The Commissioner of Customs at Newchwang furnishes the following interesting account of silk production in the north, in his Report for 1886 Wild Raw Silk shows an increase of 3,147 piculs. This comparatively new indust bids fair to become one of the most important branches of trade at this port. The following figures show the increased pro-Silk in the five districts of -yo, Kai-chou, Hai-ch'éng, Lino-yang, atid Hsin-yen during the past three years:—1884, about 3,000 bales; 1885, about 6,000 bales; 1886 about 10,000 bales, One bale is equal tow picul. eis calculated that the production of 1886 would have amounted to at least 18,000 bales had not j the heavy rain in summer destroyed argo numbers of the worms, which were then feeding. Many immigrants from Shantung. are annually attracted to the Sik country, and much waste land has lately been planted with success, In Ku-shan, the district east of Fénghuang-ch'éng, the yield from a country some 200 1i in extent amounted, after two years' cultivation, to some 400 bales, There is also quite a new district in the Feng-tien prefecture, called Fu-hsi, in which the cultivation of Silk only com: menced in 1886, and is turning out most profitable.
The Silk produced in this province is principally from the oak-leaf fed worm, and is of a coarser texture than that obtained in the South of China, where the mulberry cultivated to a greater extent. Some eight years ago a Foreigner connected wit the filature at Chefoo visited the Silk d tricts here, and took much pains to instruct some of the Natives in the art of reeling off the cocoons, instead of spinning Las heretofore, Since' then Southern experts have also instructed the Natives from time to time; and gradually but surely the improved style of reeling and the attention which has been bestowed upon the rearing of the worm and the healthy preservation of the cocoon have changed the roughyrown floss originally produced, which could bought for Tis, 100 per picul, into a valuable Silk, worth from Tis, 200 to Tls, 300 per picul.
who visit the small' growers and bargain purchasing Silk, brokers are employed, with them for what trifling lots they have to offer, comprising perhaps five, ten, or twenty catties, worth, say, from Tls. 10 to Tls. 40, more or less. This transaction involves the advancing of sycee before the article is delivered, and great care and judgment must be exercised in order to avoid loss, either by bad quality or by adulteration. With regard to the latter, there is not unfrequently introduced into the packages a kind of floss so closely resembling the genuine article that only experts are able to detect the fraud.
Already in the present month of January several Silk inspectors, including the agents of some Foreign Silk houses, have gone into the interior with a view of buying up all the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.