Silk and Its Uses
Who does not like silk clothing’s? All festival and auspicious occasions in our families feed to the purchase of silk sarees, shirts and dhothis. Not only for its fine variety but also for durability silk is preferred by all.
The three types of materials we use mostly for our clothes are cotton, wool and silk. These materials are got from different sources. Cotton is from the plant, wool is from the sheep and other animals and silk is got from an insect viz, the silk worm.
The silk worm is a caterpillar which becomes a white moth, small in size. The life of the moths and butterflies are one and the same. The full grown moth or butterfly lays eggs. These tiny eggs hatch out into caterpillars. The caterpillars are ugly creatures crawling about like worms and feeding on the leaves of plants.
After some time, the caterpillar weaves around itself a thick web out of its own body and goes to slumber. The web is called the Cocoon. It lies asleep for weeks but at last it breaks open the prison in which it has been lying and comes out with wings either as a moth or a butterfly.
The Cocoon made by the silk worm is of very fine smooth shining threads. These threads are what we call silk which is woven into silk cloth.
As the farmer breeds sheep for its wool and shears it out after winter, people in China, Japan and India in the East and in Italy and France and in the West breed and rear the silk worms for the sake of silk.
Regular silk worm farms are maintained. They are planted with Mulberry trees for the silk worms feed upon the leaves of the Mulberry trees.
The growing of Mulberry trees themselves create convenient environment for the worms.
Normally during August or September, the moths lay their eggs. The eggs are hatched during the following May. The Mulberry trees come to leaf during that period. From the hatched eggs come out the small caterpillars.
The caterpillars feed greedily on the fresh leaves of the Mulberry tree for about a month. When they are about three inches long they spin their yellow silk Cocoons around themselves and go to sleep.
When these Cocoons are finished by the caterpillars. They are placed in an oven when the heat kills the cater-pillars inside the Cocoons.
Then the silk threads are unwound and these threads are woven into beautiful shining silk cloth. Thousands and thousands of caterpillars are killed to provide the threads for wearing a silk saree,
