denote: Silk Worm]

The silk of commerce begins with an egg no bigger than a mustard seed,
out of which comes a diminutive caterpillar, which is kept in a frame
and fed upon mulberry leaves. When the caterpillars are full grown, they
climb upon twigs placed for them and begin to spin or make the cocoon.
The silk comes from two little orifices in the head in the form of a
glutinous gum which hardens into a fine elastic fiber. With a motion of
the head somewhat like the figure eight, the silk worm throws this
thread around the body from head to tail until at last it is entirely
enveloped. The body grows smaller and the thread grows finer until at
last it has spun out most of the substance of the body and the task is
done.

If left to itself, when the time came, the moth would eat its way out of
the cocoon and ruin the fiber. A few of the best cocoons are saved for a
new supply of caterpillars; the remainder are baked at a low heat which
destroys the worm but preserves the silk. This now becomes the cocoon of
commerce.

[Sidenote: Reeling Silk]

Next the cocoons go to the reelers who wind the filaments into the silk
yarn that makes the raw material of our mills. The cocoons are thrown
into warm water mixed with soap in order to dissolve the gum. The outer
or coarser covering is brushed off down to the real silk and the end of
the thread found. Four or five cocoons are wound together, the sticky
fibers clinging to each other as they pass through the various guides
and are wound as a single thread on the reels. The silk is dried and
tied into hanks or skeins. As the thread unwinds from the cocoon, it
becomes smaller, so other threads must be added.

[Illustration: SILK:--CATERPILLAR, COCOON, CHRYSALIS, MOTH]

[Sidenote: Organize and Tram]

At the mill the raw silk goes to the "throwster" who twists the silk
threads ready for the loom. These threads are of two kinds--"organize"
or warp and "tram" or filling. The warp runs the long way of woven
fabric or parallel with the selvage and it must be strong, elastic, and
not easily parted by rubbing. To prepare the warp, two threads of raw
silk are slightly twisted. Twist is always put into yarn of any kind to
increase its strength. These threads are united and twisted together and
this makes a strong thread capable of withstanding any reasonable strain
in the loom and it will not roughen. For the woof or tram which is
carried across the woven cloth on the shuttle, the t