Posted on December 8, 2021 at 12:00 PM by Bill Sowers
SILK CULTURE IN KANSAS (1883)
(graphic of Russian mulberry, the silkworm's favorite snack food)
An 1883 article available at the State Library of Kansas' KGI Online Library: "Silk Culture in Kansas," by E. L. Meyer. View the article here: https://cdm16884.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16884coll113/id/1918/rec/2
Back in the 1880s there was a drive to establish a silk industry in Kansas. Manuals and guides on raising Silkworms were published, a town, Silkville, was founded, and the state established a State Board of Silk Commissioners. The silk industry failed in Kansas but we still have some interesting material to read about it. Besides the article here (clipped from the Kansas State Board of Agriculture's December 1883 Quarterly Report), a great history of the silk industry in Kansas can be found online at the Kansas Historical Society's website, "The Ill-fated Kansas Silk Industry," by R. Alton Lee.