Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-08-23
YOKOHAMA MAKING
TRADE REPUTATION
Winning Back Position as
Premier Silk Port, Geo.
graphic Society Reports.

Yokohama is winning back her po-
sition as premier silk port of Japan.
On September l, 1928, the earthquake
practically obliterated Yok ohama as
thriving city of $4,000 souls. In
less than a year she has practically
recovered her chief business, silk
export
Japan. the land of the rice paddy,
became Japan, the land of mulberry
orchards, to satisfy the wishes of
American women" says n bulletin
from the Washington headquarters
of the National Geographic Society.
For thousands of years silk was the
cloth of queens. Today what was
once a princess dowry of silks is the
property of nearly every stenogra-
pher of any metropolis in the United
States.
"If a worm shall serve n princess.
though she be multiplied by fifty
million, that worm ought to be lifted
above the ranks of common crawling
things. Will it make silk stockings
any more attractive to American
women for them to know that the
silk was spun by heaven worms?
Precision Described as Magical.
ITO see these models of perfect
conduct in their swaddling clothes
the visitor in Japan must adjust his
itinerary exactly. He must stop at
some farmhouse almost on the very
day the mulberry leaves burst from
tightly wrapped buds to crinkled,
tiny leaves. unironed by the sun.
Gem of selection enable the
heaven worm to time his debut with
his breakfast. When the silk worm
is as thin as bit of black thread
and as short as the width of pencil
lead he must have new, tender leaves,
and the precision with which silk
worm eggs hatch and mulberry leaves
unfold approaches magic.
Though the heaven worm fulflls
the edict that children must be seen
and not heard he is a perfect pig
for food. He eats all night and all
day. He must, because he is required
to multiply his weight hundreds of
times in 40 days. The silk worms
dircreet silence in youth is broken in
his lusty old age. Japanese, however,
love the soft, rainlike sound produced
by thousands of worms earnestly
eating.
"Domesticated" as Good Dog.
Barring gluttony, the heaven
worm is as domeSticated as good
dog. Silk worms are raised in shall
10" rice DdSheJS Win
rims, yet the Japanese store millions
of them on shelves in their homes
with perfect assurance that the spark
of adventure will never prompt them
to roam abroad and underfoot. Sci
entifically, their fast travelling, fuzzy
American cousin is wild by COM
parison
Silk culture is a pin-money indus
try in Japan because it mainly en-
ploys mothers. mothers-in-law, grand
mothers, great grandmotherS and
children during a short period of the
year, seldom more than a month and
a half On farm the head OF the
house may take no part; often he is
a government official. a merchant or
an army officer Silk is velvet
crop for the family Golfers because,
except for the cost of fertilizer for
mulberry trees, the investment is
practically nothing, Most farms sell
their cocoons direct to agents.
Worm Trays Fill Houses.
Rules of hospitality are amended
during silk season. Ordinarily a
visiting relative or friend is enter
tanned and given tea and food. But
in silk season it is perfectly good
kitchen and help himself The silk
worms almost force the family out
of house and home. A typical farm
may have a house of nine rooms on
one floor. 1t is about 80 feet wide by
so feet long. While the worms are
small and thousands live happily on
one tray, there is ample shelf room
but when they are fat, old and juicy
only 500 can enjoy the same bed and
board. Then every inch of the house
seems filed with trays.
40 n- he
worms must be furnished with facili-
ties for the spinning of their cocoons.
Innumerable tiny rice straw baskets
are constructed for the insects. Silk
worms are not allowed to fasten their
spun homes on twigS because that
would cause wastage in the unwind
ing process. One. two or three
worms will frequently spin in each
straw basket, suspending their CO.
coons in midair. AS in the case of
the honey bee and the chick, the
Matching period for the silk moth is
81 days; but if the cocoon is to be
used for silk it must be heated over
slow fire to kill the pupa before it
bores through the silken walls. At
the silk mill or filature the cocoons
are divided into lots of Is to 20,
placed in basins of warm water and
the thread ends brushed out. The
single strand formed by twisting to-
gether the threads from Is to 20 CO.
coons when wound with Is or 20
similar strands forms the silk yarn
which is the basis of the raw silk of
commerce. Such a strand of yarn
thus contains 225 or more threads
from as many cocoons.
Curious Tools Employed.
Curious tools are used in silk cul-
ture-cleavers, sieves chop sticks and
long feathers. Cleavers are used to
chop the tender mulberry leaves into
tiny pieces for the young worms. In
order that the food may be small
enough for the tiny insects it is sift-