Silk Manufacture

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The quantity of silk annually consumed by w omen and balloons is so great, that it is really astonishing how worms and mulberry trees keep up the supply. According to " The Pa-ris Review" there are, in France, no less than 130,000 looms for silk, ot which the products amount in value to three hundred millions per annum The fabrics ef Lyons yield about or nearly two-thirds of that sum—a moiety of the whole is exported—three-fifths of the exports from Lyons; the United States consume the greater part Competition is formidable abroad, especially in Great Britain and Germany ; but it was acknowledged at the Great Exhibition that Lyons retained pre-eminence in designs and tissues. The 70,000 looms of Lyons occupy 175,000 individuals; one half of these are dispersed overa radius ot trom 20 to 25 leagues ; Hie others are in the bosom of the city. There are three hundred manutac-turing firms, embracing from four hundred and fifty to five hundred names. The average earning ot Hie operative is thirty cents per day.

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