Evening star., 1925-10-11


valuable educational exhibits, repre-
sentative of the life history of the
Sikworm. are made as hobby by q
Na$hingtonian, who supplies them to
schools i'll all sections of the country.
ON upper Tenth street, in the North
west section of the city, lives I. A.
keleher. who has reared a half dozen
mulberry trees in his back yard, and
who for % years has been experiment.
ing with Siilkworm culture. Annually
this amateur entomoloGist raises from
10000 to 10000 silllworms for spe-
Cialized educational nurPuses. Thou
sands of school children throughout
the United States owe their knowledge
of this Industrious worm to what they
have learned in studying the exhibits
md living specimens supplied by tins
Washingtonian.
Hark back to the middle sos. when
Prof c. V. Riley was chief entomol-
oEst of the national Department of
Agriculture. for the beginning of this
story. That was the era when Uncle
sam was experimenting in all ways
possible to ascertain the adaptablIltN
81 silk culture to American conditions.
SILK culture as u household industry
offered possibilities. Congress made
special appropriation ana Federal
experts began comprehensive re-
search.
~ that time T. y. Kelehcr was en-
pluyed as Il messenger by the ento-
molosv branch OF the Department of
Agriculture. To young keleher was
delegated the task OF feeding and car
ing for the experimental silkworms.
Thus it was that the boy in his teens
learned silkworm culture. He became
So deeply interested in the marvellous
little silk factories that from that time
u the present he has devoted all his
idle hours in amateur quest ana con-
quest in silk production.
The cultivation of the domestic silk
worm for the production of raw silk,
subsequently to be made into cloth,
has been carried on for 5000 years in
China and India, where the industry
originated. The ancestors of the mod
ern SilkWorm We're Wild specimens, ma
tives of Northern China and Bengal.
They possessed full powers of flight
and produced smaller and less dense
cocoons than the existent silkwormS
of commerce.
Many generations of confinement,
cultivation and breeding have so trans
formed the original silkWorms that
they have now lost the powers of
fright. their silk glands have been
greatly enlarged and the quality and
quantity of the silk have improved
arkedly-
Our early colonists in Virginia, South
Carolina and Georgia engaged in silk
culture, using hand reels 10 abstract
the long strands Of silken thread,
which ranged from $50 TO l,200 yards
in length, from the cocoon. AS early
as 1853 Georgia produced 10000
pounds of Cocoons. The resultant silk
reeled by hand brought 4 higher price
on the London market than the best
from the orient
The early history Of Florida tells
about the efforts of the Minorcan col
ony ar New smyrna TO make sue
cess of silk culture in the New World.
TWo-scOre years after the landing OF
the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock sec
tions of connecticut and Long Island
We're experimenting with silkWorms.
PENNSYLVANIA and New Jersey en-
barked in that household business
previous to the Revolutionary War
* :; = i
A DECADE before our first hos
tilities with Mexico, what was
known as the "AIorus multicaulis
craze" came into being. Thousands |
and thousands Of enthusiasts pur-
chased mulberry cuttings, set out ey-
tcnsive paintings and engaged hap |
hazardly in silk culture Fortunes
were inVested-and lost. Frosts, lack |
Of experience, hand-labor processes |
and other vicissitudes prohibited sue
cess. SilllwOrm raising was listed |
among the "follies'' The very name
was a byword for ridicule.
NotWit hStanding this knockout
punch, interest in the enterprise was
off r,j in
Utah, Louisiana. Alabama and Geor-
Eia. The Mormons of Utah made a
specially of silkwOrm raising. 1t was
even taught in the schools They eX-
erted every effort to develop the
project in all their households. Dem
onstrations We're staged. Experiments
of every type were tried. The project
even went 50 far as the invention of
special reelinG machinery. Several
community factories were built and
equipped. But finally the bubble
burst. Even the industry and per-
severance of the resourceful Mormons
We're unable to stem the tide OF silk
culture failures.
Silk of fine quality can he produced
in many sections of the United
States. Experienced growers have
had little trouble in producing an
abundance OF mulberry trees. They
have been eminently auccessfu1 in
raising silkworms. But the costly
hand labor involved in converting the
silken fiber of the cocOonS into COM
mercial raw silk forms has been the
limiting factor which has invariably
put failure into the opera tions. Only
when Congress-if eYer-:mpCscE 10
TO 20 per cent duty on raW six. as
imported from foreign s'10p,r sCU-ceS
in China. Japan. Italy, rance -'ui'-
key and India, will Il potential Amer
lean silk industry be adequately pro
tected so that it can flower, blossom
and produce profitable crops.
The vast amounts of artificial silk
now used in milady's finery are made
from wood pulp and cotton 'linterS-
Wood pulp from our remnant spruce
forests and by-productS from Dixie
lands cotton industry are poured into
marvellous machines, which deliver the
artificial silk of commerce as their
manufacturer article. Science is now
attempting to perfect methods and ap-
pliances so that pure silk can be pro-
Gured merely by feeding the essential
mulberry leaves into mechanical au-
tomatonS which will function as subSti
tute silkworms. 1t is problematical
whether ultimate prosperity will at
tend these technical tests. The con-
summations of modern industry are
so wonderful that it would be fool
hardy. in current times, to say that
miracles such as this are impossible
of accomplishment.
All of which is related directly or in
directly TO the curious activities of
FIr. Keleher, who, during 40 years of
search and research with silkworms
has Mastered most of the secrets of
these skilled spinners. He admits can