Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/457

In the meantime, the demand for the best quality of silkworms for European growers resulted in experiments which evolved a satisfactory product, and the foreign trade in Japanese silkworm eggs diminished by gradual stages until it ceased to exist. Demoralization in the manufacture of raw silk had set in from the same causes, and there were loud complaints from foreign buyers. The Government then took hold of the matter with determination, and after trying many devices to eliminate objectionable practices, in the year 1885 there were drawn up a series of regulations for the formation of guilds among those interested in the industry. The result has been eminently satisfactory.

The traditional method of caring for the silkworm came from Prince Shotoku, who is said to have told the agriculturists that they should rear their worms just as parents nurse and bring up their infants; that they should think of the worms just as parents think of their own children; that in adjusting the temperature for the worms they should judge of what suited them best, making the room neither too warm nor too cool, while giving it good ventilation; and that they should lavish the utmost care upon the worms both day and night. The ideas embodied in this teaching are exactly what are being taught and acted upon to-day. Still, the World’s Fair at Vienna in 1872 opened the eyes of progressive Japanese silk-producers to the value of scientific knowledge, and the officials who attended the Fair returned home enthusiastic for new and complete methods. The Imperial Government, ever ready to foster any plans for the betterment of the country and its commerce, and acting upon the suggestions of these officials, caused the establishment of sericultural laboratories. The initial difficulties were overcome after some slight complications, and to-day there are numbers of young men sent to receive instruction in practical scientific rearing of the silkworm. The result of experiments in the laboratories are made public from time to time, much to the benefit of sericulture in general, while, under this encouraging condition, those interested in the industry in the four important and progressive provinces of Fukushima, Gumma, Nagano, and Saitama, are sending travelling instructors throughout their districts.

The general rise in wages and the short period of actual egg cultivation has reduced the profit from silk production to such a point that, while the industry has increased, it has done so mostly as a by-industry of the farmer, one of the rooms of his dwelling being set aside as a rearing-room, while members of the family attend to the worms. An idea of the enormous spread of the occupation as a by-industry may be