An experiment in silk-culture

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MARGARETTE W. BROOKS

Reprinted from Appletons ** Popular Science Monthly,” July, 1886

AN EXPERIMENT IN SILK-CULTURE, 317

AN EXPERIMENT IN 3A abe:
By MARGARETTE W. BROOKS.

N an article on silk-culture, published in ‘“ Harper’s Magazine”
more than a quarter of a century ago, the following passage oc-
curs : “ We shall soon be ready to begin that which the next century
will find us doing with all our might—commanding the silk as we now
do the cotton markets of the world.” When we consider how little
has been accomplished since that time, it is to be feared that this
prophecy will not be realized unless greater advances are made in the
next twenty-five years than were made in the last. Repeated trials
seem only to show that silk-raising in the United States is not as prof-
itable an industry as it was formerly thought to be.

The culture of silk is so old that we can not tell when it was
begun, or by whom it was first discovered. The Chinese claim that it
was known to them as early as 2600 B.c. Almost all Roman and
Greek authors mention it, but it was probably unknown in Europe
until the sixth century after Christ, and not until the sixteenth cent-
ury was it successfully started in France.

In the year 1714 the manufacture of silk was begun in England.
James I tried to establish it in Virginia ; and in Georgia in 1732 lands
were granted on condition that on every ten acres of cleared land one
hundred white mulberry-trees should be planted, and, on the seal of
that State, silk-worms in various stages of their growth were repre-
sented. Two or three years later the first export, consisting of eight
pounds of raw silk, was sent to England, and the silk manufactured
from it was presented to the Queen. In the year 1759 ten thousand
pounds were exported, but after the introduction of cotton the culture
of silk declined, and the last exportation from Georgia was made in
1790.

In the year 1771 Pennsylvania and New Jersey began the culture
of silk, and experiments were also tried in New York and other
States. In an old newspaper, under the date of 1786, we read, “Late
Philadelphia papers mention, as an extraordinary circumstance, that
a family in Maryland have upward of two thousand silk-worms at
work.”

The Revolution put an end to silk-raising for a time, but in the
early part of this century the culture of silk was again started in a
number of States, among others in Louisiana and South Carolina, and
even before this one of our New England States—Connecticut —began
the culture of silk. In the year 1790 it was said that fifty families in
New Haven were raising silk, and in a newspaper for the year 1787
we read that “a young miss in New Haven will soon wear a silk gown
of her own make.” In the same paragraph the hope is expressed that

318 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

soon it may be “esteemed disreputable, by both ladies and gentlemen,
to wear any thick silk but of our own manufacture,”

In 1819 five tons of raw silk were raised at Mansfield, Connecticut,
and the manufacture of silk is still carried on there. In the year 1835
we read of a company formed in Rhode Island having a large planta-
tion of about thirty thousand mulberry-trees, and the State Legislature
of that year offers a premium of fifty cents on every pound of silk
raised and reeled in that State within two years from the passage of
the act. ‘Rhode Island is likely,” so the paper says, “to take the
lead in the manufacture of silk as she did in cotton,

That the interest in the culture of silk must have been kept up, for
a time at least, is shown by the fact that in 1840 the United States
exported 61,552 pounds of raw silk, and in 1844 396,790 pounds, but
in 1850 only 14,763 pounds were exported, while in 1870 the census
gives no statistics of silk raised in this country.

About 1860 the culture of silk was started in California, where the
conditions of climate seemed specially favorable for its success, and
for some years it was carried on; but by 1878 it had greatly declined,
owing possibly to commercial and industrial depression. Whether the
industry continues to any extent we have not ascertained.

In the year 1882 the Department of Agriculture received many
letters from persons interested in the culture of silk, and distributed a
few silk-worm eggs, but there was no general distribution.

In 1884 the department appropriated fifteen thousand dollars for
the encouragement of the industry, and a special agent was appointed
to attend to the work, the department offering to send eggs to any
one who would try the experiment of raising them. I should judge,
however, that no very favorable reports were received, as, at a meeting
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1885,
as reported in “Science,” Professor Riley stated that the culture of
silk had been tried in the United States for fifty years, and all that
the experiments had shown so far was that silk could be raised over
three fourths of the United States if there was a market for the
cocoons. He considers the industry best conducted on a small scale,
and adapted for women and children who have no other way of earn-
ing money. The profit for three persons he estimates at fifteen to
twenty-five dollars for the season, provided the cocoons bring one
dollar a pound—a price, by-the-way, which only the best cocoons bring.

The care of silk-worms is decidedly wearisome, interesting though
it may be ; and certainly any woman enterprising enough to start in
the experiment of raising silk, and strong enough to do the necessary
work, might find some more profitable way of utilizing her time.

Mr. Edward Atkinson, at the same meeting of the Association
above mentioned, maintained that the culture of silk in the United
States was not desirable, since there was no lack of employment, as
the high rate of wages shows, and we can not afford to do for our-

AN EXPERIMENT IN SILK-CULTURE, 319

selves what foreign laborers will do cheaper ; and, moreover, the rais-
ing of silk has always been carried on by the poorest and most inefti-
cient peoples, who, as they rise in the social scale, abandon it, as is
now coming to be the case in Southern France—France being unable
to compete with the cheap labor of China and Japan. It may be
added that another reason for the decline of silk-culture in France is
said to be due to climatic changes.

One spring my attention was called to an article on silk-culture in
which it was stated that silk could be suecessfully and profitably
raised in the United States. The article then went on to quote from
a manual written by a young girl, who had tried silk-raising and had
been very successful. By a strange coincidence, in a few days a friend
offered me an ounce of silk-worm eggs which she had just received
from the Department of Agriculture at Washington. Not having the
time, and possibly the inclination, to raise the worms herself, she kind-
ly gave them to me, and I determined to try the experiment of raising
silk-worms in one of the New England States.

During three or four months of cold weather the eggs were kept
in a cool place in a cellar, at as even a temperature as was practicable,
the thermometer rarely, if ever, going below freezing-point, and never
rising above forty degrees.

The mulberry-tree, upon which the worm feeds, is one of the last
trees to leave out in the spring; but soon after the Ist of June the
leaves began to show themselves, and on the 11th of June the eggs
were placed in a warm room, where, on the 13th, they had begun to
hatch. Only a few worms appeared that day ; the two following days
there were more, and on the 16th and 17th great numbers appeared.
It is estimated that there are forty thousand eggs in an ounce, but only
between two and three thousand of my lot hatched. However, a
number of the eggs had been given away, and probably some were
unfertilized, or had been killed.

Then began the task of keeping the worms supplied with food ;
and, fortunately, I had found a friend willing to undertake the experi-
ment with me, for a task it indeed proved. The white mulberry is
not common in Salem, and the nearest tree was nearly one quarter of
a mile from the house, and often we went a greater distance for the
leaves. At first a small number of leaves were sufficient, but in a
week or two my friend and myself had all we could do to keep the
worms, which were growing rapidly, supplied with fresh leaves ; then,
too, the lower branches of the tree, which was a large one, were soon
stripped, and some one had to climb the tree for us. Fresh leaves had
to be picked every day, sometimes twice and even three times a day.
This in itself took some time, and, if the leaves were at all damp, they
had to be wiped or dried in some way before filling the trays.

The trays in which the worms were kept had to be very carefully
cleaned, and all the refuse removed every day. As the worms grew

320 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

larger they, of course, needed more space, and our room was gradu-
ally filling with extemporized tables and shelves covered with trays.
The cleaning of one tray seems a small matter, but when there are
over fifty trays to clean and fill with fresh leaves it takes a good while,
and often we did not get to bed until midnight. As early as possible
in the morning we were again at work feeding the worms, and for
thirty days we were kept incessantly employed, oftentimes feeling dis-
couraged, as the leaves were hard to get and the weather hot and de-
bilitating. Still, we were determined to do the best we could, and so
persevered in our self-imposed task.

Thirty days from the time of hatching, having lost no worms by
disease, the spinning of the first cocoon was begun, and a relief it was
to see a large worm crawling restlessly around the edge of the box
leaving traces of silk in the corners. Two days later the worms were
spinning in earnest, and we found our work of feeding and cleaning
somewhat lessened. We tied together twigs and straw, upon which
the worms made their cocoons. Following a friend’s suggestion, we
begged from a grocer some of the straw coverings of wine-bottles, and
these the worms seemed to like very much. The room now presented
a very different appearance from that which it had a week or two
before. Instead of the rows of boxes, the tables were covered with
straw tent-like arrangements upon which were the yellow cocoons.

Before all had finished spinning, we thought it time to steam a part
of the cocoons, and here we met with our first difficulty. None of the
books on the subject, which we had at our disposal, gave any very
definite ideas as to the method by which this part of the work might
be accomplished.

Finally, after considerable perplexity, we made arrangements to
have the steaming done at a boiler-room. We laid about eight hun-
dred of the cocoons on a layer of cloth netting in a large box, at one
end of which a hole had been made and a round gas-tube inserted.
To this tube was attached a pipe from the boiler, and for twenty min-
utes, the time specified in a report published by the Department of
Agriculture, the steam was allowed to enter the box. At the end of
that time we found to our dismay that many of the cocoons had been
blown to one end of the box, forming a sticky mass. If we had been
almost discouraged before, we certainly were discouraged now. How-
ever, we dried them in the sun, and a few were sent to the Woman’s
Silk-Culture Association in Philadelphia, with a letter, asking whether
we had steamed them too much, and for information in regard to
steaming the rest, of which we also inclosed a sample. In answer to
our request, a printed circular containing general directions was sent
to us, but no special directions as to steaming the others ; but we were
informed that our worms had been insufficiently fed ; the cocoons were
small, and steamed too much; and the fresh cocoons could not be
reeled.

AN EXPERIMENT IN SILK-CULTURE. 321

As there is but little market for cocoons in this country, all at-
tempts to reel the silk here having been unsuccessful, we had not ex-
pected to realize much from the sale of the cocoons, still to be told
that they were absolutely worthless was rather disappointing after our
six weeks of hard work. We decided, however, to have the rest of
the cocoons steamed, and these we did ourselves in a common steamer,
and very much nicer they looked than our first lot.

But what was meant by our worms being insufficiently fed was not
understood, and again we applied to the Woman’s Silk-Culture Asso-
ciation for information, and this time we received a more satisfactory
answer, though it seemed that our worms, instead of being underfed,
may have been overfed, for the letter said they must not be fed while
molting, and our worms had been fed at these periods. The “ Report ”
gave the same information, but we understood the reason to be simply
that time might be saved if worms of the same age could be made to
molt together. But we found it difficult and well-nigh impossible to
make them all molt at the same time, so finally were compelled to give
them leaves as usual, supposing that those worms molting would not
eat unless they needed food. In everything else we followed the
directions given in the “ Report” as nearly as possible. The worms
certainly had plenty of room, fresh air, a uniform temperature, and as
to the last requisite mentioned in the book—namely, cleanliness—we
are sure that that condition at least was rigidly complied with, the
trays being cleaned every day, and sometimes even oftener if it seemed
necessary.

The room in which the worms were kept was on the northern side
of the house, and had one northern and one eastern window, and a
fireplace in which a fire was made whenever the weather was a little
cool or damp, so it was comparatively easy to regulate the temperature.

In the second letter received from the Woman’s Silk-Culture Asso-
ciation we were told that no one could expect to make anything from
silk-raising until after two or three years’ experience, and yet many
papers speak of silk-raising as an employment, perhaps not very profit-
able, still a light employment for children and old people who can
earn money in no other way. For farmers’ wives this industry is also
recommended, though where the ordinary farmer’s wife is going to
find the time for the business, coming as it does in the middle of the
summer, when her work is heaviest, is not explained. One would
think that any woman who could take care of silk-worms might earn
more money in the same time raising chickens, selling eggs, or in light
gardening, than by the sale of cocoons. Of course, like everything
else, it requires skill and more especially experience, but there are few
light employments that would not bring in a little money even the
first year. To be sure, the outlay in the beginning is small; but had
our cocoons been the ordinary size, and suitable for reeling, we could
not, at the price cocoons are now bringing, have received more than

VOL, XXIx.—21

322 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

five dollars to pay us for the time spent in taking care of the worms
during six weeks of intensely hot weather. Our expenses, not counting
the cost of the fuel burned, amounted to over one dollar and fifty cents.

That others have had somewhat similar experiences is shown by the
following extracts from recent newspapers. From Springfield, Massa-
chusetts, a lady writes that, although she had but about eight hundred
silk-worms, they kept her very busy during the last molt picking
leaves, and she should not advise any one to engage in the business
unless one is willing to work, for it is not an employment for lazy
people. In return for her cocoons, which she sent to the New York
Silk Exchange, she received a silk handkerchief and some embroidery
floss made from her own cocoons, valued at about one dollar and twen-
ty-five cents, which she thought “ poor pay for six weeks’ work.” Her
expenses, not counting time and labor, amounted to one dollar and six-
ty-three cents,

A widow in Ohio thought that the culture of silk might prove a
pleasant and profitable way of supporting herself and two children ;
but after some expense and “six weeks of hard work, Sundays and all,
found that she had not made a dollar by the operation.”

From the ‘“ Massachusetts Plowman” the following extract is
quoted: “Silk-culture requires a very close, unremitting attention on
the part of those engaged in it, and if the work is not laborious it is
so constant as to prevent the following of any other occupation at the
same time. Those who desire to engage in sericulture will do well to
consider thoroughly the matter.”

One thing I can say in regard to the experiment, it is interesting
work, though, whether it would be so to a person not interested at the
outset in such matters I can not say ; and, besides, it keeps one so
busy that the interesting points are often overlooked. Yet I am sure
that numerous friends who saw the worms in their different stages
thoroughly enjoyed them, and it was of some account certainly to
have interested so many people in a subject of so much importance.
How many children, and I may say older people as well, never knew
before that a moth came from a caterpillar, or that a worm formed the
cocoon from which all our silk is made !

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