Sericulture in China—The Prevalence of Disease —Efforts Towards Elimination The present is a fitting time to think of sitk—silk in all its aspects from moths and silk-worms to the finished article which adorns the elite of kingdoms. For just now the silk-worm is busy spinning.
Most of the silk producing countries of the world have encountered this devastating disease et one time or another in the course of their careers, and until it was eradicated it hag cost them hundreds of millions in wealth, It is impossible to say how much wealth China is i the ravages of silk-worm disease, but the total must be stupendous, for as matters at present stand it is estimated that 90 per cent, of the silk-worms are diseased, A Couraczous Errors.
Ninoty per cent. is an appalling figure, and only the ingrained patience of the Chinese farmer prevents him from throwing up the work in despair—although—probably the thought never enters his mind. Government came—to the assistance of other—countries when disaster threatened them through disease, and one would rejoice to see the same happening here.
But while this is not to be looked for at present, a force is at work which slowly but surely will to the cocoon farmer's wealth and reduce his unnecessary labours. This is the International Committee for the Improvement of Sericulture in China Originating with the Foreign Silk Association of Shanghai and the French Chamber of Commeres, and then backed.up by other public' bodies, it is now demonstrating to China how she can overcome the evil threatening her industry, and in fact it might be-said that it is teaching the silkworm how to spin. There is a great deal to be done here, but as indicating the progress possible, it may be monitioned that in the sericulture schools started by i cocoons live been produced yielding 1 picul of silk from 3} piculs of cocoons, whilst cocoons coming, from the same district and reared in the usual way from non-selected seed yield one picul of silk from 5.20 pien's of cocoons, Ar a Serrcurrors Scxoor.
'A thoroughly interesting place in Shanghai just now is the sericulture school in Avenue clu Roi Albert. Here innumerable sith-worms are feeding or spinning or lying comatose with their cocoons until the day when they can become moths and carry on the race, So far as disease 13 concerned the eggs of the moth are all important, and it is in producing disease-free egos—or seeds, as they are usually cal—led—thet the school is interested.
When disease was rampant in Burope the assistance of the great Pasteur was invoked, and he came to tthe conclusion that the only emerges into the world. thing to. do. was to eliminate diseased seeds after a micros- between the sexes, copical examination, This is what is being done here, and it is by this means that in two years the percentage of diseass has been reduced from 90 to 70.
The life of the silk-worm or moth or whatever came first—we are faced with the old conundrum the hen and the egg—is interesting enough for description. Seeing that the eggs have been in storage sines last year we may start with them, and follow step by step what happens at the school. When, in the late spring, the time arrives for their brief existence, they are taken out of storage and placed in the incubator, whence they emerge as the tiniest' worms. This process is done by the Chinese by the warmth of the human body. But let no one hold up his or her hands in horror, for half a century ago it was the same in Europe, Anyhow, both processes succeed in hatching out the silk-worms, The mulberry leaves have been gathered, and they are spread on great trays, somewhat reminiscent Jof a Chinese bedstead. Then the silk worm starts to eat, and he eats with ravenous appetite. We need not follow lim through his daily series of meals, or the rests he takes—for intervals of a day or two at a time—for sleep. Some kinds eat for three weeks, some for og long as five, and in the meantime they grow prodigiously, It is worth while hearing them at their evening meal, and for that matter seeing them, They use their jaws, or whatever the correct term is, like scissors and play havoc with the leaves, And to listen to @ whole tray of them all at the game, is like the falling of soft rain. Cac would hardly have imagined even a few thousands of these tiny gourmands could have made such a raise.
So they go on feeding, these weird, sightless things with their respiratory ergalls arranged somehow along their sides, And when they have at length hud their fill, they cast about for a place in which to spin their cocoon. When the keeper sees that the time has arrived, he, removes them to frames, and there the wonderful process starts. Some succeed in getting so close together that two or even of them may combine to spin one cocoon, but given normal space, ach' worm produces his own home, and in five days or so it is finished and he has become a chrysalis.
In THe Sprinc a Youre May's From chrysalis grows moth, and when this stage is reached the prison walls are broken. The moth moistens the shell of the cocoon, and then with feet, eves and the other implements which nature has provided, he forces his way through the layers of fine spun silk, end At this point we must differentiate and instead
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.