of the relatively lower prices of all other commodities there, as she who 
earns three or four fold as muchhere. Again, the conditions of life are 
such in those countries thatevery woman among the agricultural classes 
not absolutely necessary in the household, finds a profitable avenue for 
her labor in field or factory, so that the time given to silk raising must 
be deducted from other profitable work in which she may be employed. — 
With us, on the contrary, there are thousands—aye, hundreds of thou- 
sands—of women who, from our very condition of life, are unable to- 
jabor in the field or factory, and have, in short, no means, outside of — 
household duties, of converting labor into capital. The time that such © 
might give to silk-culture would, therefore, be pure gain, and in this © 
sense the cheap-labor argument loses nearly all its force. This holds 
more particularly true in the larger portion of the South and West, that ~ 
are least adapted to the production of merchantable dairy products or ~ 
where bee-keeping and poultry-raising are usually confined to the im- ~ 
mediate wants of the household. 5 
The want of a ready market for the cocoons is now, as it always has ~ 
been, the most serious obstacle to be overcome, and the one to which ~ 
all interested in establishing silk-culture should first direct their atten-— 
tion. Ignore this, and efforts to establish the industry are bound to~ 
fail, as they have failed in the past. A permanent market once estab_ 
lished, and the other obstacles indicated will slowly, but surely, vanish - 
as snow before the coming spring. Owing to the prevalence of disease © 
in Europe, there grew up a considerable demand for silk-worm eggs in 
this country, so that several persons found the production of these: 
eggs quite profitable. Large quantities are yet shipped across the con- — 
tinent from Japan each winter; buf this demand is, in its nature, tran- 
sient and limited, and, with the improved Pasteur method of selection 
and prevention of disease, silk-raisers are again producing their own 
eggs in Europe. Silk-culture must depend for its growth, therefore, on — 
the produetion of cocoons, and these will find no remunerative sale ex-— 
cept where the silk can be reeled. I find no reason tochange the views — 
expressed relative to the part this Department might take in succoring 
silk-culture through Congressional aid; for, however just and desir- 
able direct protection to the industry may be by the imposition of an 
import duty on reeled silk, no such protection has yet been given by — 
Congress, and silk filatures can not be full y and profitably established ~ 
without some fostering at the start. Under a heavy protective tariff 
our silk manufactures have rapidly grown in importance and wealth, 
until, during the year 1881 (according to the reports of W. C. Wyckeff, — 
secretary of the Silk Association of Americ a), raw silk to the value of — 
$11,936,865 and waste silk and cocoons to the value of $769,186 were 
imported at the ports of New York and San Francisco, while our man-— 
ufactured guods reached in value between $35,000,000 and $49,000,000. — 
Now, the so-called raw silk thus imported to the value of nearly 
$12,060,000 is just as much a manufactured article as the woven goods, 
