COSTA RICA. 



COTTON AND SILK. 



229 



which $5,000,000 were received as the result of loans 

 in England; the remainder has been furnished by 

 the National Treasury, in addition to $75,000 lately 

 forwarded to England for the purchase of bridges, 

 rails, and other materials. Sixty miles of road are 

 already completed, which, according to those fig- 

 ures, cost something like $133,000 per mile, a high 

 rate for a narrow-gauge road. Schools where young 

 ladies may receive instruction in electric telegraphy 

 are to be opened in the different provinces. The 

 construction of a line co Port Limon, and another to 

 the borders of Nicaragua to connect witli the tele- 

 graph system of that country, will largely increase 

 the demand for skilled operators. Tramps are to be 

 properly provided for in the country. Civil magis- 

 trates, after having determined the condition as va- 

 grants of all man under fifty years of age, are au- 

 thorized to turn them over to the commandants of 

 departments, who in turn place them at the disposal 

 of the superintendent of the railway, where they will 

 be employed in behalf of the state in the important 

 work of constructing the central division of the Costa 

 Rica portion of the line. 



The college above referred to had been for- 

 mally opened, although the buildings intend- 

 ed for its use were not yet completed. The 

 grounds, edifices, etc., being a Government 

 donation, the rates for tuition, boarding, etc., 

 were to be extremely moderate. The course 

 of instruction, including primary, secondary, 

 and advanced branches, will be full and com- 

 plete; and altogether the institution will meet 

 a want long felt in the country. 



A contract had been made for the introduc- 

 tion of immigrants from the Canary Islands, 

 mainly for the purpose of securing laborers 

 for the Atlantic division of the railway ; and 

 it was expected the first draft would bring 

 about 500 men, accompanied, in all probabil- 

 ity, by the usual proportion of women and 

 children, thus forming the nucleus of a desira- 

 ble colony of immigrants, which would doubt- 

 less be increased to considerable proportions 

 before the lapse of many months. In almost 

 all the ministerial reports to the Government, 

 wherever allusion is made to the agricultural 

 prospects of the country, the scarcity of labor- 

 ers is bitterly deplored, particularly with refer- 

 ence to the Department of Puntarenas, where 

 thousands of acres of most valuable land, 

 adapted to the cultivation of the sugar-cane, 

 cacao, coffee, etc., are lying waste for lack of 

 hands to till it. 



The Government has recently reduced the 

 extent of lands held by mining companies, for 

 the purpose of placing them at the disposal of 

 agricultural settlers. Especial care is taken in 

 these new districts to secure the preservation 

 of a suitable extent of forest in the vicinity of 

 the rivers and along the summits of the moun- 

 tain ridges, the destruction of the woods on the 

 hillsides and in the central valley having de- 

 termined a material diminution in the rainfall 

 of the country. Persons destroying timber 

 within the limits prescribed are to be held 

 amenable to a fine, or to plant at their own ex- 

 pense an equal number of new trees of va- 

 rious kinds, to be specified by the Government. 

 The country was in the enjoyment of peace. 



COTTON AND SILK, THE WEIGHTING OF. 

 Among the numerous adulterations of com- 

 mercial commodities in practice of late years, 

 several of which have transpired to awaken a 

 genera] indignation and distrust in the public 

 mind, there are no more extensive frauds than 

 those of weighting cotton goods, which is 

 practiced in England, and silks, which is com- 

 mon in France, by plastering them with com- 

 positions of various ingredients, which on 

 hardening give the textiles a deceptive .ap- 

 pearance of weight and firmness. It has long 

 been notorious that the heavier English cotton 

 cloths, and notably those which are manufac- 

 tured for the Oriental trade, which requires 

 goods of unusual weight and thickness, owe 

 their appearance of strength and solidity to a 

 preparation of size, which disappears with the 

 first washing. For that reason the heavier 

 and honester Indian and American calicoes 

 have long been preferred in some of the East- 

 ern markets. The practice of sizing cotton 

 cloth has increased, until loud public protests 

 have recently been heard. Mr. Mellor declared 

 in Parliament that the English cotton trade 

 had gone down because of the rascalities prac- 

 ticed in the manufacturing districts. A suit 

 was lately brought at Rochdale against a cot- 

 ton-manufacturer to recover a sum of money 

 "for sizing twenty -seven warps." The plain- 

 tiff, in answer to the interrogatories of the 

 judge, was reluctantly made to explain that 

 "sizing" was "loading" or adulterating cot- 

 ton cloth. The composition of the size, he 

 testified, was flour, China clay, Epsom salts, 

 chlorate of zinc, chlorate of magnesia, and 

 glue. This mixture was soaked into the cloth 

 in the proportion of TO per cent, or more of 

 its weight. The same witness had used as 

 high an average of size as 130 per cent, of the 

 weight of the original texture, and knew of 

 manufacturers who adulterated their goods to 

 the extent of 230 per cent. When the depo- 

 nent first entered the business, twenty years 

 ago, the only size used was pure flour in the 

 proportion of 1 to 20, or only five per cent. 



The practice of weighting silk goods is even 

 more general, and the adulteration is greater, 

 than in the case of cottons. This deception is. 

 confined almost entirely to black silks, which 

 are more generally used than all others, and 

 are preferred of a heavy and firm texture. 

 The adulteration prevails in America and in all 

 countries where silk goods are manufactured, 

 as well as in France, and to such an extent 

 that experts have declared that there is no such 

 thing as a genuine piece of black silk in the 

 market. The weighting is done in the dyeing. 

 The fraudulent weight produced by the use of 

 adulterants has been found by chemical tests 

 to exceed often 150 per cent, of the weight of 

 the original fabric, and in some cases to reach 

 400 per cent, of the weight of silk. The 

 weighting is accomplished in the dyeing of the 

 thrown silk thread before it is woven, which 

 is made to take up a large quantity of nitrate 



