— 
7) 
would be thought possible by one unacquainted with the industry. We 
have, therefore, much to accomplish from this point of view before we 
can hope to make the industry a profitable one in the United States. 
The cocoons which have been received at the Government stations dur- 
ing the past year have been, to a large extent, raised by persons who 
were inexperienced, and who were thus unable to produce a first-class 
cocoon. There is an inclination among these very persons to blame the 
industry if they do not receive, the first season, what they consider an 
adequate compensation for the time which they have expended upon 
the work. And yet these same individuals would not expect to be suc- 
cessful in any other enterprise until they had made themselves thor- 
oughly acquainted, by practical experience, with the special work in- 
volved. It is not, therefore, surprising that with such a quality of raw 
material it has been impossible to produce silk without financial loss. 
Such a loss, in fact, as shown in my annual report as entomologist, for 
1885, was incurred as the result of the experiments. We, however, per- 
formed these experiments with non-automatic machinery, and that even 
of an unimproved type. ‘The loss was, however, so small that we have 
reason to believe that it can be more than counterbalanced by the use 
_ of improved plant. Automatic silk-reels are now being placed upon 
the market, which not‘only effect a slight saving in the quantity of raw 
material employed, but also a very large saving in labor, the cost of 
which in this country is the principal cause of our inability to compete 
_with Hurope and Asia. These new reels are also capable of producing, 
with comparatively unskilled labor, as good a grade of silk as can be 
made by the expert workwomen of France. 
It will be seen by the estimates given above that silk-culture is not 
(and it never has been) an exceedingly profitable business, but if adds 
vast wealth to the nations engaged in it, for the simple reason that it 
can be pursued by the humblest and poorest, and requires so little out- 
lay. The question ofits establishment in the United States is, as I have 
elsewhere said, “a question of adding to our own productive resources. 
There are hundreds of thousands of families in the United States to-day 
who would be most willing to add a few dollars to their annual income 
by giving light and easy employment for a few months each year to the 
more aged, to the young, and especially to the women of the family, who 
may have no other means of profitably employing their time. 
“This holds especially true of the people of the Southern States, 
most of which are pre-eminently adapted to silk-culture. The girls of 
the farm, who devote a little time each year to the raising of cocoons, 
may not earn as much as their brothers in the field, but they may earn 
something, and that something represents an increase of income, be- 
cause it provides labor to those members of society who at present too 
often have none that is remunerative. Further, the raising of a few 
pounds of cocoons each year does not and need not materially interfere 
with the household and other duties that now engage their time, and it 
