Evening star., 1936-02-16

| raw and nAIu1dCIuIeQ SILK. ana uQai-
ly encased the unique true-to-life, and
self-explanatory "XIow" in a glass
faced case. Then it was ready to ride
the mail train, steamer or airplane to
| Canada, Mexico. South America, Cuba,
or the British West Indies, where Mr..
Keleher has sent the products Of his
curious handicraft for the education
| of youth. the entertainment of the
credulous and the research use Of
science.
THE Rockefeller Institute Of Medical
Research, Princeton University,
Johns Hopkins University, the Univer-
sites of Chicago Michigan, Arkansas,
Delaware, Southern California and
West Virginia have for years obtained
their silkworm eggs, worms, and vari-
Gus specimens illustrative of different
stages in the life cycle Of the species
from Mr.. Keleher. Educational silk
worm exhibits which he prepared are
on public display in the Carnegie Mu-
scum at Pittsburgh, the Milwaukee
Public Museum and the Buffalo, N.
| 1
has also supplied silkworm exhibits
to the Miami, Fla, and Los Angeles,
Calf, public schools. Research ma
terial from the Keleher home labora-
tory has also been used at Rutgers
College, Drake University and the
Louisiana State Normal School.
In order to destroy the chrysal5
within the cocoon where the CONNER
| cial extraction of silk is the goal, it IS
necessary TO expose the cocoon for
about two hours to a temperature Of
several hundred degrees. Exposure
for long periods to sunshine will also
kill the chrysalis. Approximately 900
| dried cocoonS, according to Mr.. Kele-
her. weigh l pound. 1t requires 81.
pounds Of cocoons to yield l pound Of
raw silk, which in turn will make 10
yards of high-quality commercial silk,
Pierced cocoons from which the moths
have emerged are unfit for reeling, but
can be carded and made into thread
Pioneer attempts to produce silk
commercially in this country" said
Mr.. Keleher, were made by the early
colonists of South Carolina, Geor-
gia and Virginia. Some of the best
silk ever sold in London came from the
hand reels of the Georgian colo
mails. Later, Connecticut, Long Is
land, Pennsylvania and New Jersey
residents tried to master the new
business. but failed. Notwithstand-
ing sectional rebuffS and defeats, the
craze spread. Untold thousands of
acres of mulberry trees were planted
in various sections of the United
States. Fortunes were squandered in
efforts to coax minimum silk yields
from hungry worms, which ate null
berry foliage in prodigious quanti-
ties. Frost was one foe that curbed
enthusiasm. The inexperience of
the growers also contributed meas
urably to the mounting failures. Ul-
timately, opinion shifted violently and
popular sentiment-perhaps pauper-
lied by adventures with silkworms-
jeered and ridiculed the unknown
enterprise which it had previously
courted.
WITH the fight of time and the
w increase of cumulative public Gu
pidity, a small fraction of the public
again became interested in the po-
tentialities of silk culture. One finan-
cial licking evidently was not enough
for a cure. A half century after the
first debacle, California, Utah, Loui-
siana and Alabama turned to silk
worm farming as an attractive posi-
bility The MormonS even went so
far as to add silkworm culture to
the three Rs as an educational pre-
requisite in their grade schools. Skilled
experimenters labored tireleSsly, seek
ing to perfect mechanical fingers
to Supplant the activities of human
hands. Again the challenging CO.
nundrumS of silk culture scored
victory. 1t was a triumph predicated
on economics. American hand labor
failed to compete successfully with
cheap European labor. The lure Of
silk-growing faded from the future
roster of industrial opportunities in
this land Of the free and brave.
Were it not for the amusing hob
bies such as that which has engaged
Mr.. Keleher's leisure for over a half
hundred years and the scientific and
educational work fostered by various
schools and colleges as well as re-
search establishments, the silkworm,
except for historical and technical
references, would probably be for
gotten in this country. The house
hold industry of far-away Cathay
seemingly never will win a perma-
nent welcome in these United States
unless Congress some day imposes a,
IS to 20 per cent duty on raw inn
ported silk from China, Japan, Italy.
France, Turkey and India in order to
protect an embryonic and encouraging
domestic business. Without such pro-
lection an American silk industry is
impossible, as our wage scale and
standards of life are too high to ad-
NIT of an American working six days
with a hand reel to produce 4l2
pounds of silk, the average produc-
ton of a skilled worker in China,
France, Italy or Turkey. The only
: practical possibility is that an auto
matte silkworm may be invented which
Will COHNeII HlulUSity ASoAoSC INV SOhA-
mercial silk, a consummation which
would contribute another industry to
our ever-growing roster.
A commissioner, G. B. Loring,
was in charge of the Department Of
Agriculture when Mr.. Keleher first
became intimately acquainted with
silkwormS. Young Keleher acted as
guide for Norman j. Coleman, the
last commissioner and also the first
Secretary of Agriculture, when he ar
rived in Washington. Mr.. Keleher,
who now rates as the oldest Gov
ernment employe in actual and con-
secutive years of service, was serving
as nurse and scientific aide to a coll
ony of silkworms when the Civil Serv-
ice Commission came into being and
was quartered in a tiny red brick
structure contiguous to the original
Tlnw@ eaWkw II