wlllTE-FRUITED MULBERRY-TREE. 453 



wme and the production of sillc. His samples of wine and silk, which were 

 transmitted to England, were thought deserving of notice by the Patriotic Soci- 

 ety for the Encouragements of Arts, who awarded him a gold medal, accompa- 

 nied with a premium of fifty pounds. In January, 1772, the commissioners of 

 the silk manufacture, at Charleston, shipped for England, four hundred and fifty- 

 five pounds of raw silk, of more than an ordinary quality of the growth of Per- 

 rysburgh, in that province. Notwithstanding this stimulus to further cfi'orts, the 

 quantities afterwards raised by the coioiusts were very sniall, and the cost of pro- 

 duction proved too great for successful competition with the silk of other coun- 

 tries. 



In the year 17G9, on the recommendation of Dr. Franklin, through the American 

 Philosophical Society, a filature of raw silk was established, by private subscrip- 

 tion, in Seventh street, between Market and Arch streets, Philadelphia. It was 

 placed under the direction of an intelligent and skilful Frenchman, who, it is 

 said, produced samples of reeled silk, "not inferior in goodness to the best from 

 France and Italy." Between the 25th of June and the 15th of August, 1771, 

 there were bouglit by the managers, two thousand three hundred pounds of 

 cocoons, all the products of Pemisylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Nothing 

 further, of importance, appears to have followed from this undertaking, having 

 been put to an end by the American revolution. A similar enterprise was again 

 attempted in Philadelphia, in 1830, under the direction of M. J. D'Homergue, and 

 cocoons were brought in abundance to the establishment, from all parts of the 

 union, and so continued for some time afterwards; but, for the want of capital 

 the undertaking failed. 



In Connecticut, attention was first directed to the rearing of silkworms, in 1760. 

 Dr. Aspinwall, of Mansfield, urged on by patriotism, used his best exertions, to 

 introduce this important branch of rural economy. He succeeded in forming 

 extensive nurseries of the mulberry at New Haven, Long Island, Pennsylvania, 

 and other places, with the aid of a warm and zealous coadjutor, the Rev. Dr. 

 Stiles, at that time president of Yale College. One half of an ounce of mulberry 

 seeds was sent to every parish in the colony, with such directions as their knowl- 

 edge of the business enabled them to impart. Through the exertions of these 

 gentlemen, the legislature of Connecticut, in 1783, was induced to grant a bounty 

 on mulberry-trees and raw silk. From some cause or other, in a few years, the 

 bounty was withdrawn, the business languished, and in 17'.3. the town of Mans- 

 field produced only two hundred and sixty-five pounds of silk. It may be said, 

 however, to the honour of Connecticut, that she is the only state in the union, 

 which has continued the business, without suspension, and probably prodnrcd 

 more silk from the time of her commencement, up to the year 1830, than all the 

 rest of the states together. 



In about the year 1830, the project of rearing silkworms, and establishing fila- 

 tures of silk, was renewed in various parts of the union, and the subject was 

 deemed to be of so much importance, that it not only attracted the attention of 

 congress, but has since received encouragement from the legislatures of several 

 states, by offering bounties for all the ra\v sillc produced within their limits, for 

 certain periods of time. But, instead of tracinir the jiroirress of this br;uich of 

 industry, for the last fifteen years, in the rniled States, and entering into the 

 subject in detail, we are compelled for the want of space, to refer the reader to a 

 work entitled "The Silk Question Settled;" containing the testimony of one 

 hundred and fifty witnesses, being the Report of the Proceedings of the National 

 Convention of Silk-growers and Manufacturers, held at the American Institute, 

 in the city of New York, in October, 1843. According to the Report of the com- 

 missioner of the United States Patent Ofilre. however, for the year IS II, the 

 amount of silk cocoons produced in that year, in the several states in the union, 



