ABSTRACT
The most valuable of all the animal products of Manchuria is silk—raw, wild silk—the produce of Antheraea Pernyi, otherwise known as Bombyx Pernyi and Bombyx Fantoni, which feeds and spins on the oak called Quercus mongólica. The silk region, however, is confined to the province of Feng-t’ien, and extends from the sea on the south to a little to the south and east of Moukden, its western and eastern boundaries being the Liao and Ya-lu rivers respectively. In other words, the silk district of Manchuria is limited to that portion of the province of Fêng-tôen in which the hill slopes face the south. A few scattered families feed the worm on mulberry leaves and obtain a little silk for private use, and others, again, reel silk from the cocoons of worms which feed on the leaves of Ailanthus glandulosa, Desf.; but the latter contain only an insignificant quantity of silk, and neither mulberry nor ailanthus-fed silk can be considered a factor in the silk production and trade of Manchuria.
