light. The discarded moths are cast out into
the brilliant sunshine where they are eaten by poultry or are left to
die and serve as manure.

Sericulture is always a risky business. There is first the risk of a
fall in prices. Just before I reached Japan prices were so low that
many people despaired of being able to continue the business, and
shortly after I left there was a crisis in the silk trade in which
numbers of silk factories failed. At the time I was last in a
silk-worm farmer's house cocoons were worth from 5 to 6 yen per _kwan_
of 8-1/4 lbs. From 8 to 10 _kwan_ of cocoons could be expected from a
single egg card. Eggs were considered to be at a high price when they
were more than 2 yen per card. The risks of the farmer are increased
when he launches out and buys mulberry leaves to supplement those
produced on his own land. Sometimes the price of leaves is so high
that farmers throw away some of their silk-worms. The risks run by the
man who grows mulberries beyond his own leaf requirements on the
chance of selling are also considerable.

Beyond the risk of falling prices or of a short mulberry crop there is
in sericulture the risk of disease. One advantage of the system in
which the eggs are laid in circles on the cards instead of all over
them is that if any disease should be detected the affected areas can
be easily cut out with a knife and destroyed. Disease is so serious a
matter that silk-worm breeding, as contrasted with silk-worm raising,
is restricted to those who have obtained licences. The silk-worm
breeder is not only licensed. His silkworms, cocoons and mother moths
are all in turn officially examined. Breeding "seeds" were laid one
year by about 33,000,000 odd moths; common "seeds" by about
948,000,000.

Of recent years enormous progress has been made in combating disease.
I have spoken of how a silk-worm district may be recognised by the
structure of the farmhouses and the prosperity of the farmers, but
another striking sign of sericulture is the trays and mats lying in
the sun in front of farmers' dwellings or on the hot stones of the
river banks in order to get thoroughly purified from germs. It is
illustrative of the progress that has been made under scientific
influence, that whereas twenty years ago a sericulturist would reckon
on losing his silk-worm harvest completely once in five years, such a
loss is now rare. Scientific instructors have their difficulties in
Japan as in the rural di