Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-02-01
SILK CULTURE IN KANSAS.
no tne Editor OF one Eag,e.

VIII you please puDllSn the following
note of inquiry and subjoined reply
which, I think will be of interest tt
many of your readers, as it is certainly {
most important matter:
HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTA- !
TIvES, STATE OF KANSAS,
TOPEKA, Jan. %, 1889.
Mr. H. f. Bidwen
Dear SRI know you are interested il
| silk culture in Kansas. | am interested
in introducing it in large Swedish col.
| onies in Mcpherson and Saline counties
| Is it proftable2 Is it difficult? How tt
go to work with a movement of this kind
Will you build silk station in Wichita:
What is the matter with our silk COM
mission? Can the legislature do anything
to further the cause? Yours, &c,
c. A. SWENssoN,
/ Seventy-ninth district
In reply to above note would say that
it costs but little, and the most you get
out of it is clear gain. 1t takes but two
to three hours day to feed one ounce
Of eggs, numbering some 10000 worms.
which will make about eight pounds of
silk worth 800. To get the best results
you have to feed them well; if you half
do it you will get little or nothing, be-
cause many will not be able to spin at
all. Any person that can gather Usage
or mulberry leaves can take care of them
if they viii. Where there is a large
family of children they can nearly all
gather leaves, and each should have its
share to gather for. The father or moth
er could oversee them. The leaves can
be gathered each morning and is light,
pleasant exercise. The feeding. can be
done before or after each of your meals.
The season begins about the close of
the spring term of school and requires
but three to five days over one month in
feeding, when they will cease to eat, and
then spin you 800 to 400 yards of silk
thread each.
If you wish to reel the silk you will
have to smother the cocoons when they
are through spinning in some four or
five days. In the winter you can reel
this silk though it unwinds better in
warm weather; it is then worth 81 or So
a pound. You or your neighbor can get
a hand loom and weave YOU silk cloth
that will outwear anything that can be
made.
expect when we have demonstrated
the fact that we can grow ten or more
crops or broods in season from our
Usage hedges, that people will wake up
to the great Importance Of silk culture in
Kansas.
You ask what is the matter with our
silk commission? Ianswer, nothing, but
the need of good silk man at the head
of it. In business point of view the
state station at Peabody is worth all 1t
costs and is able. with small appropria-
ton to complete it, to support itself
and furnish eggs and instructions to all
The legislature should look after silk
culture in Kansas because it ought to be
and may be made the leading industry
here. l know of nothing you can make
SO much out of in so short a time with
SO little labor as silk culture. 1t seems
to have traversed the world to find here
the very spot God designed for it-a plant,
a soil and climate just ready to perfect
silk culture, if the state legislature is
willing to assist it, which | consider il
their duty to do.
As you have closed the door of the
saloon by prohibition, SO you can open
another by silk culture occupying the
minds and hands of the people, encour-
aging and assisting the rising generation
into paths of usefulness and beauty and
lift them up the rugged steps by which
it is your state motto to ascend to the
stars.
was told yesterday, with an oath, |
that as the outcome of prohibition the
Women's Christian Temperance union |
was to be annihilated by free liquor. |
You might as well attempt to blot |
out the very stars of heaven.
The people of Kansas never take any |
such back steps.
But am DEPRESSING You ought to
pass bounty law of 10 cents a pound |
on Kansas silk. You ought to petition
to put duty of % per cent on
raw silk and bounty of 20 cents a
pound to recompense us for the millions
we have paid out to develope the silk
at the east, and to en-
the saving of the millions of
pounds of silk that might be saved on
our hedges annual -enough in three
years at farthest to pay all the indebted
ness of Kansas, public and private.
L am glad your people are interested
IN silk culture, and believe with your
ana frugality you will make a
great success of it, and from your center
will radiate q warm influence that will
terminate and develope silk culture
throughout the state. | look upon silk
culture as the most appropriate means
IF elevating the rising generation out of
he by-ways of idleness and crime into
he broad prairie OF manly independence
md the sunlight of purity. Then will
he jails, prisons and reformatory
schools be converted into silk manu-
actorieS and the burd9nsome taxes into
evenne. II. E. -BIEWELL.