REARING SILKWORMS. 125 



the authorities at Washington on the other, dis- 

 rupted the whole silk business, and for a time 

 served to restrain successful effort in the silk 

 business. 



This state of affairs came about just as San 

 Diego became interested in silk-culture, and 

 throughout the past decade, the same conditions 

 existing (i. e., no market for cocoons), has proved 

 the greatest barrier to the silk business. But 

 amid all these seeming discouragements, the fact 

 remains that the residents of Southern California 

 are in possession of the finest country on the face 

 of the globe for the production of the silkworm, 

 as well as its best and choicest food, the mulberry 

 tree. 



But to look back over those years mentioned 

 as to the work in the East, we must recount very 

 briefly what was going on in California. Long 

 before the Woman's Association was thought of 

 in the East, M. Prevost, a Frenchman and silk- 

 culturist, came to California. He wrought a 

 good and noble work in the northern and middle 

 portion of the state, by demonstrating what 

 might be accomplished here in the silk business, 

 as compared with France. He asserted that one 

 person here could do as much as seven or eight 

 persons in France, in caring for worms. This, 

 he said, was owing to the better climate, the more 



