Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/166

 icinerated rice-stalks; then taken out and put on a cloth folded over them to keep them warm. The floss being removed by hand, they are then thrown into a basin of hot water to be unwound; which is done in a very rude and wasteful way.

"The plantations for the mooga silk-worm in Lower Assam, amount to 5000 acres, besides what the forests contain; and yield 1500 maunds of 84 lbs. each per annum. Upper Assam is more productive.

"The cocoon of the Koutkuri mooga is of the size of a fowl's egg. It is a wild species, and affords filaments much valued for fishing-lines.

"The Arrindy, or Eria worm, and moth, is reared over a great part of Hindostan, but entirely within doors. It is fed principally on the Hera, or Palma christi leaves, and gives sometimes 12 broods of spun silk in the course of a year. It affords a fibre which looks rough at first; but when woven, becomes soft and silky, after repeated washings. The poorest people are clothed with stuff made of it, which is so durable as to descend from mother to daughter. The cocoons are put in a close basket, and hung up in the house, out of reach of rats and insects. When the moths come forth, they are allowed to move about in the basket for twenty-four hours; after which the females are tied to long reeds or canes, twenty or twenty-*five to each, and then hung up in the house. Of the eggs that are laid the first three days, about 200, only are kept; then tied up for seed. When a few of the worms are hatched, the cloths are put on small bamboo platters hung up in the house, in which they are fed with tender leaves. After the second moulting, they are removed to bunches of leaves suspended above the ground, beneath which a mat is laid to receive them when they fall. When they cease to feed, they are thrown into basketsfull of dry leaves, among which they form their cocoons, two or three being often discovered joined together.

"The Saturnia trifenestrata has a yellow cocoon of a remarkably silky lustre. It lives on the soom-tree in Assam, but seems not to be much used."

The second article is from the pen of Dr. Helfer, upon those