Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-01
SILK CULTURE.
AN INDUSTRY SUITED TO THE
WOMEN OF CALIFORNIA.
Open Letter on the Subject. from
One who has had Expe-
rience in the Art.
addressed through the medium of the RECORD
ITNIOS I

very interesting. You say that YOU do
your own housework, and look after the
training and educating of five children,
from to 16 years of age; that your daugh-
ter is practical girl and anxious to make
little pocket money.
You say you have heard of silk culture,
and would like to know if there is anything
in it that your nearest neighbor declares
it to be swindle and fraud, and that it
is nonsense to waste time on it. You ask
if will inform you on the matter, and if
it is worth while then 10 go to work
1t is with pleasure that [ respond, for
you are the very woman for whom silk
culture was intended from the beginning
Your location and your circumstances
make you the typical woman who is to
make silk culture a success. Therefore,
you, above all others, ought to be posted,
and | will try to make the thing clear.
To begin with. the work of introducing
silk culture into California has been divided
into three distinct parts. One results from
the State appropriation, one from United
States appropriation and the third from
the Ladies Silk Culture Association-the
latter being the mother of the other two,
though in position very much like the old
woman who went A" over the hill to the
poor-house. BY the special efforts of the
latter, the appropriation was given by the
State, and State Board created for the
purpose Of making a market for cocoons
and fostering the silk industry. Under the
supervision Of the Board is the Keeling
School in San Francisco, where all the CO.
coons produced in the State are reeled, and
young women taught the process. They
also give the silk-worm eggs freely to
those who visa to embark in the enter
prise, and either buy bacl, again the
cocoons they have raised, or reel the silk
free of charge and return. The prices
are: For first quality, 81 40 per pound :;
second quality, 81 p per pound third
quality, 81 per pound. During the past
year, since the 9th OF June, the Keeling
School has been in operation. 1t may be
of some little interest to you to hear what
they have done. \ class of twenty girls
has been taught, of which six are ready to
claim first-grade certificates. Under the
new teacher, an experienced Italian, recon-
mended in Italy, they have attained much
more skill than before and when the new
machinery arrives next week. with
its re-reelers, the silk will be
produced IN marketable condi-
ton. There is faint suspicion that
the cocoons raised in California are being
the sudden decrease in the returns made to
the State Board. For this year thet re-
ceived but 200 pounds, of which the largest
amount received from any one person was
40 pounds and for which $47 was given in
return. The amount of cocoons necessary
to make one pound of silk is four pounds,
and to be OF good quality should not in
clude more than 300 cocoons. In this way
we see how many are necessary for the
III 1
should be sufficient for the worms to ma.
ture and pass into the chrysalis stage, as
after that time they are not worth feeding
But all these particulars are TO be obtained
from the Ladies Society, and need not be
treated here.
The second division of the work is car
ried on by the United States Comm ssioner
and under the supervision of the Ladies
Society. The appropriation was devoted to
the erecting of an Experimental Station at
Piedmont, and all efforts are being made to
concentrate the forces of all in preparing it
for the work for which it is intended. BY
earnest endeavor the Ladies Society Sc
cured a special fund granted by the State
Board for the purpose of stocking it with
mulberry trees, and here, in time, will be
the source of information relative to ali
practical experiments in silk culture, in
order that disease may not creep in and
ruin the industry in Its infancy.
The third, the Ladies' Silk Culture Asso-
citation of California, the source from
whence these other two departments de-
rived their birth, maintains a singular
position in being a mere social organiZa-
ton, answering letters from all over the
country and encouraging the growth of the
silk industry. At the same time, the great
part she plays is in keeping motherly eve
on her two children, 10 see that they are
not allowed to die from inattention, but
the moment they are in danger to come to
their relief, and by influence brought to
bear on our legislative bodies, to keep them
in existence. At the same time she paws
her own bills, receiving nothing from her
able bodied children, ephemera as they
are, for her own support. 1t is truly a
peculiar part that she plays. If she secures
an appropriation or has sum of money
granted her for any purpose, there is al
ways some one appointed to spend it for
her so that whatever else may be said,
eventually, of her success or failure in in
PRODUCING silk culture into California, it
can never be said that she handled any of
the money. You see, my dear Ruth, that
the political world is strange one, and
that there are within its boundaries many
strange things not dreamed of in our
philosophy.
| wish I could explain to you what a
strange disease the silk-culture enthusiasm
is. Here ladies have become united by a
silken thread on this one subject They
talk silk-culture, they work and they fight
for it, a member joins at first out of mere
curiosity. But in little while one is told
that silfI-culture is fraud and the women
are all fools to think of introducing it and
then very defiant feelings come to the sur
face, heroism becomes rampant, and war is
declared. Not knowing much of silk-cult-
ure. or whether she is right or wrong, the
hew member goes 10 the President in search
of answers to these arguments. Like Cas-
sandra of old, our President becomes in
spired, and speaks with tongue of proph-
ecy, and soon the searcher for truth is
convinced that for once the men are wrong
and the women right. You must be pre-
pared beforehand to understand that
TO advocate silk-culture you must
be brave and confident and willing to
fight all enemies. We are in the plight of
the flying fish. which leaps from the waters
to escape some monster below, only to find
a winged enemy ready to seize him above
There is a bitter prejudice against this
movement from personal interest-an I'M
dercurrent of vailed malicious persecution
finding vent in ugly newspaper notices
and even misstatements. Sericulture has
our best wishes for its failure" is a sample.
When, In trepidation, some of the ladies
come flying 10 the President to know what
they shall do, what they shall say to such
cruel things, she assumes a sphinx-like
patience and says: You must be thank
9ll that they do not burn us, as they did
the witches See what the Philadelphia
paper says of Mrs. Lucas, the President of
the Philadelphia Branch of Silk Culture /:
She should be hung as high as Hannah -
After this we are quite silent, but none the
less resolved to 60 on.
Now, what do you think, my dear Ruth,
all this means2 Just follow me patiently
and read between the lines: The United
States imports more silk than any other
country in the world, and thereby sends
millions of gold dollars out of circulation
every year. Does it not Seem grand idea
TO think of keeping all that money at
home for the hard times? Look al the
employment it would give our people, es-
pecially womenl
1t can't be done, 1t can't be done ~
croak the ravens. Why not? 1t was but
ten years ago that the ravens declared silk
manufacturing an impossibility in this
country, and now see what great interest
this has become, and the employment it