University of Nanking - Linguist Yearbook (Nanking, China)

Page 71 text:

CHINESE SILK HINESE SILK-the words conjure up one of my earliest recollections: l, a prattling child, patting the shimmering softness which grand- mother lifted from the sea chest of sweet odors. Grandmother was lihinking of a romance still living in her heart. I was looking out of the flttie window to see whether that softness were really a piece of the blue ilbove. A score of years later I stood before a good-looking stone building Of three stories and many windows, on the campus of Nanking University. My eicerone, a Chinese student of the University, said in his stilted English, This-the home of the worm. His words were literal. The worm, used collectively, included thousands of silk worms fattening on mulberry leaves-and the best leaves too-in a cupboard arrangement of drawers, row upon row, with sides and back of wire netting to provide ventilation. When the taste for mulberry leaves is satiated, the worms will be placed in baskets, or on ropes of straw termed straw mountains, and will be allowed to spin the eoeoons of delicate fiber. When this process complete, the moths are taken out and confirmed under a little metal inverted cup. Here they lay eggs on the provided circle of paper. After the mother moth has deposited her eggs, she is examined under the microscope for pebrine, a protozoan infection which is hereditary and causes immense loss to the industry. If the protozoan spores are present, the eggs are destroyed. Otherwise, the circle of eggs is pasted on a cardboard with nineteen similar circles, and kept, hundreds of them, in a room of regulated temperature until hatching time. Then the cards are put into an incubator-an ordinary Chicken incubator remodelled by the University. This assures the uniform hatching of the eggs, and therefore enables, the worker to care for all the Worms on a given card together, thus saving his time and energy. These processes are observed and largely carried on by students. In addition to the regular classes in serieulture in the University curriculum, a Short course of one year is offered and from seventy-Qfive to a hundred young men come from the silk districts of China, to get the information necessary qeei. . '

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68 DENTBTRY Boards have included dentists on their long list of workers. Since this branch of work has been recognized as being in the line of missionary service the practice has been to send a foreign dentist to those hospitals which are located near a large foreign community so that he can serve the missionaries as well as train native dentists. The surface has been barely scratched even in the few large eent6I'5 and not until means are provided whereby more and more native students may receive dental training will the need be adequately met. TAISHAN TU FU Of T'ai Shan what can one say? Here Ln and Ch'i for aye Freshly their youth retain. Here Heaven and Earth unite Spiritual Grace to form : As a pole of shade and light It sunders the dusk and dawn. Soaring through layers of cloud, At sight of it swells the breast. At a glance the eye can view The birds coming home to rest. But climb to the uttermost peak- The other hills seem small As the eye o'erlooks them all.

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70 CHINESE SILK - to avoid the enormous waste now existing because of disease, of over-erowdingg and of dirty straw mountains among the silk worm farmers. Those of the certi- fied eggs not needed The Home of the VVorm for use in the building are sold in the market to silk producers. Because of their excellence they have overcome the natural distrust of the Chinese farmers for dark colored. cold storage eggs in place of the usual light colored, first generation ones: and even command a fancy selling price, though thefirst egg sheets sold went at 351.00 and SL60 an egg sheet, when the market price was 5510.00 to 2512.00 a sheet. The building itself, as well as a similar one at Canton Christian College. was the gift of the Silk Association of America in 1923. This Association is interested in meeting Americafs demand for silk. Just now. this demand is not met. There is no country whose potentialities for supplying the silk market are greater than are those of China, and perhaps especially the lower Yangtze valley. Increase of production is the real problem. This can be accomplished through scientifically improved processes and equip- ment. The .lnternational Committee for the Improvement of Sericultnrc in China has fathered the investigational work already done. The purpose of the committee is twofoldg to increase the production ofsilk in China and to foster a greater interest on the part of the government officials. Its particular field of labor is this silk region of Chekiang and Kiangsu Provinces. The silk produced in this district is considered the best in the world. The budget for most of the work carried on by the University of Nanking has been guaranteed by this C0mmi'Ul0C- An interesting industry-but hardly Cl1FiS'0ia1'1 evangelizatioilf' the Grandmother of my infancy would have exclaimed l wonder-what is the relation of body and soulg of economic conditions and spiritual health ? 'isn't bettering industrial life fl Ilfepflmtion of ground for planting the seed?