Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1890-02-22
or SILK.
The Amount Of SILK Required In . SILK
Dress.

II may interest some Of our readers
not familiar with the subject IL we
give a few particulars regarding the
production Of the silk necessary to form
a silk dress.
The raw material of wooden or cot
ton fabrics is cheap and easily pro-
durable. The former is shoru from
the backs of countless fiocks of sheep,
which produce abundantly with little
help or attention from man. The lat
ter is gathered abundantly from the
cotton-plant, which is cultivated ex-
tensively in many parts of the world.
1t is sold at a m~arvelously low price.
The production of silk is an entire
tirely different affair. The raw ma
terial can only be obtained ia very
small quantities, and thousands of silk
worms must be killed before one
pound of pure silk can be got.
TO produce sufficient silk to make a
dress requires more time and capital
than people would imagine. If we
take one and o~ne-quarter pounds as
the weight Of pure silk required this
would be equal to two pounds of raw
silk. To produce two pounds of raw
silk would require the entire silk OBJ
tanned from 1000 to 5000 worms, al
lowing a percentage for death by dis
ease and other casualties. 1t may be
interesting to state that these young
worms when newly Matched would
scarcely weigh one-quarter of an ounce,
yet in the course of their life, which
only lasts some thirty or t~hirty-five
days, they will about 800 or
400 pounds of leaves and increase in
weight about 5000 times. Consumers
of silk will not wonder at its high
value when they consider that to raise
two pounds of raw silk so much time
aud money is required. Besides the
original cost of the eggs or young
worms, they require feeding at regu-
lar intervals daily with mulberry
leaves and consume the above weight
of leaves during their life. This Is a
large item of expense if the cultivator
does not grow and gather his own
leaves, but is compelled to purchase
them.
With unremitting care and attention
the worms arrive at maturity, and COM
mence spinning their cocoons about
thirty to thirty-five DAYS from hatch
ing, producing a gross weight of TWEEN
ty-five pounds Gncluding both silk and
worms). this being reduced TO two
pounds after reeling.
When the worms are ready for spin
ming bushes of broom or other light
material are placed near, into which
the worms ascend and spin the cocoons
among the branches.
A few days after the cocoons are
gathered and sorted into various quail
ties, then placed in a steam-boX or sub
jected TO o great heat TO kill all the
worms. This prevents the silk moths
from escaping by piercing the cocoons,
which would spoil them for reeling
purpose.
After killing the worms the reeling
begins, which consists in placing a
number of cocoons in not water, and
then joining the threads Of four or five
cocoons together, the whole being
wound round a reel, and thus made in
to slips" or hanks of fine silk in the
raw state. The process of reeling is
very SLOW, one reeler only being able
to attend two lots of cocoons. and in
this manner reeling eight or twelve
ounces Of raw silk per day or two
pounds for three days.
Two threads are wound around the
cocoon by the worm simultaneously;
these are attached together by the gum
in the silk. and are very fine-from
1900 to 1000 single threads can be
laid side by side in one inch; but al
though so fine one single thread will
support about half an ounce without
breaking-and so light that fifteen
pounds of the single fiber would en-
circle the world.
The strictest attention, the gentliest
care, and extreme cleanliness are re-
quired during the time of rearing the
worms or disease may appear and car
~ off the whole brood.