Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-09-27
ABOUT SILK CULTURE.
SOMETHING WHICH ATTRACTS THE
 ATTENTION OF THE FAIR SEX.

Al BIN ION OF i1G FHiH SEN. 4 Chat with the Lady at the Silk Reel
 The Worms voracious Appetite-Esgs
 and Cocoons-Ignorance of tho General
 Public-Profits,
 Rambling through the exposition the other day, I was particularly interested In the silk weaving department, and stopped to talk. Now, here is a profitable, easy, home employ nent, which is just beginning to obtain the attention 1t deserves among women and girls; something desirable, too, for delicate women who find little to do that their strength per mits
 The placard, "Women's Silk Culture Asso- citation of the United States" is a little stag gering, but the whole thing is very interest ing. It was only eight years ago that few philanthropic rich women of Philadelphia incorporated it to assist in affording a new industry. They succeeded in obtaining from congress S, 900 to help the thing on. The association now furnishes mulberry trees free of charge in numbers not less than twenty five nor exceeding 100, to those intending to begin cocoon raising. A queer thing about mulberry trees is that no other insect feeds upon them. They will thrive wherever corn will
 The association at Philadelphia now has twelve auxilaries in various states, mainly in the south all formed for the purpose of giving American women 8 chance to catch the thousands of dollars which annually roll iuto Italy and other countries for our i'm ported raw silk. Why in Italy, many fam lilies almost move out of their own houses during part of the summer to use every available room for the worms that spin them their years support.
 EGGS, WORMS AND CoCooNS.-
 got to talking with the lady at the reel about it. ''Yes" she said, tits very nice thing for lady to do. You see an ounce of eggs is enough to begin with. There are 40, 900 eggs ill an ounce, and the whole out lay is only about $50, racks and all. You take good, big, airy room, and spread the eggs around it on paper You keep the eggs in an ice box till you want them to hatch. The rooms about 70 degs, and you take it to about 80 degs for the eggs to batch. Then you begin to feed them fine cut leaves; next small twigs, and so oa. Silk worms have bigger appetites than schoolboys. They eat much moro than their own weight every day"
 When the worms are ready to spin their winding sheets they creep up on the racks When the cocoon is finished the befo-etime worm is stifed by being put into the sun, otherwise he'd eat his way through the end, cutting all the threads and, the emblem of immortality, issue from his grave gorgeous moth. The cocoons look like peanuts. "Peo- pie come here every day and ask for pea nuts" Mrs. Irving laughed. 1T think this must be the funniest corner of the exposi- tion. People show an ignorance of the whole subject wEich is extremely amusing. The other day the Hennepin county teachers came here. They got some circulars and cocoons and samples of silk, and are going to do something among their pupils. Most of them scanned posted, but one of then-a man, by k the way,n and she laughed, "asked where the cocoons were grown. I told him those were k raised in Philadelphia He seemed little surprised, but asked if it didn't take pretty rich soil for them"
 SOME BEAUTIFUL SPECIMENS.
 We were standing near the counter where are displayed the different shades of raw silk, which shades, she said, are produced by the different feeds. The best silk Is the white, from tho worm fed on the English mulberry. The case has some beautiful specimens which somewhat resemble hair As we were talk ing two ladies were evidently arguing near. One of them turned with, '1sn't that a wig9' pointing to one of the specimens. As they moved off the reeler said, "Oh, that's noth- IuS OUuST udy Il we'll OI6SSeu 1dQy dSheU me if bought hair there as she had some she'd like to dispose of. She must have 1 thought had decided preference for canary and blonde hair"
 'tYes," said she, ''there's steady demand for cocoons There are never enough They 1 bring S1.15 & pound usually, and we like them fresh, they spin better then That re- minds me as was 'reeling' the other day q gentleman came along and thought it was a burning shame those things were being roasted alive You see the cocoons were bobbing up and down in the water. We | have to put them in to soften the silk. Soon after couple of intelligent looking ladies came along One of them said, Is she boil ing those worms to kill themp 'No,' said the other, she's matching them; don't you seer Why, if you'd sit beside me an hour and hear the comments, I warrant you couldn't keep your face straight.
 'Bct here; I'm telling you nonsense instead of giving information. We buy the cocoons at the association in Philadelphia in any small quantities, from women all over the country. Oh, it's a great thing, and be- coming more popular every year. Some city ladies are very successful in raising cocoons. They buy the mulberry leaves from leaf markets, where they are brought by farmers. The farmers plant them for hedges. we nave large FOoH1 III a1TulOuut park, where the association grows the cocoons What do we do with those we buy We'll, the association employs six reelers who spin the silk, as I am doing now, into skeins of raw silk, and they are sold to tho various silk manufactories of the countrv."-"A. E. H." in St Paul Pioneer Press.
 Elevation of the Grocery Store.
 Another effect of the evolution in our food supply has been elevsting the grocery store to be one of the most attractive of shops Formerly the grocer's stock consisted of 6 few barrels of sugar, molasses and salt meat