The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-09-22
RAWSILK IN AMERICA
ITS 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
fourths of the Country.
If w. w. Cleaver, of Unadilla, who is
reported as having $4,000 silkworms at
work, can demonstrate the possibility of
making 500 month by silk culture on
small scale, he may beng ON another craze
like that of 1888. After nearly 800 years of
experiment it is pretty well 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 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 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 1875. 1t weighed eight pounds.
A filature for reeling raw silk was estab
lished at Savannah in 1850, and in 1850
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
ullllctl GllUIU W SlON Sllh III SOuuGCIlCuu.
In 1919 five tons Of raw silk were grown at
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 expert.
ments in silk culture were made in Penn.
sylvania, New York, New Jersey and
Maryland. The Revolutionary war, how
ever interrupted the experiments, and
plan of Benjamin Franklin's to build
filature for reeling silk in Philadelphia
was given up.
The industry had so much decreased in
1856 that a newspaper of the day mentions
as u remarkable fact that a family in
Maryland had 1900 silkworms at work.
Now, an ounce of fertile eggs will produce
nearly 10000 worms. In 1890 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 a bounty
of fifty cents a 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
61,552 pounds of raw silk, and in 1874 near
ly 100000 pounds, but in 1850 the export
was only A,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 of
q learned society at its head was formed
for the furtherance of heindustry 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 at home, and
that it furnished easy and profitable work
for women and children. In those days
American women were more easily i'm
pressed with the glamour of royalty, and it
was represented that royal laNies 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 tc
feed those ravenous worms. Everybody
was in hutter 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 1889. 1t was
represented that the Chinese or South Sea
mulberry was in every way as suitable
as the white mulberry to feed silk
worms. Thereupon there began to be- 6
great speculation in the Chinese mulberry
One nurseryman ordered 5,000,000 of the
plants from France, and sent over $50, ,0O(
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 ThC
speculation was like that which ragged il
the days of the tulip craze. Late in 1873!
the collapse came, and in the spring O.
1S40 the Chinese mulberry sold at two anC
three cents each. While the speculation
was at its height 100000 changed hands
for plants during one week in Philadel
phia alone.
In 1874 many of the Chinese mulberr!
plants were killed by severe frost, ant
even Connecticut was discouraged.
was then that the New England capitalist
set about building mills and importing
raw silk.
The hope of growing raw silk has per
sistently maintained a foothold in Phila
delphia, and that city is the home of th
Woman's Silk Culture association. Lori
Blodgett told the Franklin institute abou
ten years ago that there could be no doub
that it was possible to grow raw silk il
this country at a moderate profit. H
thought it must be done on small seal
as incident to other departments of farm
work. and it must be left in large part t.
women and children.-New York Sun.