Morning journal and courier., 1880-02-20
AN OLDBELIEF REVIVED.

| AN OAO kt kGAAh EkES1tEDs
 The belief that silk can be successfully pro- duced in this country is hard to kill, if indeed it is destined to die. Between forty and fifty years ago 8 Frenchman named d'Homergue | originated 8 remarkable craze among the peo- pie of the United States on the subject of silk culture. Thousands went into the business, a wild speculation in mulberry trees followed, | and for time it really seemed as if 8 new | source of profit had been made available. The excitement ran high till about 184O when the bubble burst much to the injury of many and silk worms and mulberry trees, though the 1 latter were not altogether displeasing to the small boy, who solaced himself with their fruit. At different times since this failure other experiments on small scale have been tried, but with poor success.
 It was predicted by d'Homsrgue 'that the United States are destined to become great silk growing and silk-manufacturing country; that the fulfllment of this high destiny may be retarded, but nothing can prevent it's talk ing place at a future time" As yet there are few signs of the fulfllment of this prediction, 50 far as the growing of silk is concerned, for
  duced in all America-probablyi in Mexico, Brazil and California-was but It, ,OOO. The Chinese empire, in the same year, furnished more than 23, COG, ,OoO pounds, India nearly 12, 900, 900. Italy about 500, ,OO0, Japan about 5,ooo,ooO France 1000, ,o0O, and Asia Minor, Turkey, Persia, Austria, Spain and Portugal, Greece and Morocco, together, and in lessen ing quantities, according to the order in which they are named, raised over 4, 500, 900 pounds. Of the total production of the world, amount ing to nearly 56, GOO, 900 pounds America con- tributed but 16, 1000 pounds.
 But the caseis somewhat different in respect to the manufacture of silk. The last statistics of the silk manufacturers of the United States showed that there were 213 factories in opera tion, and that in one year they produced silk goods of the value of $27, ,OOo, ,OOO, and con sumed annually more than 1 ,OOO, 900 pounds of raw silk, for which $5, ,0oO was paid. Since 1876, and especially since the late upris- ing of business, this manufacture, of which Paterson is the chief centre, has increased greatly, and we may not have long to wait before the importation of raw silk is double, and even quadruple that amount. The growth
 
 was so insignificant in 1850 that no separate account was taken at Washington of the importations of raw silk, yet in 1876 over 56 per cent. of the silk goods for home con- sumption was supplied from our own mills. The total value of silk consumed in the Uni ted States was $47, 785, 549, and of this the domestic factories furnished $26, ,593, 163, while the importations were $21, ,192, 3s6. The proportion of the value of home manu- factures to that of foreign goods rose from about 43 per cent in 1872 to over 56 per cent. in 1876.
 Of course, now that the manufacture of silk in this country has reached such proportions, if the raw material could be produced here there would be great saving, and as the cost of raw silk seems likely to be more instead of less it is therefore still more important that 1t should be grown in the United States if pos sible. Dr. Samuel Chamberlain comes to the front and expresses his belief that it can be done and has plan to propose for the en- couragement of silk culture here. It Is the plan adopted by the Silk Supply Association of England after the prevalence of the disease among silk worms, and Is known as 'cottage culture" It is believed that if put in opera ton here and care taken in the selection of a location 1t would not only prove profitable, but would in time so stimulate silk manufac- ture in the United States, that instead of buy ing millions of dollars worth of silks of foreign countries every year. our own factories would supply all the demand. The plan contem- plates the organization of a company to dis tribute mulberry trees, eggs and apparatus, | and the collection of cocoons for reeling, the reeled silk itself and the sale of the product | at wholesale to the manufacturers
 It certainly seems that somewhere in this great country, with it's varied climate, the cul- ture of silk might be made success. At all events there are such weighty reasons for try ing to make 1t so that another experiment in this direction will doubtless before long re- | ceive thorough test.