Chinese were practicing sericulture and the weaving of silk in pre-historic times. The legend of Empress Lei Tsu is known to every primary school pupil. Strolling through the palace gardens one day in 2640 B.C., the wife of Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor, saw a worm spinning itself into a cocoon and got the idea of unraveling the filament. She went on to invent the loom, then initiated the growing of silkworms and the weaving of silk fabrics. China guarded the secret of silk for more than 3,000 years. Silken fabrics moved to Europe in the caravans of the Silk Road, which meandered from Western China through Turkestan and the Middle East. Death was the penalty for anyone exporting silkworm eggs. Not until the 6th century A.D. were eggs and mulberry seeds smuggled to Constantinople. Even in modern times, China and Japan have been the world's great silk suppliers. Taiwan produces only a little silk and that for domestic consumption. Sericulture has been a sideline of upland farmers. The lowlands are too hot for either the worms or the mulberry plants on which they feed. Interest in silk is rising again as the result of a worldwide shortage and soaring prices. Silk is strong, stretches by 20 per cent, takes dyes well and has low thermal conductivity. None of the man made substitutes is such a perfect material.
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Silkworms are voracious eaters of mulberry leaves. In the last stages of growth they consume 20 times their own weight. The worms are hatched from eggs laid by the silk worm moth. In 35 days they grow from hyphen length to about two inches, then stop feeding and assume a semi-upright position. Hung up in trusses, the worms spin cocoons,which yield as much as 3,000 feet of silk. Spinning is at the rate of 6 inches a minute for some 5 days. Cocoons to be unreeled are dipped in hot water to kill the chrysalis. Some cocoons must be chosen to perpetuate the species. The moths emerge in 8 to 10 days and are paired. The female lays her tiny eggs and the whole process begins all over again with a new crop of worms.
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Silk is strong enough to withstand a pressure of more than 60,000 pounds per square inch. Chinese ladies wear rayon and other synthetics but prefer the feel, the texture and look of real silk, especially for the brocades so popular as a material for the classical dress. Taiwan production of silk has been a cottage industry. Both the Provincial Government and Sino-American Joint Commission on Rural Re construction are supporting increased muIberry cultivation in the hope that more farmers will engage in silkworm raising as a sideline. Japanese production is declining even as world silk demand is rising. A ready domestic and export market awaits any amount of Taiwan silk.