Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1893-01-13
RAW SILK In AMERICA
ITS CULTURE BEGAN WITH THE
EARLIEST COLONIZATION.


Though silk Mills Flourish. ThIs coun-
Try Fails to Produce the Raw Material.
Cocoon Nurture Il Possible In Three
fourths Of the Country.
II w. w. Cleaver, Of Unadilla. who Il
reported as having 250OO silkworms at
work, can demonstrate the possibility al
making 500 month by silk culture on
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 its 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 IA,
tive silk, and the native product cuts no
figure in the consumption of the mills.
The experiment. Of growing raw silk has
gone on pcrsistently almost since the day
that the first permanent 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 shipwreck. Ten
years later Virginians were urged to raise
silk, and penal statutes were passed en-
joining the industry upon the colonists
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. The victims Of John
Laws West India scheme were allured
with the hope OF successful silk culture in
America. When Georgia was settled in
1872 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 greater
degree than any other colony. The first
shipment of Georgia silk to England was
made in l735. 1t weighed eight pounds.
A flature for Keeling raw silk was estab
lished at Savannah in 1850, and in l.50
Georgia exported 10000 pounds Of silk to
England. After that cotton came in, and
being more profitable than silk drove the
latter out, just as 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 there was
small export trade as late as 1890.
For nearly 100 years there was a deter.
mined effort TO grow silk in Connecticut.
In 1919 five tons of raw silk were grown al
Mansfield. and for several years the value
of Connecticut's raw silk product exceeded
100000 per year. President Stiles, OF Yale
college, grew silkworms and wrote book
on silk culture. During the last twenty
five years of the colonial period experi
ments in silk culture were made in Penn
sylvania, New York, New Jersey and
Maryland. The Revolutionary war, how.
ever, interrupted the experiments, and a
plan of Benjamin Franklin's to build a
filature for reeling silk In Philadelphia
was given up.
The industry had so much decreased in
1875 that newspaper of the day mentions
as remarkable fact that a family in
Maryland had 1900 silkworms at work.
Now, an ounce of fertile eggs will produce
nearly 10000 worms. In 1880 there were
fifty families in New Haven raising silk
worms, and local paper hoped it would
soon be disreputable for lady or gentle
man to be found wearing thick silk not OF
native growth. A company in Rhode
Island had 10000 mulberry trees growing
in 1885, and the legislature offered bounty
Of fifty cents pound on raw silk growu
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 industr,
grown that the United States exported
61,55o pounds of raw silk, and in 1874 near
ly 100000 pounds, but in 1850 the export
was only 14,763 pounds. 1t was in the
period between 1926 and 1850 that the great
craze for silk raising seized the middle
states. A company with the president OIL
learned society at its head was formed
for the furtherance of the industry in Penn
sylvania. A Frenchman came cut 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 at home, ant
that it furnished easy and profitable worl
for women and children. In those day.
American women were more easily i'm
pressed with the glamour of royalty, and il
was represented that royal ladies in al
times had been deeply interested in sill
culture. Hundreds of homes became tn,
scene of the industry and dainty girl
sedulously gathered mulberry leaves t.
| feed those ravenous worms. Everybod,
was in dutter of excitement at the pros
pect. Thousands of mulberry trees wer
planted, and some of them or their de
scendants still linger.
An almost fatal disaster, attended will
| curious manifestations, overlook the sill
| growers of Pennsylvania in 1889. 1t wa
| represented that the Chinese or South SCI
mulberry was in every way as suitabl
| as the white mulberry to feed silk
| worms Thereupon there began to be
| great speculation in the Chinese mulberry
| One nurseryman ordered 100000 of tn
| plants from France, and sent over $50, 90
| in gold to bind the bargain. Tiny twig
brought one and two dollars apiece, ant
were sold two or three times in rapid sue
cession, each time at an advance. TIL
speculation was like that which ragged II
| the days of the tulip craze. Late in 1873
the collapse came, aud in the spring o
1910 the Chinese mulberry sold at two an
three cents each. While the speculatio
was at its height $500 200 changed hand
for plants during one week in Philadel
phia alone.
In 1914 many of the Chinese mulberr
plants were killed by severe frost, an
even Connecticut was discouraged.
was then that the New England capitalist
set about building mills and importin
raw silk.
The hope of growing raw silk has pei
sistently maintained foothold IN Pniia
delphia, and that city is the home OF tn
Woman's Silk Culture association. Lori
Blodgett told the Franklin institute abou
ten years ago that there could be no doun
that it was possible to grow raw SIX i
this country at a moderate profit. II
thought it must be done on a small seal
as incident to other departments OF farr
work, and it must be left in large part
women and children.-New York Sun.