Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-02-08
Trip Through the Mulberry Orchards
of Chekiang,
HOW THE COCOONS ARE HANDLED
Spinning and Weaving as Done
by the Natives.
INTRICATE PROCESS
Copyright 1901 by Frank G. Carpenter)
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Copyright. 1901 by Frank C. Carpenter.)
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
CHEkIANG, China.
This is written in the heart of the silk re-
gions of China. For a week L have been
floating along through one canal after an
other with Consul General Goodnow in his
house boat through country which is one
vast orchard of mulberry trees. There are
thousands of these trees on every side of
me as | write. and by getting off on the
bank and climbing to the top of one of the
bridges which arch the canal at every few
miles 1 can see trees by the millions, ex-
tending on and on until they cut the hori-
ION. They border the waterways and are
only broken here and there by clumps of
peach trees or the taller shade trees of
some farm village and the pit-like fields
flooded for raising rice.
Silk is produced in almost every part of
China, but Chekiang produces more and
better silk than any other. 1t raises vast
quantities of cocoonS every year for export
to France, Germany and Japan, and bales
of raw silk go from here to our factories in
the United States. There are thousands of
farm houses in which silk reeiing is done,
and great silk failures with the finest of
modern machinery put up by the French,
English and other foreigners, as we'll as by
the Chinese, to turn the cOcOons into thread.
The Chinese use more silk themselves than
sands of LOOMS and their silk millionaires
are numbered by scores
Among the Mulberry Trees.
/ wish you could be with me in this ride
through the mulberry orchards Our null
berry tree grows about as big as an elm,
and it is not out of place among the trees
of the forest. The mulberry trees here are
small Most of them are trimmed down
to four feet, the sprouts being cut off year
Ffn- I~<.I ito
thickets than forests, and the trees are sell
dom larger than three-year-old peach
tree. They are as knotty and gnarly
olive tree and as ragged as ounce bush.
They are planted in rows only a few feet
apart, and so carefully cultivated that not
weed is to be seen anywhere. Here and
there garden stuff is raised between the
trees, but nothing grows close to the
trunks, and a continual fertilizing and hoe
ing goes on the year around. All kinds of
manure are used. but the chief fertilizer
comes from the canals which are fed by
the GangtSe river. The Yangtse Kiang Is
as full of silt as the Nile. 1t brings down
vast quantities of n'h mud every year
and drops them intoVlhe canals. The Chi
nese dredge this out, and spread it over the
ground They scoop 1t up in nets or in
canvas bags with heavy iron rings about
them. They have great tongs made of ban-
boo poles with SpOOu-like baskets on the
ends. looking for all the world like giant
sugar tOnSs, with which they pinch up
quart of mud at a time and pull il into
their boats. Later on they throw it on the
banks and spread it around the trees. COW
eFing the whole surface of the ground. The
Chinese save every bit of fertilizing ma
terial, even to their hair cuttings and fin
ger nail parings.
How the Country Looks
I frequently get out and walk through the
orchards There are no roads anywhere
You could not possibly ride over this coun-
try in cart, for many of the fields are pits
made at different levels so that they may
be flooded from time to time as the crops
demand. There are only footpaths be-
tween the fields, and these wind about each
field, going this way and that without re-
gard TO distance. The only highways are
the canals. which are filed with traffic
even as the country roads of our rich farm
ing districts are filled with wagons
Through an Interpreter 1 have learned
how mulberry trees are grown The seeds
are first planted in nurseries and when the
sprouts have reached several feet in height
they are transplanted five or six feet apart
IN regular rows. This is done in December
After this the trees are carefully cared
Tor They are pruned year after year. and
never allowed to grow more than six feet
in height The cutting does not iniure
them sound mulberry tree will last for
fifty years, and when fully nfatured will
annually yield as much as 100 pounds of
leaves. In some parts Of Chekiang the
seeds of the wild mulberry are sown and
the young sprouts grated from the Guilt
waited mulberry This is thought to pro-
dUce better leaves.
The trees have to be carefully watched