Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1890-01-31
A BIG SILK FARM.
THAT is WHAT THIS COUNTRY
MAY BECOME; SOME DAY.
a Feeling Machine That May Ac-
conpiish Wouders-An Industry
Tor Farm Women-How to
Obtain Silk Eggs.

81 have just returned from Europe. z"
said Chief Walker of the newly created
SIX DIVISION in the Department of Agri-
culture, with reeling machine that
seems likely to accomplish the great
problem, the solution of which will turn
she United States into a gigantic silk
'arn' This one difficulty, us things are
now, alone stands in the way of the silk
producing industry in America. So
troublesome and costly is the process of
,eehhS SILK with the contrivances thus
'ar applied that manufacturers On this
sac al the water cunno. afford to nav
cocoon raisers mere living prices for their
pfo"uct, If they are TO compete success
'"iiy with foreign competition. For this
reason comparatively few cocoons are
raised III this conntry-not more than 0, :
0oo ponds in all, probably--of which
amount we ourselves by one half for en-
Pefiinental purposes. One fair-sized silk
factory can easily consume 100, 900
poahds OF cocoons in Il year. But if this
new machine, Just completed after my
own designs on the ideas of French in
ventor, iultills my expectations it will be
louh" to lie practically automatic, so
thaf' as one might say, the cocoons put
IN mt one end will come ont raw silk at
The other. A contrivance that accom-
piisnes this will so considerably reduce
The expense of making the raw silk that
american manufacturers can buy cocoons
mere Tor material, instead of importing
II, III The shape of raw silk, from japan
ano elsewhere abroad, as they do now.
The moment that the cost of producing
raw silk is brought down big per cent
below tic foreign market price of the
article, the profits of silk manufacture
VIII rise proportonatcly and the business
VIII Jump into activity all over the
country A corresponding demand will,
oil course, arise for cocoons, and the
market price 10: cocoons will go up suf-
hclently To draw thousands of farmers
into the occupation of raising them"
And why The farmers" asked re-
porter.
II should rather say the farm women.
Ii is to them that The great American silk
manufacturers OF the future will look for
'heir supplies of cocoons. The produc-
Ton OF silk cocoons is an industry espe-
ciatiy adapted to the use and opportunity
oil farm people. In France each farmers
wife raises - few pounds Of cocoons every
spring, and makes a little money by sell
ing them; i'll this way mainly is the silk
crop grown. Women of the agricultural
class III the United States are not obliged
TO work in the fields MS French women
are, and thus they have more time to de-
] vote Snnl, 81 =
amount of waste female labor in this
country, or rather idlcness, that might
he turned to labor, and here is purpose
to which this spare 'hen-time' might he
devoted for six weeks in the year at any
rate, during the cocoon-r raising season.
No occupation could possibly be more
easy ana agreeable Tor Il woman than the
raising OF cocoons, aud it will offer new
source OF income TO rural wives and
daughters north, south, east and west as
quickly us this little mechanical problem
is solved This machine which hone
embodics the solution Of it is already put
together, and the first trial Of it will be
made AT once"
But how is a woman to get started in
the silkraising business?"
Easily enough. Any woman i'll the
United States, who will take the trouble
10 write 10 lis in March Of any year, with
request for silk-worm eggs, will he sent
about April l quarter Of an ounce OF
them, or about 5000 in little box. The
eggs will have been kept on ice by MS to
prevent Matching, and I'LL the beginner
/ need do Is to put them in dry place
where they will come out OF themselves
The 1000 worms will take up table
space forty feet square, and the most
convenient way is TO put together rough
ly Il tier Of big square shelves for them,
one above the other, with spaces of two
feet between On these or on ordinary
tables The worms should be placed and
allowed to feed four or five times day
upon us many mulberry or Usage leaves rs
they will consume; no other sort Of food
will do. When they are ready TO spin
their cocoors, light brush must be put
over them for them to climb up on.
Once spun the cocoons must he detached
from the brush and thrown into boiling
water for Il few seconds to kill the worms
inside: otherwise they would bore out
and spoil the silk. With two ounces of
eggs T. year Il woman ought to be able to
raise fifty or sixty pounds Of cocoons per
annnm, Matching the eggs April Is and
gathering the cocoons June 1. The lat
ter are worth about 81 pound now; we
buy most of the cocoons at that rate from
the women whom we supply with eggs.
When the great demand for cocoon ar
rives-as it surely will before long
100, 900 women, producing fifty pounds
esch per annum, will supply fifty factor
les with material for turning ont an
enormous amount Of siken fabric. =
Washington Star.