T he quality of mulberry leaf plays an important role in successful rearing of the Mulberry Silkworm Moth and cocoon production (Krishnaswamy 1978; Ravikumar 1988; Choudhury et al., 1991). The quantity and quality of mulberry leaf affect larval growth rate, larval body weight, survival larvae, fecundity, developmental periods of different metamorphic stages and economic cocoon characters (Rafique and Bajwa, 2003). There are several factors which influence quantity and quality of mulberry foliage includ-ing: soil type, climate, mulberry varieties and management practices of mulberry plantation (Raman et al., 1995; Rafique and Bajwa, 2005). Among these, production of nutritionally rich mulberry foliage on sustainable basis depends on soil fertility and its management through periodical application of farm yard manure and fertilizers in required quantity (Sengupta et al., 1992; Baqual and Das, 2006).Among fertilizers, macronutrients including: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) play important role in foliar growth, root development, Abstract | Macro-and micro nutrients were managed in soil and mulberry foliage through application of urea and diammonium phosphate (DAP). Urea at the rate of 608 kg/ha and DAP at the rate of 260 kg/ha was applied on six mulberry varieties. The results showed a deficiency in nitrogen, phosphorus, zinc and manganese in soil before the fertilizer application. Contrarily, high copper and potassium contents were found. After three weeks of fertilizer application, concentration of N, P, K and Fe in the soil almost doubled. Zinc and Cu contents decreased significantly (p<0.01). The highest N, P and K were found in mulberry variety PFI-1, M. latifolia and Karyansuban, respectively. The highest Cu and Mn were found in Kanmasi. The highest Zn and Fe were found in Husang and Karyansuban, respectively. A significant variation in uptake and retention of macro-and micro nutrients was found in the mulberry varieties after fertilizer application. The highest N was taken up by Kanmasi, while the highest P and K were taken up by Husang. Iron and Cu increased, and Zn and Mn decreased after week 3 of fertilizer application. Nitrogen was 1.5 to 2.6 times greater after week 6 of fertilizer application compared to before fertilizer application. Similarly, P and K were 4.7 to 6.6 times and 2.6 to 3.9 times greater, respectively. Based on these findings, it is concluded that urea in split doses and diammonium phosphate in single dose should be applied 3-4 weeks before the commencement of rearing of Mulberry Silkworm Moth for nutritionally rich mulberry foliage.

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Climate change and its impacts were assessed on growth of Blue pine, Pinus wallichiana in Murree Forest Division. Change in temperature (maximum, minimum, mean) and precipitation was assessed for time period of 1963-2012 at 50×50 km 2 (0.5°×0.5°). Growth of P. wallichiana was measured in terms of ring-width, intra-ring early and late wood formation. The regime of maximum temperature, minimum temperature and mean temperature were estimated and found 26.45±0.08°C, 13.40±0.08°C and 19.90±0.07°C, respectively, while the precipitation regime was 1148.79±32.87 mm/annum. An increase of 0.60, 1.27 and 0.98°C was observed in maximum temperature, minimum temperature and mean temperature, respectively. Precipitation increased to 28.88% during time period of 50 years. The mean ring-width, intra-ring early and late wood formation was 1.05 mm, 66.2 and 33.8%, respectively. The ring-width and intra-ring late wood formation increased by 5.09 and 2.57%, respectively, while the intra-ring early wood formation decreased by 1.28%. The impact of minimum temperature was significant (0.05) on the ring-width. There was a positive but non-significant correlation between temperature (maximum, minimum, mean) and positive and highly significant (p<0.01) correlation between precipitation and ring-width. The intra-ring early wood formation showed negative correlation with maximum temperature and precipitation, while intra-ring late wood formation showed negative correlation with mean temperature and with intra-ring early wood formation. Ring-width and intra-ring wood formation provided better prediction of impacts of climate change on growth of P. wallichiana.

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Natural silk is considered as queen of textile due to its superior traits. This study was conducted to assess technical properties of cocoon, and raw silk and mechanical properties of silk filament produced by two mulberry silkworm strains. The Chinese strain (205PO) produced dry cocoon of 0.61±0.04 g with raw silk of 0.30±0.02 g and the Japanese strain (J101) produced dry cocoon of 0.49±0.01 g with raw silk of 0.23±0.00 g. The single filament length of 205PO and J101 was 1203.1±20.42 m cocoon−1 and 1082.3±48.95 m cocoon−1, respectively. The filament was finer in the Japanese silkworm strain (1.91±0.06 denier) compared to the Chinese silkworm strain (2.26±0.15 denier). The filament tenacity, tenacity rupture and strain of J101 was 6.24 %, 24.62 % and 4.42 % greater compared to 205PO. The tensile strength of 205PO was 11.82 % greater compared to J101. The filament diameter was 22.01±0.42 μm and 21.98±0.15 μm of 205PO and J101, respectively. Based on these findings, it is recommended that silkworm strains with superior techno‐mechanical properties may be included in breeding programmes for enhancing the quality of silk textile.