THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 77 



There are but four countries which export raw silk ; namely, China, 

 Japan, Italy and France. Estimates gleaned from recent statistics bring the 

 different countries in the following order in regard to their production of 

 this export. At the head is China, which produces every year silk to the 

 value of nearly $100,000,000; then Italy, $42,000,000; France, $26,000,000; 

 India, $24,000,000; Japan, $17,000,000; Turkey and Asia Minor, $12,000,- 

 000; Persia, $5,000,000; Spain and Portugal, $3,000,000; Syria and Austria, 

 each, $2,000,000; Greece, $1,000,000. Then follow other countries, aver- 

 aging from $900,000 to $100,000, while the United States at present produces 

 ■ scarcely any — the product for ten years being, according to the last census, 

 3,945 pounds; of which California produced 3,587; Pennsylvania, 1; Vir- 

 ginia, 15; ]S"orth Carolina, 95; Georgia, 14; Mississippi, 31; Louisiana, 1; 

 Tennessee, 153; Kentucky, 45; and Missouri, 3. 



An interesting proof of the gradual spi-ead of silk over the globe is 

 furnished by the similarity of name given to it by different nations as fol- 

 lows : China, se ; Mongolia, sirkeh ; Corea, sic ; Arabia, serik ; Greece, 

 grjpiKdv ; Roman, sericum; Mediaeval Latin, seda; IXaXj, seta; France, soie, 

 satin; German, seide; Denmark, silcke; Sweden, silke; Anglo-Saxon, siolk; 

 England and America, silk. 



ITS HISTORY IN AMERICA. 



During the reign of James I. of England, or in the beginning of the 

 17th century, sericulture was first attempted in Virginia. Other efforts were 

 subsequently made, but were very naturally abandoned for the obvious 

 reason that the raising of tobacco, cotton and sugar were found more prof- 

 itable. 



Many years subsequently it began to attract renewed attention, and 

 was gaining strength and importance when the Revolution deranged and 

 (f crushed it. After the Declaration of Independence, feeble efforts were 

 made to naturalize the worm in the more northern States; and, according 

 to William H. Vernon, of Rhode Island,* $30,000 or $40,000 were annually 

 realized from rearing the worms in Connecticut, at the beginning of the 

 present century. 



But from the few data which we have to guide us, we may conclude 

 that silkworm culture, with the exception of the fitful start during the fnul- 

 ticaulis fever, was very generally abandoned in the States. And indeed the 

 climate of the JSTew England States is by no means well adapted to the rais- 

 ing of the worms; and worse still, there w^as no market for the cocoons. 

 But the conditions have materially changed within the past decade. Lender 

 the stimulus of the duties on the manufactured goods, the growth of silk- 

 manufacture has been unpreeedently rapid ; for there is no duty on the raw 

 material, and the completion of the Union Pacific railroad has enabled its 

 rapid and direct importation from China and Japan. 



The Oneida Communit}^, of Oneida Co., N". Y., have been far more suc- 

 cessful as manufacturers than as raisers. They turn their attention to the 



* Methodical Treatise on the Cultivatiou of the MiUberry Tree; on the Raising of Silkworm-, etc 

 From the French of M. De la Brousse. Bostou, 1828. 



