The evening times., 1899-11-10
THE woRLD,s SILK PRODUCT.
Consul Covert Makes Report ON the
Oufput.


Output.
John C. Covert, Omitted States Consul at
Lyons. has made, "A report to. the State De-
partmcnt regarding the worlds output Of
raw silk in 1898. This Information was
derived from the statistics of the Silk Pro-
ducers' Association Of Lyons, which has
just been published.
THE report gives in detail the product
OF the various departments Of France and
a general statement of production in Italy.
Spain. Austria Hungary. the Levant (com-
municated BY the French Chamber Of Com
merce of Constantinople), the Ba kan pro-
vinces, the Island OF Rhodes, Greece, the
Caucasus and sTrans-Gaueasus. Persia,
Turkestan and the extreme Orient. Under
this caption are included exporte tions from
China, Japan. and the East Indies. The re-
port says:
The. quantity. Of seeds. put to hatch in
France tseeds means silkworms' eggs), or
hatched IN France, was iS4, ,98i ounces.
This was 1893 ounces less tnan in 1887.
and 1870 less than the average for the
ten preceding years. This is a continue
ton of the decline in production which hts
marked the last ten years. In 1888. the
total ounces of eggs placed for hatcnirg
was 2T5,224. The average for the decade
was 234, ,494. In spite Of the fact that the
Government gives the silkworm breeders
a bounty of 5 cents pound, the production
is decreasing. The years 1897 and 1888 are
the lowest of the decennial period. The
production was diminished in these two
years by heavy frosts.
The official figures show the to.al pro-
duct of 1898 to have been 15. 1876, $3.50 pounds.
against 1851 800 pounds for 1887. The
worlds production for 1898 is below the
average for the past ten years-a dec inc
of little over II per cent as compared
with 1897.
THE average production of fresh cococns
for an ounce Of seed perceptibly dec -ined
In 1898. Il was Sl.5 pounds. while the aver
age for 1897 was S5.9 pounds. and that for
1896, SIS pounds.
THE quantity of cocoons reserved Tor
seeding in the departments OF the Var. the
Hautes, and Basses-AIpes. and Corsica Is
estimated at SSI, $40 pounds.
The production of. raw silk in France in
1898 was 1,212. $50 pounds. only about ore
sixth of what is necessary for her silk
manufactures. The number OF producers
Of raw silk in France was 10000 less IN
1898 than in 1887.
I'm Italy. s95, 800 ounces OF eocoons were
hatched. They were crossed races OF yell
low Chinese cocoons, which are rapidly In
creasing in the market. The production of
fresh cocoons rose to S7.3e4 900 pounds.
This production is per cent larger than
that of 1897. and nearly per cent inferior
to the average Of the six preceding years.
The average product of an ounce OF seed
rose to a little over 81 pounds. the highest
figure for any OF the ten preceding years
except 1896.
THE production of raw silk aggregated
6, ,5S6, 1853 pounds. 161. $50 pounds in excess
of 1897. and 5s7, 400 pounds less than the
average OF the ten preceding years TIE
worlds production for the year was 34,-
5s3,555 pounds, as follows:
Spain and Austria, 714.29o pounds;
France. 1.212530 pounds; Italy. 6.596,l
pounds: Asia. $500, ,6o3 pounds; extreme
Orient texportationsl, %, 1881 pounds