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Replies to post #139611 on Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc (KBLB)
One acre of mulberry trees produces enough foliage to feed silkworms that create 178 pounds of cocoons which can be unraveled into 35 pounds of raw silk. The mulberry leaves are a renewable and sustainable crop as the trees produce year after year. One mature mulberry tree will produce enough foliage for 100 silkworms. Generally, one cocoon produces between 1,000 and 2,000 feet of silk filament, made essentially of two elements: a substance, called fibroin, makes up between 75 and 90% of the filament, and sericin, the gum secreted by the caterpillar to glue the fiber into a cocoon, comprises about 10-25%. Other elements include fats, salts, and wax. One silkworm produces very little useable silk. To make one yard of silk material, about 3,000 cocoons are used.
Antebellum sources reported that 3,000 silkworm cocoons, weighing about nine pounds, would yield a pound of silk, and that an acre of mulberry trees would support 500,000 silkworms.
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