Connecticut western news., 1882-11-01
sERICULTURE IN AMERICA.
Why this Country will Find it Difi-
 cult to Produce it's Own Silk.

Why this Country will Find it Difa-
 cult to Produce it's Own Silk.
 There is at present considerable in- terest felt in silk circles concerning the action taken in many sections in relation to sericulture. The silk dealers and manufacturers say that one difficulty experienced here is the fact that silk can be produced so low ln the old world.
 A gentleman from France gives the following description of the life of French silk reeler:-
 In Southern France children enter the silk factory at about seven years of age, and receive in wages from seventy-fve cents to $1.75 per week. They con- mence work at five o'clock in the morn ing and close at ten o'clock at night. They are allowed fifteen minutes for breakfast and an hour for dinner, and after that the machinery is not stopped. but the operatives take their evening meals as best they can while working. Their breakfast consists of black bread cut in small pieces steeped in water, their dinner is of this broth and black bread, and their supper also consists of black bread steeped in the same water in which silk cocoons have been steep- ing. The rooms in which they work are heated to the extent of S5 degrees, and they sleep in rooms in which there are fifty beds, two in each bed. There are no bedroom utensils or provisions for washing, and they have to go into 8 court yard and wash in trough. They do not undress, but throw their weary limbs on the bed and sleep in their clothes. In addition to all that, cer- tain quantity of work is expected from each child daily, and if it is not per- formed they are instantly dismissed. Consul Peixotto says on the same sub- ject:-
 As recompensef for a long days labor, for the skill which it has required years of practice to obtain, and for labor which requires unremitting attention, 8 cramped and never changing position, confined in an atmosphere impregnated with steam and acrid vapors, and the constant dipping of the hands in scala ing water to an extent which often pro. duces special diseases, they receive very poor pay.
 These stories may at first sight look rather exaggerated, and would hardly be believed did they not come from the best sources, and were they not corrob- orated by hundreds of travellers who have visited the silk reeling districts of France. This is the labor which the sericulturists desire to bring into com- petition with the labor of this country. To do so with any justice to the Ameri- can laborer would require the imposi- tion of an enormous tariff on raw silk. This would increase the cost of manu- facture greatly and the tariff on manu- faetured silk would have to be increased in proportion. The result of this would be 8 tremendous rise in the price of silk and corresponding declins in its use.
 The men who are interested in seri- culture, however, claim that Yankee ingenuity and Yankee skill will over- come all difficulties, and that it will not be long before reeling machines will be invented which will do away with all this work. But so far Yankee skill has not invented any such machine, al- though it has been wanted for many years and an invention of that kind would pay as we'll as when silk culture shall have been introduced into this country. Numerous attempts have been made atinventing silk reeling machinery and several machines of this kind have been patented, but so far none have given satisfaction and reeling Is still done in the manner described in the SSlk Journal and by Consul Peixotto, as follows:
 In Europe large and we'll organized flatures for silk have displaced domestic reeling to at least as great an extent as cotton woolen and linen factories have superseded the domestic production of cloth. The following figures concerning silk 1eeling may be relied upon as accu- rate, and I trust will be found of service in showing with some degree of clear ness what are the facts in the case At present quotations 8 pound of yellow French cocoons, dry, is worth $1.2O Tn the market of Marseilles and Milan. To produce pound of raw silk requires an average of 6-1O pounds of such cocoons, thus making the cost of the raw material for pound of silk $4 32. There is also produced in reeling by product called 'sfrison," coming from the silk upon the cocoons which is not transformed into thread This is worth about 70 cents for each pound of silk produced. Deducting th1s amount from the cost of cocoons there remains $3. .62 as the cost of the silk in the cocoons, which is to be transformed into pound of raw silk; The value of the pound o1 raw silk, when produced, depends very largely upon the skill of the reeler anc the moro or less favorable circumstances under which the reeling is performed Badly reeled silk, produced from goot cocoons, is worth at present about 4Of per kiln, or little less than $3. 40 pe pound, somewhat less, in fact, than thu market price of the cocoons necessary to produce it. On the contrary, silk produced by the best flatures and ex ceptionally we'll reeled sells from $6Sf. tt 70f. per kiln, or an average at presen prices of $6 per pound. II France the average pay of reeler i