220 EEPOKT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



tific interest in connection with, silk culture, such as the best methods 

 of raising silk-worms and their food, the adaptability of different food- 

 plants to the climate of California, &c, A review will be made of the 

 researches of M. Pasteur into the diseases of silk- worms in the light of 

 investigations into the lower orders of vegetable life that have been 

 made since his "Studies" were published. These and a great many 

 other questions will naturally occupy the attention of the expert direct- 

 or of the Piedmont station. Secondly, during the silk-raising season, 

 pupils will be taught how to raise silk-vforms after the most approved 

 and economic methods; and thirdly, the crop resulting from the annual 

 experiments, will, if suitable, be used in the production of silk-worm 

 eggs, to be distributed gratuitously to the silk-raisers of the Pacific 

 coast. A director for this station has been appointed in the person of 

 Mr. A. Werner, who comes to us with several years' experience of a 

 similar kind in Austria. 



The State board of silk culture, though created for four years, ha(.l 

 funds appropriated for its use for two years only. These funds were 

 exhausted some months before the biennial jjeriod had elapsed, and the 

 active work of the board came to a premature end. This board was 

 succeeded by a new one created in accordance with an act approved 

 March IS, 1885, which appropriated 85,000 per year, for two years, for 

 the encouragement of silk culture. In pursuance of this law the pres- 

 ent board is now acting under the presidency of INIrs. Olive M. Wash- 

 burn. The first board established an experimental and educational fil- 

 ature in the city of San Francisco. At this filature there were received, 

 from the crop of 1883, 509 pounds of cocoons, and from that of 1884, 753 

 pounds. Although it was estimated that the State produced 1,500 

 pounds of cocoons during the former season, the estimate appears to be 

 excessive, competent judges giving it as their opiuion that two-thii-ds, 

 at least, of the crop was purchased at the State filature. On June 22, 

 1885, the new board reopened this establishment, which had been tem- 

 porarily closed for lack of funds to carry it on, and the report of the 

 filature^ committee of the board, just published, informs us that 44 

 pounds of silk had been reeled there during the ])resent summer. The 

 school has consisted of 19 ])upils, who have attended at different times 

 and been taught to reel silk by an expert Italian operative. The Cali- 

 fornia cocoon crop of the ]iast season is estimated at but 250 pounds. 

 No reason is ascribed for this falling oif in the production. The State 

 board has distributed a large quantity of sericultural literature, and 

 the old organization was instrumental in the delivery of several lectures 

 and addresses upon silk culture in different parts of the State. The 

 board has recently placed $400 at the disposition of the Ladies' Society 

 for the improvement of its land at Piedmont. 



An effort was made last winter by Mr, Joseph Neumann and so?iie 

 of his associates to launch the "California Silk Culture Development 

 Company," with a capital of 8100,000. The attempt was a failure, as,^ i n 

 our opiuion, all attempts to exploit silk culture on a large scale will b*'. 

 A curious error was made in their prospectus, curious because it is 

 oltcn made and often goes undetected. This is the calculation of the 

 production, per ounce, of eggs, such as would be proper for fresh cocoons, 

 and the estimation of their value as that of dry cocoons. The miscon- 

 ception that Avill arise from such figures will be understood when it is 

 remembered that cocoons lose, in drying, two-thirds of their original 

 weight, and that, therefore, for the same quality of cocoons, tliey are 

 worth three times as much per pound when dry as when first made. 



