No. 85.] 465 



M., and at the time of the seventeenth annual Fair; and we invite 

 every grower and manufacturer in the United States to do three things: 



1. Attend the convention. 



2. To bring (or send, if you cannot come,) the best samples of 

 your cocoons y reeled silks and manufactured silks, for exhibition ; for 

 all which special accommodations will be provided, so that they may 

 be seen and examined by the hundreds of thousands that will throng 

 the Fair. 



3. Make out for the convention a written statement of your la- 

 bors in growing or manufacturing silk, or both, as the case may be ; 

 and if it is out of your power to attend the convention, send it, so 

 that it may be read to the attending delegates, and go into our next 

 Report. Last year, we had from one hundred and fifty, to two hun- 

 dred such statements, as our report shows. This year we hope to 

 have ten times the number. To save room in printing, we wish to 

 have the returns come in such a form to be put into statistical tables. 

 You can, therefore, give us your answer by filling the blanks in the 

 following schedules. If you cannot do it in this way, give us all the 

 facts you have in your possession, in any form you choose. 



In addition to filling the blanks as above, we wish you to make any 

 suggestions, offer any remarks, state any fact that may occur to you, 

 or any improvement in any part of the general business, which will 

 be preserved in the body of the report. We would urge it upon the 

 friends of this cause to hold county and other local conventions, and 

 collect all the cases they can, large or small. We want small experi- 

 ments, as well as large ones ; the more the better. 



We would be glad to see in our report, the name of every man 

 and woman engaged in the silk business in the United States. Gen- 

 tlemen, it is for you and our country that we labor. We do not 

 know of a single individual among all the officers or managers of the 

 Institute, engaged either in the culture or manufacture of silk. 



Help us in this great national work. Come to the convention. 

 Above all, send us the facts, the facts desired. 



In conclusion, we will, as we did last year, send a copy of our re- 

 port to every person who will give us his experience in the business. 



We will also send a copy to every newspaper editor, who will pub- 

 lish this circular, sending us the paper containing it. Will our friends 

 see to it, that it is published in all the newspapers 1 Address T. B. 

 Wakeman, Corresponding Secretary of the American Institute, New- 

 York. 



In compliance with the foregoing call, the proceedings of the 

 convention were punctually commenced, and witnessed the attend- 

 ance of a good number of delegates from several different States of 

 the Union. The meeting was called to order about half past ten 

 o'clock, and Henry Meigs was called to the chair. 



On motion, the following gentlemen were appointed a committee to 

 nominate officers. 



Rev. I. R. Barbour, of Oxford, Mass., Col. Clark, of New- York, 

 J. G. Ward, of Fulton co., and J. H. Whipple, of Bennington. 



[Senate, No. 85.] Ee 



