ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 283 



tion. Meantime silk enterprises had been entered on 

 near Santa Barbara, Sacramento, Grass Valley and 

 other points and large expectations were cherished of 

 profits both from local silk manufacture and from pro- 

 duction of eggs for sale in France. The latter expecta- 

 tion was arrested by the Franco-German War of 1870 

 and finally extinguished by the fact that California 

 eggs were contaminated with the disastrous silk-worm 

 diseases which Europeans were trying to escape. The 

 calculation of profitable production of raw silk also 

 proved illusory because, even with cheap Chinese labor 

 then available, the cost of production was too great 

 and all the earlier efforts at silk-culture were aban- 

 doned. 



In 1880 agitation was revived on the basis of the 

 suitability of silk-growing for a household industry. 

 With this effort, which included promotive enact- 

 ment and appropriation by the legislatures of 1883 

 and 1885. there was wide distribution of mulberry 

 cuttings of several species imported and grown for 

 that purpose, the establishment of an experimental 

 filature and many publications. However, silk-grow- 

 ing was not profitable after the State ceased to buy 

 cocoons at a high price for promotion purposes. It 

 cost too much to hire labor to pick mulberry leaves 

 and to wait on the worms. After State promotion 

 was withdrawn about 1888, effort was continued by 

 individuals and societies but neither popularity nor 

 notable production has been attained, although con- 

 siderable energy and enthusiasm have been manifested 

 from time to time even to the present. In the line 



