The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1925-11-11

prepared by the National Geographic 8
ciety. Washington, d. c.
IHAN'S valuable silk industry W;
only temporarily injured by Il
earthquake and fire that destroye
- the great silk shipping port {
Yokohama two years ago, and no
thousands of pounds of the thread
that the well-dressed world demand
are leaving Japanese shores almos
daily.
Japan, the land of the rice paddy
became Japan, the land of mulberr
orchards, to satisfy the wishes O
American women. For thousands O
years silk was the cloth of queens
Today what was once princess
dowry of silks Is the property O
nearly every stenographer of an,
metropolis in the United States.
If worm shall serve a princess
though she be multiplied by 100000
that worm ought to be lifted above the
ranks Of common crawling things
VIII 1T make silk stockings any more
attractive to American women for
them to know that the silk was spun
by heaven worms? 1t is thus the
Japanese name the tiny creatures
that labor for them.
10 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. Centu-
rles OF selection enable the "heaven
worm to time his debut with his
breakfast. When the silkworm is
as thin as bit of black thread and as
short as the width of pencil-iead.
ne must have new, tender leaves, and
the precision with which silkworm
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 perfect pig
Tor food. He eats all night and all
lay. He must, because he is required
% multiply his weight hundreds of. |
lines In 40 days. The silkworm's
iiscreet silence In youth is broken in
lis lusty old age. Japanese, however
owe the soft, rain-like sound produced
y thousands of worms, earnestly eat
ng. ~
Barring gluttony, the Heaven
'orm Is as domesticated as a good
og. Silkworms are raised in shall
Nv rice-straw baskets with narrow
ms yet the Japanese store millions
them on shelves in their homes with
erect assurance that the spark of
uVenture will never prompt them TO
pam abroad and underfoot. Their
lst-traveling fuzzy American cousin
wild by comparison.
Silk 10 Their Velvet" Crop.
SILK culture Is pin-money Industry
Japan because it mainly EMPLOYS {
others, mothers-in-law, grandmoth- {
s. Observation-Disclosures, and children S
ring short period of the wear sol, q
III more than month and half
farm the head of the house NAV
ne no part; often he Is a govern 1,
sht oHcial. a merchant or an army :,
icer. Silk Is "velvet" cron for !
FAMILY Golfers because, except for o
cost of fertilizer for mulbar,v .
ees the investment is practicaIlv p
thing. Most farms sell their co. =
ms direct to agents. :
aules Of hospitality are amended -
ring SIX season. Ordinarily a Wis a
lg relative or friend Is entor =.
ned and given tea and food. Rut in
season 1t is perfectly good form r.
the visitor to go to the kitcben -
heip himself. The silkworms al ~
81 force the family out of bouso :, =
home A typical farm may have 70 -
rouse OF nine rooms on one eoor -,
is about 30 feet wide by 40 Foo, ?,
g. While the worms are small and -.
usands live happily on one trav 90
re is ample shelf room, but whom ~
are fat, old and juicy only aoo 30
enjoy the fame bed and hoora ~
n every inch of the house seems s,'
d with trays. 81
the end of 40 days growth tho no
ms must be furnished with fac,,, e.
Tor the spinning of their cocoons or