STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 287 



the vai'ied industiy introduced and conducted by the imdres. I have 

 already shown that the}^ produced the textile fibre of wool in such 

 abundant supply as to enable them to clothe the hordes of naked savages 

 who were gathered about the mission establishments. Thus it would 

 seem that articles of utility rather than of luxury received encourage- 

 ment at their hands. Nor can there be found in tlie written history of 

 the missions anj^thing showing that the priests were any more aware of 

 the unequalled adaptation of the country, by reason of the climate, to 

 produce silk, than there is to found a surmise that they knew of the won- 

 derful deposit of the precious metals in the soil on whicli they stood, 

 which, like silk culture, awaited disclosure and development by another 

 race. Silk culture, however, has not as yet arrested the searching, rest- 

 less eye of American enterprise; and after fifteen years of occupation, 

 when nearly every source of wealth has been explored in the rush for 

 gain, there appears only one solitary individual in the State engaged in 

 silk culture, and this one endeavoring to " hide his light under a bushel." 



If we look at the progress of silk culture in other countries, it ceases 

 to be a matter of surprise that so little attention has been given the 

 subject in a young community, isolated from manufacturing centimes. 

 The production of silk in such quantities as to place it within the reach 

 of every member of the community was not accomplished until the intro- 

 duction of labor-saving machinery had so far relieved manual labor of 

 the drudgery incident to ill paid toil that the emancipated laborer not 

 only craved the indulgence of his more refined and elevated tastes, but 

 found himself in a condition to obtain possession of luxuries before 

 within the reach of the wealthy only. 



The silkworm-^ i?o?^^&yx indri — was introduced into Europe from China 

 in the year one hundred and sixty A. D., and it was not until after the 

 lapse of fourteen centuries that its cultivation became firmly established 

 as one of the great industries of the nations bordering on the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea. In eighteen hundred and twenty-five an attempt, commen- 

 surate w'ith the usual large expenditure attending English enterprises, 

 was made to introduce silk-growing into Great Britain. A company called 

 the "British, Irish, and Colonial Silk Company," was formed, with many 

 leading statesmen among its members. This companj^ establish.ed exten- 

 sive plantations of mulberry trees in England and Ireland, but, after thir- 

 teen years of costly trial, dissolved their association and abandoned the 

 enterprise as a failure. 



During the latter period of the existence of the English company, the 

 Morus midticaulas excitement seized upon large numbers of persons in the 

 United States, involving great outlays of money in the propagation of 

 the trees to feed the silkworm, but speedil}^ ending in a failure which 

 involved thousands of persons in hopeless bankruptcy. With these two 

 stupenduous failures in silk culture, occurring simultaneousl}' in Great 

 Britain and the United States, it should not be expected that the imme- 

 diate descendants of a generation so disgusted with an industry whiqh 

 promised largely in theory, but was so barren in practical results, could 

 easily be led into an enterprise about which the agricultural literature of 

 both countries spoke disparagingly, and while there was still living a 

 cloud of witnesses to cast upon it opprobium. 



SUCCESS ir: SILK CULTURE A QUESTION OP CLIMATE. 



If a proposition were made for the formation of a company to grow the 

 sugar cane {officinarum) in England or the northern United States, the 



