REARING SILKWORMS. 133 



millions of dollars every year to the agricultural 

 classes of foreign countries, for the purchase of a 

 much poorer article of silk than they could obtain 

 from the agriculturists of our own country. 



SAN DIEGO. 



In A. D. 1891, a few enterprising women organ- 

 ized a silk society and secured the services of two 

 skilled Japanese to instruct them in the raising 

 of silkworms, while they managed the cocoonery 

 (an ordinary building rented for the society). 

 But, as a society, we had yet no mulberry trees, 

 and the supply from other sources on which we 

 counted proved quite insufficient for the number 

 of worms we had hatched out. The result was, 

 that many of the worms perished for want of 

 sufficient food, while many of those we did rear 

 were not at all as good as they would have been 

 with sufficient food, all through their brief lives. 

 However, from the few thousands we did raise, 

 a quantity of silk-eggs was obtained, from which 

 stock, as well as from eggs obtained from other 

 sources, I have continued to propagate worms 

 for a number of years. At that time we also 

 made enough reeled, raw, and sewing-silk with 

 cocoons to make quite a little exhibit at the 

 Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, which attracted 

 much attention, especially from foreigners. Our 



