LETTER FROM A PROMINENT SILK GROWER. 17 
little outlay. For some statistics of cost and prices of silk, see 
article In Scientific American of June 10, 1882, by the American 
Consul at Lyons, France, F. C. Peixotto. 
Respectfully yours, 
Chas. Sears. 
P. S.— In the absence of M. de Boissiere I reply to your letter. 
C.S. 
Extract from letter of F. C. Peixotto, American Consul at 
Lyons, France, to the Scientific American: 
"The following figures concerning silk reeling may be relied 
upon as accurate, and I trust will be found of service in showing 
with some degree of clearness what are the facts in the case, 
At present quotations [June, 1882] a pound of yellow French 
cocoons — dry — is worth $1.20 in the markets of Marseilles and 
Milan. To produce a pound of raw silk requires on an average 
three and six-tenths pounds of such cocoons, thus making 
the cost of the raw material for a pound of silk $4.32. There is 
also produced in reeling a by-product called "frision" coming 
from the silk upon the cocoons, which is not transformed into 
thread. This is worth about seventy cents for each pound of 
silk produced. Deducting this amount from the total cost of 
cocoons, there remains §3.62 as the cost of the silk in the cocoons, 
which is to be transformed into a pound of raw silk. The value 
of the pound of raw silk when produced, depends very largely 
upon the skill of the reeler, and the more or less favorable cir- 
cumstances under which the reeling is performed. Badly reeled 
silk produced from good cocoons is worth at present a little less 
than $3.40 a pound, somewhat less, in fact, than the market 
price of the cocoons necessary to produce it. [This silk is prob- 
ably quite as well reeled as it would be if produced by American 
women working in an irregular way in their own houses.] ^ On 
the contrary, silk produced by the best filatures and exception- 
ally well reeled, sells on an average of present prices, at six 
dollars a pound. In point of fact it has become impossible for 
women to gain anything by reeling at home." 
Facts and Figures. 
Estimates made by Prof. Riley, in Special Report No. 11. 
Profits made by producing cocoons : 
" xiverage number of eggs per ounce 40,000. Average number 
of fresh cocoons per pound, 300. Average reduction in weight 
for choked [or stifled] cocoons sixty-six per cent. Maximum 
amount of fresh cocoons from one ounce of eggs one hundred 
and thirty to one hundred and forty pounds. Allowing for 
deaths in rearing— twenty-six per cent, being a large estimate — 
we thus get as the product of an ounce of eggs, one hundred 
