The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-04-13

thousand, four hundred and slxty-three
dollars. This gave employment through
out the year to large numbers of per-
sons. The highest number employed at
any one time was thirty-four thousand,
four hundred and ten. Such an in
dustry accounts for some late develop
ments in Switzerland. Formerly Ameri-
cans bought largely of Swiss ribbons.
Consul Mason, of Basic, reports that for
three or four years previous to the year
1878, there were sent to the United
States from the Basic district silk rib
bons 10 the value of 100000 annually.
IN 1879 but $S11 ,224 worth of ribbons
was exported, but the number of facto-
ries reduced from twenty-six to eight.
Last year there was quite a revival of
trade at Basic, but the figures to date
serve to point out what was happening
in the United States during these years.
We had begun to make our own ribbons.
They are better than the imported, be-
cause they are purer. In that one word
is the secret and success of American
silk. Consul Peixotto, at Lyons, has
made an estimate that the total yield of
the world in silk last years was nineteen
millions of pounds, largely furnished
from Japan. The product of the Japan
the last year of available statistics, at
thirty-one millions of dollars. Much of
this comes across America on its way to
Europe, for manufacture. Our own fac
tories in Philadelphia, in New Jersey, in
Massachusetts,, Missouri, and elsewhere,
import every year an increasing quantity
of reeled and raw silk, silk waste, ETC.,
to supply the steadily growing silk manu-
facture. Why not, says the Philadel-
phia Silk School, keep some of this money
at home?
The answer to this question comes
along slowly. The old multicaulis spec
ulation so impressed it upon the minds
of most people that there was something
disastrous about the silk industry, that
1t takes the chimneys of Paterson and the.
jacquard looms of Philadelphia to answer
that there are millions in it already, and
more to come. Naturally the silk weav-
ers of the United States are not the first to
see the connection, ust as it took the wool
weavers some time to fix their ideas upon
the back of American sheep. But now
the feeces and the factories are "solid"
in their interests, and nobody could di-
vorce the wool-growers from the weavers
1t is as easy to raise cocoons as sheep
easier The intermediate stages between
the cocoon and the factory have yet to
be undertaken, but cocoons and eggs
are both raised in this State, in North
Carolina and in Missouri, for sale and ex-
port. The shearing of the cocoons, or
1lott 10 hn OF - L
taken on an extended scale. The great
cocoon market for the world is Marseilles.
The silk failures are grouped in the de-
partments around Lyons, and the French
raised cocoons are consumed in the i'm
mediate neighborhood in which they are
raised, but the foreign cocoons, coming
from all countries, are distributed from
Marseilles, and there they are purchased
to the best advantage. Consul Peixotto
points out, in a private letter to the Amer
lean Minister at Paris, in answer to
some inquiries made through Mr. Noyes
by the Philadelphia silk school, that
American grown cocoons can be sold at
Marsellles as readily as any others, as
soon as the quality, and especially the
uniformity, Of the eocoons becomes known
50 ~ H''i NOCo' ny Oue ellOIIS Oh JllS
school American grown cocoons will
doubtless soon be placed on sale in this
important depot to direct the attention
OF American silk raisers to this point.
There have been already given in the
Ledger such details of silk growing under
the management of this school as will
satisfy any one that all that is needed is
such point to which the numerous little
harvests all over the country can be
gathered and forwarded. Here is one
experience from Gwynedd, Pa, represent
ing six weeks care of one crop. There
were raised in one farm house lust as
an experiment and to see how it would
work, thirty pounds of cocoons and ff-
teen ounces of eggs. The cocoons are
worth at market two dollars pound
the eggs from three to four dollars an
ounce. From North Carolina farmer
comes letter on larger scale. He has
put up one hundred and fifty racks this
year, four feet long by three wide, and
each rack is to accommodate two thou
sand worms. He expects to raise this
summer one thousand barrels of cocoons
North Carolina cocoons, pure white,
took premium at the Centennial |; but
this grower raises also from the French
eggs the large Aesh-colored cocoons, of
which about one hundred and ninety
weight a pound, and from the Japanese
eggs also a fine cocoon