The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-09-24
RAWSILK ! IN AMERICA
IT'S CULTURE BEGAN WITH THE
EARLIEST COLONIZATION.

\
Though Silk Mills Flourish, This Coun-
try Fails TO Produce the Raw Material.
Cocoon Nurture Is Possible In Three
four,hs OF the Country.
If w. w. Cleaver, of Unadilla, who is
reported as having %, 900 silkworms at
work, can demonstrate the possibility of
making Sl00 IL month by silk culture on n
small scale, he may bring on another craze
like that of 1888. After nearly 800 years of
experiment 1t is pretty we'll established
that the silkworm may be made to thrive
in this country and over quite three
fOurths of it's area; but in spite of this the
silk manufacturing industry has grown to
great proportions in the United States
without material aid from growers of ma
tive silk, and the native product cuts no
figure in the consumption of the mills
The experiment of growing raw silk has
gone on persistently almost since the day
that the first ornament colonist set foot
upon the continent. Cortez brought silk
worms to Mexico in 1922, and James tried
to send eggs to Virginia in 1909, only two
years after the settlement of Jamestown.
but failed because OF shipwrcck. Ten
years later Virginians were urged to raise
silk. and penal statutes were passed en-
Joining the industry upon the coonists.
Nearly every state in the Union has
sought to encourage silk culture and all
Sorts OF societies have been formed To pro-
mote the industry. Tho victims Of John
Laws West India scheme were allured
with the hope of successful silk culture in
America When Georgia was settled In
l132 grants of land were made, with the
stipulation that for every ten acres 100
white mulberry trees should be planted
Georgia developed the industry to a greater
degree than any other colony. The first
shipment of Georgia silk to England was
made in 1875. 1t weighed eight pounds.
flature for reeling raw silk was estab
lished at Savannah in 1850, and in 1859
Georgia exported 10000 pounds of silk to
England. After that cotton came in and
being more profitable than silk drove the
latter out, just rs tobacco had driven it
out in Virginia more than 100 years before.
Some silk was raised in Georgia even dur
ing the Revolutionary war, and thare wis
small export trade as late us 1890
For nearly 100 years there was deter
mined effort to grow silk in Connecticut.
In 1919 five tons of raw silk were grown at
Mansfield. and for several years the value
of Connecticut's raw silk product exceeded
SlOOO0O per year. President Stiles, of Yale
college, grew slkworns and wrote a book
ON silk culture. During the last twenty
five years of the colonial period expert
ments in silk culture were made in Penn
sylvania, New York, New Jersey and
Maryland. Tile Revolutionary war, how
ever, interrupted the experiments and a
plan of Benjamin Frnnklin's to build n
1ilature for reelinR silk in PHILADELPHIA
was given up.
The industry had so much decreased 4n
l7S6 that newspaper OF the day mentions
as remarkable fact that a family in
Nj y1r,.. Il I. n n.
Now, an ounce of fertile eggs will produce
nearly 10000 worms. In 1880 there wore
fifty families in New Haven raising silk
worms, and n local paper hoped 1t would
soon bc disreputable for lady or gontls-
man to be found wearing thick silk not Of
native growth. a company in Rhode
Island had $4,000 mulberry trees growing
in 1895, and he Legislature offered bounty
of fifty cents pound on raw silk grown
within the state. A newspaper declared
that Rhode Island was likely to take the
lead in the manufacture Of silk .as of cot
ton.
In 1910 SO greatly had the industry
grown that the United States exported
6l,552 pounds of raw silk. and in 1874 near
ly 100000 pounds, but In 1850 the export
was only l4,763 pounds. It was in the
period between 1925 and 1850 that the great
craze for silk raising seized the middle
states. A company with the president Of
81 learned society at its head was formed
for the furtherance of the industry in Penn
sylvania. "A Frenchman came out from
Lyons to teach the art of managing silk
worms, and elaborate instructions were
printed. The craze spread into Delaware
and Maryland. 1t was urged that this in
dustry could be carried on ut home, and
that 1t furnished easy and profitable work
for women and children In those DAVIS
American women We're more easily i'm
pressed with the glamour of royalty, and it
was represented that royal ladies in all
times had been deeply interested in silk
culture. Hundreds of homes became the
scene of the industry and dainty girls
sedulously gathered mulberry leaves to
feed those ravenous worms Everybody
was in fiutter of excitement at the pros
pect Thousands Of mulberry trees were
planted, and some of them or their de,
scendants still linger.
An almost fatal disaster, attended with
curious manifestations, overlook the silk
growers of Pennsylvania in 1880 It was
represented that the Chinese or South Sea
mulberry was in every way rs suitable
rs the white mulberry to feed silk
worms. Thereupon there began to be a
great speculation in the Chinese mulberry
One nurseryman ordered 5000 600 of the
plants from France, and sent over CSC, 900
in gold to bind the bargain. Tiny twigs
brought one and two dollars apiece, and
were sold two or three times in rapid sue
cession, each time at an advance The
speculation was like that which ragged in
the days Of the tulip craze. Late in 1889
the collapse came, and in the spring of
1o4O the Chinese mulberry sold at two and
three cents each. While the speculation
was at its height $500, 900 changed hands
for plants during one week in Philadel-
phin alone