The mirror., 1920-01-29
SILK WORM CULTURE IN JAPAN
Rsprodacsd from Us.oa, N. Y. Globe

Reproduced from
APAN'S most important species of live
stock is the industrious little silkworm
To this delicate creature the empire gives as
careful and as thoroughly scientific attention
as the nations of the west give their best
blooded animals. The silkworn has its par
ents selected for it. Hatched according to
the most modern methods, it grows up with
every whim attended to. And when it has
spun its thread of some 500 to 1000 yards.
which is its life work, it goes to its death in
the manner prescribed by some of the great
est scientists of the realm.
And it is with good reasons that Japan
gives such careful attention to the s;lkworm
The billions of its kind produce the empires
most important item of world trade. Last
year the total exports of silk amounted to
$269, ,68l ola, of which $2O6. .42+,252 was
for raw silk, yarn, thread, etc, and $63, $780,
562 for silk tissues and manufactures thereof.
Thus the exports of silk brought lii consid-
erably more than one-fourth of the receipts
from all of Japan's produce which went
abroad totaling $965, 500, ,504. The few
baskets of coons which the average farm
family has to sell add considerably to the
annual income, and the reeling of them into
raw silk affords work for hundreds of thou
sands of women and men. Next to rice, the
universal food, no product of Japan so close
ly touches the lives of its millions of people.
The silkworm means to the japanese
farmer very much what the cow, the hog and
the sheep together mean to the grain grower
of America. By rearing silkworms farmers
can often more than double the amount OBJ
tanned from ordinary farming alone. As the
rearing of silkworms has seldom succeeded,
when conducted on large scale, the indus
try appears to have been designed especially
for the benefit of the farmer of the Orient.
Though it still remains for the most part
subsidiary industry, the presence and market
activity of numerous cooperative societies
have recently given the production of raw
silk more of the aspects of great and i'm
portant national enterprise. According to a
recent census, there are 5,207 societies of far
mers for the common purchasing of eggs,
2,743 for cooperative Matching and 3,571
groups for the cooperative selling of cocoons.
Figures for 1916, the latest available, show
that. 81 per cent of the farmers had silk
worms in their homes.
As the silk industry is carried on by
average farm families, in only few cases
are separate buildings provided for the cul-
ture of cocoons. Keeping worms in their
homes has resulted in other gains to the Jap
anese, as is also the case with the Chinese,
besides the additional family income. Deli
cate creatures at all times, silkworms re-
quire dry and airy places and freedom from
disturbing noises. So, the Oriental farmer
has found it desirable to face his house south
with east and west sides exposed to rising and
setting sun, thus benefting the health of his
family. Luckily, also, the thick thatched
roof, which adds so greatly to the pictur-
esqueness of farm and village homes, is best
suited for the sericultural household, afford
ing as it does but slow conduct to the out
side heat. To the scrupulous cleanliness de-
manded- in the silkworm's quarters, the
keepers discovered it was good economy to
add quiet and general orderliness 1t is pro-
bably not wrong, therefore, to attribute
something of the noticeable and often men
toned cleanliness and quietness of certain of
the Asiatics to their long time attention to
the invaluable little worm.
If the temperature of the nursery is
moderate the female moth generally comes
from her silken bed between and o'clock
in the morning. About in the evening she
commences to lay her precious little eggs, nor
does she worry about an eight-hour day, but
works ahead perhaps till 10 at night to COM
plete her task. In making egg cards by In
dustrial reproduction, about 100 moths lay
their eggs indiscriminately on card one foot
two inches by nine and one-fourth inches
while in cellular reproduction" card of
the same size is marked with 28 circles about
an inch in diameter, ring of cardboard be-
ing provided to keep each moth within her
proper space. Eggs for the spring crop, by
far the most important one, are produced the
year before. There are several distinct per-
iods of the interval, in each of which differ