128 COMPLETE INSTRUCTION IN 



In 1869, Joseph Newman produced one hun- 

 dred and thirty pounds of reeled silk, which was 

 then worth sixteen dollars a pound. Of this he 

 manufactured two flags twenty by thirty-six feet. 

 One he presented to the state at Sacramento, 

 and the other to the government at Washing- 

 ton, D. C. 



At this time the reputation of California silk- 

 eggs had gone abroad, and the French silk-pro- 

 ducers contracted for about twenty thousand 

 ounces of silk-eggs produced in California, but 

 the Franco-German War broke out just at that 

 time, and so disrupted all industries in those coun- 

 tries that the order was annulled. 



Joseph Newman did much to encourage the 

 silk business in our Golden State, but he made 

 one grave very grave mistake when he advo- 

 cated the cultivation of the wild silkworm. Silk 

 made from those insects is of little or no real value. 



About this time the State Board of Silk-culture 

 was organized in this state, and did very good 

 work on certain lines. They sent out many 

 pages of literature, instructing the people in the 

 art of silk-culture and planting trees, etc. They 

 also gave instruction in reeling silk to those who 

 wished to learn. The state had made an appro- 

 priation for the encouragement of silk-culture, 

 and out of this fund reels were purchased and 



