(122 = - REPORT OF THH COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
One of the best lots of cocoons that we have received at the filature 
this year was sent in by a lady living in Johnson County, Mo. She 
writes us in regard to the expense of raising these cocoons as follows: ~ 
“Twenty dollars would cover the expenses (excluding labor) for 
both years that I have been engaged in the work, or $10 for each 
year. This year I incubated 34 ounces of eggs and raised 673 
ounds of dry cocoons, for which the Department paid me $77.90. 
My mother and my’four children assisted me in this work.” It will 
be seen that the results obtained by this lady were but 58 pounds of 
fresh cocoons per ounce of eggs, whereas, as has already been stated, 
some of our correspondents have raised as much as 120 pounds, or 
more than twice as many. These results were, however, obtained 
with quarter-ounce lots and would have been reduced with larger 
educations. 
CO-OPERATING ORGANIZATIONS. 
In addition to the work already described as done at this Depart- 
ment, the State of Kansas has been experimenting under authority 
of an act passed in 1887, having established a station at Peabody, in 
Marion County They have been very active in their work, both in 
operating a non-automatic filature of eight basins and in dissemi- 
nating information in regard to the industry throughout the State. 
The Women’s Silk Culture Association at Philadelphia is continuing 
the experiments in reeling silk under a Congressional appropriation, 
and the Ladies’ Silk Culture Society of California, under a like 
subsidy, is organizing for the coming season. The State of Califor- 
nia has also continued to support its sericultural board, which claims 
to be doing excellent work. 
Altogether the interest in the industry seems to be much more 
active throughout the country than it was a year ago, and we may 
safely say that a very material progress has been made during the 
past year toward the establishment of silk culture in the United 
_ States. 
We urge the importance to this work of the formation of clubs 
for mutual benefit. Not of associations destined to help in spreading 
silk-growing, nor to distribute material, but of combinations of 
neighbors who may help each other by their experience and by an 
interchange of ideas, They may unite in the hibernation and incu- 
bation of their eggs, one hibernating box and one incubator intelli- 
gently managed being sufficient for all the silk-growers in a town. 
The season’s work done, they may, if they can not sell their cocoons 
while fresh, again unite in the use of the same stifling apparatus and 
in the transportation of the cocoons to market. In all these opera- 
tions such combinations will save much expense and, if the work be 
well directed, will realize material results in the increased size of the 
crop and the enhanced price received for the cocoons. Such clubs 
would form centers of information in each section and ultimatel 
serve as nuclei for organization in making the strength of the sil 
industry felt in the national and State legislatures. Should this 
advice result in the formation of such bodies, the Department will 
assist them in every way in its power, 
