Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-11-30
A GREAT BIG SILK FARM.
That Is What the United States May
Become Some Day.
THE CHIEF OF THE NEWLY CREATED SILK prvI-
SION THINKS THAT HE HAS OBTAINED MA
CHINE THAT WILL MAKE sILK-GRowISe
GREAT AMERICAN INDUSTRY


CHINE THAT WILL MAKE srLK-eRowIss
GREAT AMERICAN INDUSTRY.
II have just returned from Europe" said
Chief Walker of the newly-created silk division
In the Department of Agriculture, with a
reelng machine that seems likely to accom-
plish the great problem. the solution of which
viii turn the United States into a gigantic silk
farm This one difficulty, as things are now,
alone stands In the way of the producing
! industry IN America. so troublesome and
costly is the process of reeling silk with the
contrivances thus far applied that manufac-
turers on this side of the water cannot afford to
pay cocoon raisers here living prices for their
| product. IL they are to compete successfully
with foreign competition. For this reason
comparatively few cocoOas are raised in
| this country-not more than 10000
pounds in all. probably-of which amount We
ourselves buy one-half for experimental pur-
| poses. One fGlr-siGed silk factory can easily
consume 100000 pounds of cocoons In year.
But II this new machine, just completed after
| my own designs on the idea of French in
Ventor, fuihls my expectations it will be found
to be practically automatic. SO that, as one
| might say, the cocoons put in at one end will
| come out raw silk az the other A continuance
/ that accomplishes this viii SO considerably re-
| duce the expense of making the raw silk that
! American manufacturers can buy cocoons here
| lor material, instead of importing it. in the
! shape OF raw silk. from Japan and elsewhere
| abroad. as they do now. The moment that the
| cost OF producing raw silk is brought down a
| big per cent below the foreign market price of
| the article. the profits OF silk manufacture will
! rise proportionGtely, and the business will
Jump INTO activity ali over the country. A cor
! responding demand Will, of course, arise for
cocoons. and the market price for cocoons will
| go up sufhcientyto draw thousands of far ers
INTO the occupation of raising them"
''And why the farmers?" asked The STAR re-
| porter.
Il should rather say the farm women. 1t is
TO them that the great American silk manufac-
turerS OF the future will look for their supplies
I OF cocoons, The production of silk cocoons il
an industry especially adapted to the use and
| opportunity OF farm people. In France each
! farmers wife raises q few pounds of cocoons
every spring, and makes little money BY SELF
ing them; IN this way mainly is the silk crop
grown. Women OF the agricultural class in the
United States are not obliged to work in the
/ helds rs French women are, and thus they have
| more time to devote to such pursuit. There
is vast amount of waste female labor in this
country or rather idleness, that might be turned
TO labor, and here Is purpose to which this
spare hen-time' might be devoted for six weeks
IN the year at any rate. during the cocoon-rais-
| ing season. No occupation could possibly be
more easy and agreeable for a woman than the
raising of cocoons. and it will offer new source
OF income to rural wives and daughters north,
| south, east and west as quickly as this little
mechanical problem is solved. the machine
| which l hope embodies the solution of il is al
ready put together and the first trial of it will
| be made at once"
| HOW To GET SILK EGGS.
"But how is woman to get started in the
| silk-rGising busness?"
! Easily enough. Any woman in the United
/ States. who will take the trouble to write to us
In March OF any year, with request for silk
worm eggs, will be sent about April quarter
! OF an ounce OF them, or about 5000 in a little
| box. The eggs will have been kept OH ice by
| US to prevent Matching, and all the beginner
| need do IS to put them in dry place where
| they Will come out OF themselves. The 5000
worms will take up table space 40 feet square,
! and the most convenient way is to put together
| roughly tier OF big square shelves for them,
| one above the other, with spaces of 2 feet be-
| tween. On these or on ordinary tables the
| worms should be placed and allowed to feed
four or five times DAY upon as many mulberry
! or Usage leaves as they will consume; 10 other
| sort of food will do. When they are ready TO
| spin their cOcoOns, light brush must be puG
over them for them to climb up on. Once
! spun the cocOons may be detached from the
| brush and thrown into boiling water for few
seconds to Kill the worms inside; otherwise
! they would bore out and spoil the silk With
two ounces OF eggs year woman ought to be
able to raise fifty or sixty pounds of cocoons
per annum. Matching the eggs April 10 and
gathering the cocoons June /. The latter are
worth about 81 pound now; we buy most of
the cocooCns at that rate from the women
whom We supply with eggs. When the great
demand Tor cocoons arriyes-as it surely will
before long-1OO,0O0 women, producing fifty
pounds each per annum. win supply fifty facto-
| ries with material for turning out an enormous
amount Of silken fabric"
HISTORY OF THE SILK WORN.
"Do you raise the eggs you give away?"
mo; We get them from Europe. The man.
ner in which the silk worm was first brought
into Europe, by the way, was very curious 1t
is Chinese insect, you know, and has been
domesticated there for 1000 years. Laws
rigldiy forbade the taking of it out of China.
and the silks of ancient times were all brought
| from the howery land. But few HISTORIAN
| monks, IN about the tenth century. A. D., l be-
heve 1t was, Struggled some eggs through west
ern Asia into Europe concealed in hollow walk
| ing stats. The Chinese attribute Che original
discovery of the silk worm to one of their en-
| presses. who was deified after her death The
| worm itself is regarded by the Mohgols with
superstitiouS awe; probably, it was first found
| in the Himalayas."
WILD SILK WORMS NO GOOD.
''What about this new wild silk worm over
| the discovery of which they are making such
| fuss in California;
"The talk about it is all rot, in my opinion
You could hardly reel the silk that worm pro-
duces, and the quality of the article is very
dubious. Lots of experiments have been made
| in recent years with wild silk worms. but none
! of them have been successful. The chief point
desired has been to interbreed the wild with
| the tame insect, in order to make the latter
| more hardy and better able to take care of it.
| self. The silk worm of commerce has been do
| mesticated so long that it has lost the power of
flight, and, if it drops off tree, it is too help
| less TO walk up again. When put together the
| wild silk moth will invariably kill the tame
| moth, though the tame moth is three times the
| size of the wild one. You understand, pre-
sumo, that when the silk worm bores out of
| the cocoon it has spun it turns into white
| moth and makes ready to lay eggs. They have
| q wild silk worm in Japan that is useful but
| the eggs we got from thence would not hatch
| In this little box have some eggs of a special
race from Persia. worth many times their
| weight in gold. Worms of this species spin an
| unusually large cocoon. We shall try to hatch
| them in the spring"
| FRENCH VERSUS AMERICAN METHODS.
Suppose your new machine is as successful
as you anticipate is it not likely to be adopted
| in France, cheapening silk production there so
| much that foreign competition would again
| drive the American manufacturer to the wall?o
| II don't think so. 1t is almost impossible to
| introduce anything new in the way of silk ma
chinery in France; the people simply will not
| take it up, preferring old methods to fresh
ones. Instead of the machines we have already
| in operation in the silk division. which repre-
| sent the latest advances in technical knowl-
| edge, they keep on with the processes in vogue