TEA AND SILK FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 201 



reliable collection of accurate and extended statistical experience 

 connected with the cost of production, we have not included any. 

 But it may be said generally that, judging from the reports and 

 notices which have appeared from time to time in the local news- 

 papers during the past three or four years, the planters there 

 regard the sum of lOd. per lb. as representing their outlay on tea 

 aelivered free on board ship at Colombo. 



It has been stated that the cost of labour in China applies in 

 a general sense equally to tea and silk farming, nevertheless it 

 may be remarked that the true average cost of the latter material 

 among the peasantry of Asia, if it could be accurately ascer- 

 tained, would doubtless prove in most cases to be very small 

 indeed. If we except the comparatively few very extensive silk 

 farmers there who do business on a really large scale, it will be 

 found that an important percentage of the raw silk produced 

 annually is the contribution from innumerable peasant homes. 

 Whilst this circumstance complicates the attempt to get at the 

 exact cost to the peasant silk-producer, it allows a considerable 

 margin for possible error, as, keeping in view that skilled labour 

 and expensive machinery are to him alike unattainable, and that 

 the entire annual period of the harvest is short, it seems con- 

 sistent with reason that his whole outlay must be insignificant 

 in comparison with the average price his produce fetches in the 

 markets of London, Lyons, or Florence. In Eugene Schuyler's 

 Turkestan (p. 197) we are informed that a Turkestan peasant's 

 family of four persons raise on an average each season about 

 108 lbs. wei[,dit of f^reen cocoons. For this result one ounce of 

 silkworms' eggs are required, which have previously been obtained 

 from Ih lbs. of cocoons, and the leaves from twenty mulberry 

 trees costing 38s. Up to this point, without allowing anything 

 for the peasant's labour and the use of such rude plant as may 

 be within his reach to employ, his outlay amounts to 18 roubles 

 or 4;js. 7d., the rouble being valued at 30yV pence sterling. An 

 average price of 9 roubles per pud (36 lbs.) would be 27 roubles 

 or 68s. 5d., yielding him a protit of 9 roubles, or 22s. lOd., after 

 paying tor his mulberry leaves. I>ut in cases where the family 

 possess a few mulberry bushes of their own the protit is increased 

 by the cost of the leaves thus saved. In this example the 

 peasant's profit seems to be a sliade over 2 Ad. per lb. realised 

 from the sale of his produce in its crude form, a protit which is 

 greatly increased if he has the means of unwinding his cocoons. 

 The next inquiry naturally follows : — What proportion of raw 

 silk can he obtain from a i2:iven wei<'ht of CTeen cocoons if lie is 

 in a j)Osition to unwind them ? The answer appears at page 199, 

 where it is stated that " In Tashkent it takes from 8 to 9 lbs. of 

 good dried cocoons to produce 1 lb. weight of reeled silk ; while 

 in Samarkand, where the workmen are more skilful, 1 lb. of silk 



