310 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



There is, then, no difficulty in California that i)resents any real obsta- 

 cle to successful silk cultivation. And as we have also seen that the 

 past low foreign prices of labor and silk do not now exist to prevent, as 

 they formerly did, its cultivation in other parts of our country, and that 

 we now have a hojnc demand, at fair prices, for all the silk we can pro- 

 duce, the onl}- question is : 



now BEST CAN SILK CULTURE BE ESTABLISHED HERE? 



To this question a general answer may first be given : by avoiding the 

 errors into which foreign silk-growers have fallen. These, as we have 

 seen, consist in too often and too closely stripping the leaves and prun- 

 ing the branches of the mulberry ; in so breeding the worms that their 

 constitutions have become enfeebled; in bringiiig together so many 

 worms that their numbers alone cause fatal diseases. We must follow 

 rather the success of Jafifir than the failure of more imposing and costly 

 establishments, of what may be termed professional silk culturists. 

 We must, in other words, maJie it a part of the Uouselwld occupations, 

 in which little capital will be invested, and the labor of women and 

 children be given to it, who, otherwise, cannot now liud so healtliy and 

 profitable employment. The superior climatic conditions of California 

 may justify, to some extent, a different course. Whether they can, is the 

 experiment now making there. 



The recommendation to produce silk as a household employment rather 

 than as a special occupatioii, and in small quantities rather than in large 

 ones, is a dei^arture from the course heretofore advised, and demands, 

 perhaps, some further reasons for it than have already been given. 

 The value of the annual i^roduct of raw silk is estimated at from 

 $120,000,000 to $13(),000,0rK), and the countries which chiefly produce it 

 are China, Japan, India, France, and Italy. " Nine-tenths," says Mr. 

 Riley, " of all the silk x^roduced in Europe is raised in small quantities, 

 that is, in separate house holds," The compilation of the under-vsecretary 

 of India shows that this is the i^resent state of sericulture in all its 

 provinces. And hence we find that the "Silk Supply Association" of 

 Great Britain is endeavoring to extend its production in India, and for 

 this puri)ose seeks — 



1. " To stimulate the jiroduction of silk by cottage cultivation and 

 otherwise, in everj^ county where the mulberry-tree is capable of giving 

 food to the silk-worm." 



2. " To promote the exj)ortation of cocoons from countries not well 

 able to reel them, that is, from the households which prefer to j)roduce 

 cocoons only and not reeled silk." 



From the reports on silk culture that have lately been issued by Mr. 

 F. O. Adams, secretary to the British legation in Japan, we find that 

 silk culture is carried on there in the most simple and careless manner, 

 with the most primitive machinery, and that the people are actually 

 ignorant of some of the simplest truths, the knowledge of which would 

 enable them to more than double their jiroducts ; that it is even worse 

 in China, and that in Southern Europe most of the silk is reared by a 

 peasantry which knows absolutely nothing beyond plucking the leaves 

 and feeding them to the worms. Here, then, we see that after many 

 and long-continued experiments in silk culture on a large scale, this 

 industry has become a household pursuit in all silk-growing countries. 

 The reasons of this we have already given, so that the recommendation 

 we have made is but in conformity with their experience and practice. 



Having indicated the mode by which silk culture may most profitably 



