Volltext Seite (XML)
H4 INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1876. silk-vvorm eggs, gratuitously, to persons in various parts of the State. The interest in sericulture thus became so general in the State that the Legislature of California provided by law that a bounty of $250 should be paid for every 5000 newly-planted mulberry-trees, and $300 for every 100,000 cocoons produced in California. The object of the law was defeated by the planting by speculators, for the bounty, of several millions of the worthless multicaulis mulberry, and the law was repealed. In 1866, Mr. Joseph Neumann, of German birth, im ported machinery for the fabrication of silk, and invented a reeling- machine for winding the raw silk from the cocoons. In 1867 he reeled the first skein of raw silk produced in California. In 1869 he produced 130 pounds of raw silk, and made from it two large flags,— one of which he presented to the State, and the other to the National Government. Meeting, like most pioneers, with but little commercial success in his attempts to manufacture silk, he finally abandoned the fabrication for the production and reeling of raw silk. His very large exhibit of cocoons and raw silk, and his exhibition of worms feeding and in different stages of growth, attracted great interest, and received from the expert Judges the following award: “A very good collec tion of cocoons and raw silk, of a variety of races, highly commend able for the successful attempts in the introduction of this important branch of industry.” The statements made by Mr. Neumann to the Judges, in regard to inducements for sericulture in California, were so interesting and important that they deserve a wider publication. He regards California as better adapted for the silk-culture than almost any country in the world. He said, in regard to climate, that “ The mulberry-trees in most parts of the State grow ten months in the year (from February to the end of November); so that worms can generally be fed uninterruptedly. Spring, summer, and fall are un commonly dry, consequently the food of the worms is dry. The mulberry-tree throws out new branches and leaves four times a year, and worms can be fed from the fifteenth day with branches. In some localities in California trees five years old surpass those of fifteen years in Europe. The leaves are much larger, also, and one can gather six or eight times as much as in Europe in the same time. Thunder-storms do not occur during the feeding-season, and the worms consequently are not disturbed. The dryness of our atmo sphere prevents the remains of the leaves which the worms do not consume from decaying, and the beds need not be cleaned more than twice in a season. We have proved that the cocoons enlarge from year to year.”