No. 85. J 475 



days since, and he told me that it ought to be proclaimed north and 

 south, that mulberry trees should always be planted on hills, and in 

 no case in valleys ; I am strongly inclined to believe him. 



Mr. Swan. I wish to correct a mistake which prevails. What 

 is called American sewing silk is not all raised in this country. There 

 are not half enough cocoons to support the manufacturers, who are 

 obliged to buy imported raw silk, to spin into sewing silk, not inclu- 

 ding a great quantity used for tassels &c., which comes from Bengal, 

 China, Turkey and Italy. The demand for cocoons is indefinite. 

 If ten times as many cocoons were raised in America, the demand 

 would still be high. 



Mr. . A gentleman whose name, for reasons of propriety, 



I am not about to give, a resident and manufacturer at Glasgow, has 

 within three years, commenced a large silk plantation near John 

 Randolph's estate, on the Roanoke river. In a few years he expects 

 to send above one hundred hogsheads of cocoons to his manufactory. 



Mr. Barbour. There is no possibility of glutting our market with 

 cocoons. They are a bad article to transport. Local filatures are 

 needed ; but then the market will be for many years indefinite. One 

 of the letters which have been read, stated that in one establishment 

 they have this year purchased only $1,000 worth of American silk, 

 and foreign to the amount of $20,000. Three times as much silk is 

 manufactured now as three years ago ; yet in the East, most of it is 

 foreign. But west of Philadelphia, they do not use a single pound of 

 imported raw silk. These facts teach us, that we need entertain no 

 fears of glutting the market. We must labor several years before 

 we can supply existing establishments, and there are constantly new 

 ones coming up. I have got fifty cents per pound for every pound of 

 reeled silk I have ever sold, above what is paid for foreign. 



President. These two questions have been handed in to me, with 

 a request that answers may be given. 



1st. What is the duty on raw silk ? 



2d. What should it be? 



Several Members. Two dollars. 



j3 Member. If duty were laid in some proper proportion on man- 

 ufactured silk, it would help cocoons. At the last convention it was 

 proposed to acquaint the Secretary of State with an imposition prac- 

 ticed by importing manufactured silk with the gum in it, as raw silk, 

 at fifty cents a pound, when it ought to have been two dollars and 

 fifty cents. 



President. In compliance with that direction, I went to the cus- 

 tom house, as President of the Convention, and studied the subject, 

 acquainting myself with the laws and the practice. I then addressed 

 a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, pointing out the frauds, and 

 stated that no more laws were necessary to correct them, but only a 

 better administration of the existing laws. " Silk in the gum," as I 

 informed him, implies silk unmanufactured, with the natural gum of 

 the silk worm still upon it. But silk spun and dipped in some coarse 

 kind of gum, merely to evade the law, ought to be seized for fraud. 

 My letter on this subject was published and copied into many of the 

 papers. I have further to add, only, that the Secretary thought pro- 



