REARING SILKWORMS. 131 



Board kept working together, hoping that the 

 state authorities would yet see the advisability of 

 establishing silk-culture as a great industry of 

 the state. They labored hard, though not very 

 wisely, for want of practical experience. Their 

 selection of location for mulberry grove and place 

 for cocoonery was very unfortunate, as the climate 

 in that particular locality was not at all favor- 

 able to the rearing of worms. It was too cold 

 and foggy. The cold currents swept up from 

 San Francisco Bay constantly, and much care 

 had to be exercised in rearing the silkworms. 

 Moreover, they were dependent on foreigners, 

 who were not at all ambitious to develop any 

 new feature in the business. They went on in 

 the old European style, both as to feeding and 

 caring for the worms and millers. They labored 

 to make silk-culture entirely a cottage industry, 

 and opposed the idea of going into the business 

 on a large scale, because some speculators had 

 attempted to do this, and, through utter ignorance 

 of the requirements necessary to success, had 

 made utter failures. They did not seem to realize 

 that concentrated effort on a large scale with 

 intelligent leadership is an absolute necessity to 

 produce cocoons in sufficient quantities to supply 

 the demand made by the manufacturers of our 

 own country, even though at that time there 



