REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE, 19 
iw: 
2d, insects affecting the orangé, and which so seriously threatened. 
-orange-culture in Florida; 3d, silk-worms; 4th, cotton-insects. 
_~ In my last annual report I gave statistics showing that we annually 
_ pay to foreign countries no less than twenty-three million dollars for 
silk, all of which, by proper encouragement of silk-culture in the United 
States, may in due time be saved to our people. A review of all past 
attempts at.silk-culture in this country shows very clearly that the causes ~ 
of failure have been transient and not permanent ones, and the very 
_ many letters that constantly come to the department, asking for informa- 
tion on the subject of silk-culture and for silk-worm eggs, indicate the 
increasing interest felt by our people in this branch of industry. 
Last spring, through the courtesy of Mr. Lang Tsuda, a valued corre- 
spondent in Japan, the department was presented with a few cards of 
_ the eggs of a kind of silk-worm known as the Yana Gawwa, a valuable 
race, producing a small white constricted cocoon. The worms were fed 
- on three different species of Maclura, or Osage orange, and on eight dif- 
ferent species of mulberry, 2s well as on some other allied plants, by 
way of experiment. Another race that has been fed for the last eight 
years on Osage orange by Professor Riley was also grown. A part of 
the silk from these worms has been reeled in this country by Mr. L. 8. 
Crozier, of Silkville, Franklin County, Kansas, and proves to be of the 
very first quality.. But the most interesting fact in connection with 
these experiments is that the silk produced from the Osage-orange race, 
which was originally a cross between the best French and Japanese 
worms, actually proved superior in quantity and equal in quality to that 
fed on mulberry. 
It is gratifying to be able to state that this interest is beginning to 
receive attention, and that already systematic and intelligent effort is 
being displayed in the line of silk-raising in this country. Parties in 
North Carolina have found it sufficiently profitable, even with present 
drawbacks, to raise silk-worms, and ship the cocoons to France. One 
gentleman in Raleigh, Mr... Fasnach, has shijjped two bales to Mar- 
— seilles, each containing over 100 pounds of choked cocoons. These have 
been sold at Marseilles for as high as 32 francs (or over $6) per kilogram 
(not quite 24 pounds), and the freight from Raleigh to Marseilles did not 
exceed $3 per hundred weight. The cocoons were raised by the children 
; of the family; and aside from the silk product, Mr. Fasnach also pro- 
-- duced a number of eggs, for which there is now a ready market abroad 
at $3.50 to $4 per ounce (of 26 grams). Several other persons in different 
parts of the country have also reared sufficient quantities of cocoons to 
warrant New York brokers in offering from $1.50 to $2 per pound for the 
same. When parties find it profitable to raise silk under these adverse 
circumstances, there can be no question as to the growth of the industry 
whenever a home market is furnished for the raw material, and that 
when once it shall have been demonstrated that there can be offered and 
paid for cocoons some stated sum that will yet allow a fair profit on the 
