WOOL AND SILK 167
shorn twice in the year, once in early summer and again in the autumn. The wool is of good quality, and in the winter months the women spin it and the men weave it into blankets and into the well- known “puttoo” cloth, in which sportsmen in Kashmir clothe themselves, and for which, since the Swadeshi movement, there has been a great demand in India.
Silk is another and increasingly important pro- duct. The whole of the valley is covered with mulberry trees, and for many centuries sericulture has been practised in the country. But it is only recently that it has been placed on a really business- like footing. Now good “seed,” ae. silk-worms’ eggs, are imported fresh every year from France and Italy—about six-sevenths from France and one- seventh from Italy—and in the spring are given out to the cultivators free of charge. The villagers hatch out the eggs, feed the silk-worms on the mul- berry leaves, and then bring the cocoons to the State silk factory at Srinagar for sale. The amount paid for these cocoons is between four and five thousand | rupees, so that the Kashmiri villagers at very little trouble and no cost are able to put a nice sum of
