HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEF ON AGRICULTURE. 277 
Mr. Burtgson. That is a point lwas going toask youabout. Is it 
not more a question of the market of cocoons, rather than of labor? 
Mr. Howarp. It is both. We find things absolutely at a standstill, 
and therefore we are doing this work. We are creating in this interim 
a sort of artificial market. 
Mr. Scorr. What do you propose to do with the skeined silk? 
Mr. Howarp. Sell it in the open market. 
The Cuarrman. How much have you of it? 
Mr. Howarp. About 500 pounds. 
The Cuarrman. What is that worth? 
Mr. Howarp. From $3.50 to $4 a pound. 
Mr. Brooxs. At the European market rate is there any profit? 
Mr. Howarp. It is not a profitable industry; it is a household 
industry. 
Mr. Bowrz. A sort of pin-money affair. 
Mr. Howarp. Yes; like the chickens and the beehives. 
Mr. Bowrn. A side issue, as it were. 
Mr. Howarp. Yes, sir. 
Mr. Bowrz. Nobody could concentrate their time on it? 
Mr. Howarp. Not on silkworms. 
Mr. Bowie. Where do you get your inquiries from? 
Mr. Howarp. From all over the country, but mostly from the South. 
The CHarrman. Where can you raise the silkworm? 
Mr. Howarp. They can be raised wherever they will grow. In 
western New York, for instance; that would be an excellent place to 
raise silkworms. As I said before, the only way to keep people inter- 
ested and get this guaranteed supply of cocoons is to get up this arti- 
ficial market here, and after a few years after it is shown that the 
country is raising cocoons to a certain amount and of a certain grade— 
because they do not raise good cocoons when they first start—then you 
may reasonably expect a reeling establishment to be put in operation. 
Mr. Scorr. It is your experience that the same people come back 
several years in succession asking for eggs? 
Mr. Howarp. Some of them are discouraged by the low price, 
and do not come back at all. That means that they had extravagant 
ideas to start with. 
Mr. Scotr. I know of a number of cases in which families have 
sent here for eggs and gone into the business with a great deal of 
enthusiasm, and got all over their enthusiasm at the end of the first 
year, and never repeated the operation. I wondered if the applica- 
tions that came to you were not every year from a new set of people, 
who are attracted by the glowing prospectuses they may have seen, 
but who, after a season of experience, find that the business was either 
not profitable or not pleasant to carry on, and so abandoned it, and 
that the next year it would be a new lot of families who would engage 
in it. 
Mr. Howarp. I understand your idea. There is a great deal of 
that fluctuation, and a great many people who get discouraged and 
drop it. 
Mr Henry. I might say in reply to Mr. Scott’s suggestion that the 
growing and production of silk is no new proposal in this country. 
It is nearly a hundred years since we began to produce silk in this 
country, and I know of families that followed it for a generation; and 
to-day you can go to the Connecticut Valley and find elderly ladies 
