I
sincerely believe and hope that this can never be done. I have enlarged
somewhat upon this difficulty for the purpose of showing that the
growers, or at any rate individual growers of cocoons, should not
attempt to do the reeling, but by no means with an idea of discouraging
the raising of silk worms, which is and should be an entirely separate
matter. To use a rough comparison, I should esteem it as wasteful, even
if possible, for each grower to attempt to reel his own cocoons as for
each farmer to grind his own wheat upon his farm and endeavor to sell
the flour.
It is, therefore, clear that the object of the sericulturist should be
to raise and market as good a crop of cocoons as possible to the best
advantage, and with the least possible expense and risk.
After what has been said, it may be very properly asked, if, seeing that
the hopes which have been entertained of reeling by the usual method
have proved fallacious, and as no radically new system of raising silk
worms is under consideration, it is not very possible that all hopes of
profit from rearing the worm may prove fallacious also.
In fact, not only has the question been asked, but an argument of
great apparent strength and much plausibility has been formulated and
extensively circulated, tending to show that the difficulty of cheap
labor, which it has been shown stood in the way of reeling without
improved machinery, will make the raising of cocoons also a hopelessly
unprofitable task.
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