until I receive in- 
formation from Mr. Shakespear that a suffi- 
cient quantity has been sent. 
4. I have to express my thanks to Mr. 
Shakespear for his remarks on the cultivation 
of the mulberry in Bengal. 'I'he two varieties 
which I have sent for introduction to Bengal 
are distinct from those of which Mr. Shake- 
spear was so kind as to forward specimens. 
The “ dasee” or “ indigenous mulberry” is 
cultivated about Poona and in the southern 
Mahratta country.* 
The “ bedasee” I take to be the same as a 
third variety 1 received from St. Helena with 
entire pointed leaves and a whitish bark. Ad- 
mitting the morns alba and moms Indica to be 
originally specially distinct, I should say 
that the “ dasee” and “ bedasee” are vaiie- 
ties oi' morns Indica, and that the larger white 
mulberry (entire leaved,) and the “ doppia 
foglia” are varieties o^morus alba. However, 
the several kinds of mulberry used for feeding 
worms have been so modified by cultivation, 
as to render the distinguishing marks between 
a species and a mere variety extremely dif- 
ficult to ascertain. In order to prepare the 
way for more correct information on this 
subject, 1 herewith forward specimens of 
several kinds of mulberry, with an outline of 
an arrangement of the genus morns, which I 
beg to request may be sent to Bengal for 
comment or correction. 
5 There are two important points yet to be 
established with regard to the several kinds of 
mulberry. 
* Vide Specimen. 
