306 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



THE PAST AND PRESENT PRICES OF RAW SILK. 



Two fatal epizootic diseases have arrested silk production in foreign 

 countries, especially in France and Italy. The government of England 

 sought to revive the production of raw silk in its India possessions, and 

 for this purpose required an examination of its past history in that 

 country. We have a compilation of it b}^ the under-secretary of India, 

 Department of Agriculture, Eevenue, and Commerce, and among other 

 topics of interest ho refers, incidentally, to the prices that formerly i)re- 

 vailed there. liaising the mulberry and gathering its leaves were often 

 a separate pursuit in that country, and a prominent silk-gTower, Dr. Eox- 

 berry, refers to the prices paid for leaves. They were worth 8 ruj^ees 

 (46 cents make a rupee) for one-third of an English acre, paying a rent 

 of 2 rupees, and leaving n iirofit of 6 rupees, or .$2.76. 



The wages paid the feeders of the worms and the reelers of the silk 

 were, respectively^, $2.30 and $2.76 per month. For leaves in the 

 Madras district, the price ilxed by the government was 46 cents for 

 300 handfuls, each handful to contain 20 leaves. For cocoons, 5 cents 

 were given for 300. One thousand cocoons were required to the pound, 

 and of this pound two ounces were good silk, eight ounces dried worms, 

 and six ounces refuse-silk and gum. According to this rate, it would 

 require 8,000 cocoons to make a pound of reeled silk, and at the rates 

 paid for cocoons $1.33 would be paid for these 8,000 cocoons. 



Keeled silk in 1858 ranged from $1.84 per pound to $3.68. In 1851 

 the i)rice for cocoons in France was 30 cents, a much better price than 

 in India, but still unrerauuerative to our American labor. Against such 

 prices it was vain to hope that silk culture could be established here. 



Two causes have advanced the prices of raw silk : the general rise in 

 j>rices of labor in all parts of Europe, and the fatal diseases among the 

 silk-worms in Italy and France, to which we have already referred. In 

 India, reeled silk had advanced to $3.68 and $5.7o per pound. The com- 

 mittee of American silk manufacturers and operatives, in their state- 

 ment to the Finance Committee of the United States Senate, say that 

 since 1861 the prices of all raw silks in the countries of its production 

 have been more than doubled. The average price of the raw silks im- 

 ported into this country in 1871 was about $6 per pound. But Mr. 

 Eiley, in the report from which we have quoted, speaking of the " Dale 

 Manufacturing Company," at Paterson, New Jersey, says: 



Mr. Dale uses tho best European inacliinery, aud has a seri-meter and dynamom- 

 eter, for testing the strength and elasticity of the thread, and scales for weighing 

 it, all from Berthaud & Cie, of Lyons, Franco. He employs three hundred and fifty 

 hands, earning on an average from $.5 to $6 a week. He uses nearly a bale (100 pounds) 

 of raw silk each day, /or xvhich he pays from $9 to $18 jjer jjowjid. 



These prices, however, must be for the best reeled silks. When we 

 notice, as we shall presently, the amount of food an acre of mulberries 

 will produce, and the number of worms it will feed, it will be seen that 

 these prices will give ample remuneration to the American laborer. 



Having shown that the prosperous state of our silk manufactures must 

 be continued by the protection they will find in the high duties that our 

 national indebtedness will require, and that the present prices for raw 

 silk give assurance that its production can now be successfully estab- 

 lished, the next object of this article will be to show in what way this 

 production can best be promoted. 



