JAPAN AS SILK PRODUCER [XXXIX], In exportation of silk, Japan, which in 1919 had under sericulture 8.6 of her total cultivated area and 17.1 per cent, of her upland, passed Italy in 1901 and China in 1910.  Her exportation is now twice that of China.  In production her total is thrice that of Italy.  France is a long way behind Italy.  The production of China is an unknown quantity.

As to the advantages and drawbacks of Japan for sericulture the Department of Agriculture wrote in 1921:  “Japan is not favourably placed, inasmuch as atmospheric changes are often very violent, and the air becomes damp in the silk-culture seasons.  This is especially the case in the season of spring silkworms, for the cold is severe at the beginning and the air becomes excessively damp as the rainy season sets in.  The intense heat in July and August, too, is very trying for the summer and autumn breeds.  Compared with France and Italy, Japan seems to be heavily handicapped, but the abundance of mulberry leaves all over the land and the comparatively rich margin of spare labour among the farmers have proved great advantages.”

The length of the sericultural season ranges from 54 days in spring to 31 or 32 days in autumn, but there are variations according to weather, methods and seed.  The season begins with the incubation period.  Then follows the rearing.  Last is the period in which the caterpillars mount the little straw stacks provided for them in order that they may wind themselves into cocoons.  I do not enter into the technics of the retardation and stimulation of seed in order to delay or to hasten the hatch according to the movements of the market.  Hydrochloric and sulphuric-acid baths and electricity are used as stimulants; storage in “wind holes” is practised to defer hatching.

Cocoons are reckoned both by the kwan of 8-1/4 lbs. and by the koku of approximately 5 bushels.  The cocoon production in 1918 worked out at about 16-1/2 bushels per acre of mulberry or 18 bushels per family engaged in sericulture.  About 34 million bushels of cocoons are produced.  In 1919 the production was 270,800,000 kilos.  The average production of a tambu of mulberry field was 1.356 koku.  In 1919 a koku was worth on the average 106.81 yen (including double and waste cocoons).  The cost of producing cocoons rose from 4.105 yen per kwamme in 1916 to 11.284 yen in 1920.  The daily wages of labourers employed by the farmers rose from 62 sen for men and 47 sen for women in 1910 to 1 yen 93 sen for men and 1 yen 44 sen for women in 1920.  With the slump, the price of cocoons fell below the cost of production and there was trouble in several districts when wages were due.  The labourers engaged for the silk seasons of 1916 numbered 341,577, of whom 30,000 came from other than their employers’ prefectures.  These people migrate from the early to the late districts and so manage to provide themselves with work during a considerable period.  As many as 5-1/2 per cent, of the persons engaged in the industry are labourers.  Many employment agencies are engaged in supplying labour.