Silk Prices Low and Crop Prospects Bad. nose Our Own Commaronoer Wusih, Kr, June 3.
The price of cocoons is 50 low, $18 a picul, that the farmers will not sell the average price used to be about $00. Only one-fourth of the cocoon bhangs are open. Due to the scarcity of eggs, the crop is about 40 per cent, smaller'than the average, but in view of the abnormally low price and the consequent refusal of the farmers 19 sell, this is not especially a misfortune. The quality of the cocoons despite the low price offered, better than for many years past.
The wheat crop, which is now being harvested, suffered severely from a storm last month, and has also been affected by insect pests which, owing to the warm winter, were not frozen out. The rice will bbe even more affected by these insect pests than the wheat hag been, unless some means of exterminating them is found, The Experimental Farm Station, in connection with the Kiangsu Provineial Educational College, of which T have frequently written in the past, affords the best hope of help to the farmers in its knowledge of and the cagerness to disseminate" selentift: principles, Unless the rice crop is salvaged, the outlook is indeed a gloomy one for the coming year. Following, as it does, on a very bad season, owing to the prolonged heat and drought of last summer, it is very hard on the people. Business is of course affected, and altogether the depression seems to be very bad in this region, St. Andrew's Hospital feels the effect very much in the great increase {in patients unable to pay more than 4 small percentage of their bills, it anything at all. This constitutes a veal and distressing problem, as the hospital, having felt the American depression to the extent of a 70 per cent cut in appropriation, is now faced with the local depression just at te me It As most dien meet it,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.