208 KEPOET OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



repeat here the arguments that have been set forth in former reports 

 or in my Manual on the Silk Worm, a revised edition of which is in 

 preparation. 



lu your report to the President you have well stated the requirements 

 essential to the permanent establishment of this industry, and it is 

 evident to all who have given the subject attention that a home market 

 for the cocoons (and this means tbe successful and profitable running 

 of filatures) is the sine qua non of successful silk culture. Whatever the 

 advantages of, or inducements to, silk culture may be, it cannot be denied 

 that the industry will never become important so long as there is little 

 or no profit in it, and the experience of the Division is that the larger 

 number oY those who apply for information and assistance and for eggs 

 abandon their efforts after the hrstyear, because of disappointment and 

 discouragement. I would, therefore, more ])articularly call attention 

 to the statements of cost of production at Philadelphia and Kew Or- 

 leans, under the patronage and with the assistance of the Department. 

 It will be seen that the outcome is not very encouraging, even omitting 

 the items of office expenses, rent, interest on and repairs of i^lant, and 

 cost of steam power, which do not enter into these estimates. It should 

 be remembered, however, that it is only in the operation of a filature of 

 considerable size that profit is attainable. Where the unproductive 

 expenses above mentioned form a large proportion of the total cost of 

 running the establishment, as in the iS'cw Orleans experiment, the re- 

 sults obtained cannot be otherwise than deceiving. It is worthy of ob- 

 servation, also, that the i^rice of reeled silk has greatly advanced since 

 the calculations were made, so that with prices quoted, at this writing, 

 the loss would be milch less. 



It is more than probable that no decisive results will be reached until 

 a filature of at least twelve basins of Serrell's automatic reeler can be 

 erected at some point where the details can be watched and controlled 

 by myself and assistants, and conducted for at least two years on strictly 

 business principles. Though such an establishment might be unpro- 

 ductive of profit, it would at least enable me to discover and point out 

 more satisfactorilj^ than heretofore the precise difficulties in the way of 

 profitable reeling in the United States. These features could be thor- 

 oughly studied and it would then be seen whether they were of such a 

 nature that they could be bettered by time and experience, or such as 

 are unavoidable under the conditions of labor found in our country. 

 I question the wisdom of expending money in continuing such worli as 

 has been performed during the past year. It has been productive of 

 but one great good^ and that is the formation of a partial market for 

 American cocoons. 



But this market is in its very nature artificial ; i.e., it will cease to 

 exist when the support of the Government is witlidrawn. One difficulty 

 that I have had in carrying on the experiments on a thorough busi- 

 ness basis lies in the fact that while the Government can expend in ex- 

 perimentation and salaries and plant, the statutes prevent the utilixa- 

 tiou of whatever income results from the reeled product. Unless, there- 

 fore, the Serrell reel be thoroughly tried, it were best for the Depart- 

 ment to leave the filature problem to private enterprise and devote 

 its efforts to those scientific problems involved in the work, and to 

 the dissemination of information, silk- worm eggs, &c., as has been 

 the custom in the past. In other words, the Division should become a 

 center or school of information and experiment in all directions that 

 might lead to increase of knowledge in reference to the industry and 



