82 FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



The manufacturing interest, encouraged as it is by import duties, will 

 take care of itself, and silk factories are already springing up on the Pacific 

 coast and proving remunerative, as they are on the Atlantic. Let the pro- 

 ductive iifdustry be similarly encouraged, and let all premiums hereafter be 

 offered for reeled silk ! 



SILK CULTURE IN KANSAS — MONS. E, V. BOISSIERE's ESTABLISHMENT. 



About three years ago, Mons. E. V. Boissiere, a French philanthropist, 

 of considerable means, came to this country from Bordeaux for the express 

 purpose of purchasing a large tract of land for general agricultural pur- 

 poses, but primarily for the cultivation of mulberry trees and the raising of 

 silk. He finally settled in Franklin county, Kansas, about 18 miles south- 

 west of Ottawa, 10 miles west of Princeton station, on the Leavenworth, 

 Lawrence and Galveston railroad, and three miles south of the little town 

 of Williamsburg. Here, in 1869, he purchased 3,500 acres of undulating 

 prairie land, and at once commenced operations by erecting a three-story 

 frame building, 50x30 for his operatives. The land is rich and clayey, 

 with a limestone subsoil and of good elevation. He has already fenced in 

 860 acres and broken about 150; and contracts are let for the fencing with 

 stone walls of 160 acres intended for pasturage. The place has been 

 christened "Silkville." 



He does not contemplate the cultivation of this entire tract; but intends 

 to devote the greater portion of it to the raising of cattle, for which he 

 whishes to have suflicient range on his own land. Only the more valuable 

 portions Avill be devoted to the silk interest. Already there is a good stable, 

 a few sheds for rearing the worms, and a stone factory 83x28 for working 

 the silk. If the silk business succeeds, the reeling of the cocoons and the 

 manufacture of velvet trimmings will furnish occupation through the win- 

 ters; but the hope of success now entertained by M. Boissiere cannot be 

 realized for at least two j^ears, which will be required to establish the pos- 

 sibility of profitably raising the worms,, and to await the growth of the 

 trees. Meanwhile, to avoid any chance of failure, he intends to embark in 

 several industries which have received no attention in that part of the 

 country, and which will give employment to the operatives, and may be 

 carried on entirely from the products of the farm. Of such industries, he 

 mentions more especially broom-making; the preservation of meat in tin 

 cans; the manufticture and refining of sorghum syrup; of castor oil; potato 

 starch; morocco leather, and dark-headed matchas, which have nothing 

 poisonous about them and cannot be ignited except on the box containing 

 them. 



There are already planted 8000 mulberry trees which have made 

 a wonderful growth, and there are 2,500 fine young trees in nursery to be 

 set out. There is also a young orchard of 900 trees, and 2,000 peach trees ; 

 1,000 Concord vines ; and belts of Black locust, Black walnut and Ailan- 

 thus, will be planted the coming spring. 



