Sericulture is an agro-based industry. It involves rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk, which is the yarn obtained out of cocoons spun by certain species of insects. The major activities of sericulture comprises of food-plant cultivation to feed the silkworms which spin silk cocoons and reeling the cocoons for unwinding the silk filament for value added benefits such as processing and weaving. The method of extraction of silk from cocoon. The unwinding of the fine silk filaments from the cocoons is called reeling. Reeling consists of the following operations.

• Stifling
• Sorting
• Cooking
• Brushing
• Combining for size
• Throwing

• Here the moth inside the cocoons is killed by steam or hot water.

 

• To obtain uniform and good quality yarn, silk grading is done.
• Cocoons of different sizes are grouped together.
• Fine cocoons are taken and it is used for producing fine silk filament.
• Damage or ill developed cocoons are rejected and used in waste industry

 

• The graded cocoons are placed in vessel containing not water. The temperature of the water is 90 degree c.
• Cooking is done to remove sericin gum and to enable the filament to be drawn into a continuous thread.
• Cooking is done for 5-10 minutes.

• After cooking discontinuous unbreakable rough mass of fiber are removed with the help of brush until continuous length of filament to be drawn into a continuous thread.
• The rough(or) discontinuous or unreeelable fibers are called as floss are used in waste industry

 

• Cocoons after brushing are transferred to a trough containing water at 60 degree c.
• The number of filaments in each trough depends upon the number of filaments required to produce any particular count.

 

• Silk throwing is the operation of twisting long filaments of silk into a yarn.
• Reeled silk is transformed into a silk yarn by silk throwing operation.
• Twist gives cohesion to the filaments which are combined together.
• The twist/inch and the direction of twist are important factor in throwing.