=Where is silk manufactured?= We know that very little silk is grown in the United States; but we also know that our country leads in the manufacture of silks and uses more raw silk than any other country in the world. France is next and produces very beautiful materials. Most of our silk factories are in the East: in New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania. People have tried to raise silkworms here. In 1624 some Frenchmen living in Virginia tried, but were not very successful. Such experiments have usually failed because it costs so much for labor. In 1747 the governor of Connecticut wore a coat and stockings made of silk produced on his place. We use about 85 per cent of the silk manufactured here. What per cent is, then, exported? In 1876, at the great Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, Marjorie's grandmother saw wonderful exhibits of silk woven in many colors, and even beautiful woven pictures of silk. Has any one ever seen a woven picture of silk? Have you ever seen one tiny fiber of silk as it looks under the microscope? What do you notice? [Illustration: FIG. 77.--Silk fibers magnified.] =This is what Marjorie's cousin from Paterson told the girls.= They went to one room at the mill where there were great bales of silk, weighing about 100 or 150 pounds, but not quite so heavy or large as a bale of cotton. When opened there were many hanks in each bale; tied up, five or ten in a bundle. These hanks were taken first to a man called a throwster. Silk throwing means soaking the skeins to remove more of the gum, and winding the silk from the skein to a spool. This is done by soaking in warm water, drying, and then placing the silk on swifts, or reels. Have you ever seen a reel for winding? (See Fig. 78.) It holds the skein of silk. The ends are taken, and the machine unwinds from the skein and winds the silk on spools. In one skein there are from 75,000 to 200,000 yards of silk. The spools are then placed in a machine which cleans and twists two of these spool threads together to form one, and then winds it off on new spools. This twisted silk is called "organzine." Isn't that a queer name? It means the thread used in a loom for the warp or strong threads. Why are twisted threads stronger? Try, and see if they are. [Illustration: FIG. 78.--Silk winding.] Silk is a most perfect fiber; and does not have to be prepared as much as cotton or wool. Sometimes it is twisted a very little for the warp. The filling thread has a queer name, too. It is called the "tram," and need not be of so good a quality of silk as the strong warp, nor so tightly twisted. Cotton spinning is different from silk throwing; but both mean getting the fibers ready for weaving. [Illustration: _Courtesy of Cheney Bros._ FIG. 79.--Silk dyeing.]