River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1886-10-14
SIX Cultnrr

49, but VIII hoL tiscuss pOilllcss except
with his most intimate friends.
silk Culture.
Considerable interest has been
aroused in Washington by the an
nouncement of silk factory at the Ag-
ricultural Department. Philip Walker.
special agent of the division of en-
tomology, who is charged with carry
ing out the details of the work, fur
nishes the following information: For
three years past Congress has appro-
priated sum OF money to be used by
the Commissioner of Agriculture in
endeavoring to establish the cultivation
of silk in the United States. Part of
this money has been employed in look
ing over the ground and making eX-
pertinent preliminary to the more
systematic ones, which it is now the
purpose of the Commissioner to under
take. These new experiments will be
conducted under the authority of a
clause IN the last Agricultural Appro-
priation bill authorizing the trial, at
some point in the District of Columbia,
OF some new machinery for reeling
silk from the cocoon automatically.
The silk Industry of the United
States, in most of its branches, is one
which has been advanced upon a firm
foundation; but for raw material of nc
best class the silk thrower and weaver
have been obliged to seek foreign mar
kets. There are two grades of this raw
material, commonly called raw and
spun silk. The former is produced from
silk waste and pierced cocoons, and
after preliminary operations of macer-
alton and carding, is spun somewhat
after the manner of cotton. This Oper-
alton has been successfully carried out
for some years by several establish
ments in Connecticut, Pennsylvania,
and elsewhere. and the industry may
be said TO be firmly established. But,
as good unpierced cocoons are not
used in this work, there still remains
no outlet in the United States for this
product, and the officials of the Depart
ment of Agriculture have found that it
was necessary, in order TO make the
culture of silk success, that it should
also assist in the establishment of a
market for the choicest product of the
silk-raiser-the whole or unpierced
cocoon.
From these cocoons is produced raw
silk. IL is needless here to 20 into the
details of the process by which the con-
tinuous tilaments of several cocOons
are unwound and united into a strong,
elastic, and well-rounded thread of raw
silk, though it is this kind of work that
is to be performed in the annex to the
Agricultural Building during the COM
ing year.
The greatest difficulty in Keeling silk
in America, and one which has thus far
been insurmountable, is of a financial
nature. arising from. the superior prices
which we pay for labor. Until within
q comparatively short period the ma
chinerv employed in this operation has
been in principle but little more i'm.
proved than the spinning wheel of the
ancients.
Some few years ago. however, Ed
ward w. Terrell, Jr. OF New York, un.
dertook to solve the problem of the
automatic reeling of silk. 1t was 9
difficult one, but 1t appears that sat
! isfactory end has been reached after
the expenditure of several years oil
| labor and considerable sums of money
/ The outcome is silk reel which is now
/ being put into operation in the South
of France through the cooperation Of
some of the leading banking houses 0.
/ Lyons. This machinery makes SC
great a saving in labor as to largely
/ subordinate this side Of the question
and it is for this reason that the sill
i raisers of our country hope by its aiC
| to bring their efforts in establishing
| silk culture to a successful termination
The Commissioner of Agricultur,
has been so fortunate as TO obtain {
few of these machines, with which h,
hopes to be able to produce reeled sill
with profit during the coming season
! There are good many cocooDs raiseC
I in this country now though their quail
/ ity will be largely improved as the ex
1 perience of the growers increases, anC
| the Commissioner has issued a circular
| advising silk raisers that he will aftel
/ the lst of October be able TO purchase
their cocoons in limited quantities.
Is regretted that only a portion o
this years crop can be received, bu
4 the establishment will be only of al
| experimental. nature, and the object o
the department is more to determine
whether silk can be more proiitably
reeled in this country with the mos
improved machinery than it is to fur
nish an outlet for all cocoons that may
be produced.
If the experiments contemplated ar,
brought to a successful issue the in
creasing of the home market for co
coons may then be looked into witt
greater hopes of success. The market
for the product of thisIestabiishment j.
already an active one, as we imported
during the last fiscal year raw silk tC
the value of nearly $20,000,000.