120 COMPLETE INSTRUCTION IN 



few farms were given to the production of silk- 

 worms, and a few factories manufactured both 

 home-production and that which was brought 

 from foreign countries. 



When at last the long-agitated question of 

 slavery reached the climax, and the tocsin of 

 civil war burst upon the ears of the American 

 people, the agricultural interests of the South 

 were disrupted, as also the manufacturing inter- 

 ests of the North, as they looked to the cotton- 

 fields of the South to feed their factories. 



At this time in our national history there was 

 a duty of fifteen per cent on all raw or reeled 

 silk brought into this country. This rate of 

 duty continued till some time after the close of 

 the Civil War. Then all duty was removed from 

 raw silk, and reeled silk was invoiced as raw 

 silk, and so continues to the present, so that 

 there is no duty on silk imported, unless it be 

 fully manufactured. Reeled silk is only twenty- 

 five per cent manufactured, but comes in free, as 

 though it were not twisted at all. (See the 

 monthly reports of raw silk in the American 

 Silk Journal, published in New York.) 



In 1880, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The 

 Woman's Silk-Culture Association of the United 

 States was incorporated, and placed under the 

 able management of Mrs. John Lucas. Through 



