Bombycidse 
1760 onward the industry declined. Sericulture was at this time 
taken up in Connecticut and flourished there more than anywhere 
else for many years, though the raw silk was not exported, but 
woven on the spot into various fabrics. The production of raw 
silk in Connecticut for many years amounted to a sum of not less 
than $200,000 annually. In 1830 an effort was made to introduce 
into the United States the so-called Chinese mulberry (Moms 
multicaulis). A popular craze in regard to this plant and the 
profits of silk-culture was begotten. Fabulous prices were paid 
for cuttings of the Morus multicaulis , as much even as five dol¬ 
lars for twigs less than two feet in length. Hundreds of people 
came to believe that the possession of a grove of these trees would 
be the avenue to fortune. But in 1839 the bubble burst, and 
many persons who had invested the whole of their small earnings 
were ruined. It was discovered that the trees would not with¬ 
stand frost and were practically worthless, as compared with the 
white mulberry (Morus alba). “Colonel Mulberry Sellers” re¬ 
mains in American literature a reminder of those days, and of the 
visionary tendencies of certain of our people. 
The manufacture of silk thread and of silken fabrics was begun 
in the United States at an early date. Machinery for reeling, 
throwing, and weaving silk was invented, and the importation of 
raw silk was begun. The industry has steadily grown until at 
the present time silk-manufacture has come to be an important 
industry, in which nearly a hundred millions of dollars are in¬ 
vested. The annual production of silken goods amounts to a 
sum even greater than the capital employed and gives employ¬ 
ment to seventy-five thousand persons. So much for the indus¬ 
trial importance of one small species of those insects to which 
this volume is devoted. 
“ It was brown with a golden gloss, Janette, 
It was finer than silk of the floss, my pet; 
’T was a beautiful mist falling down to your wrist, 
’T was a thing to be braided, and jewelled, and kissed— 
5 T was the loveliest hair in the world, pet.” 
Charles G. Halpine. —Janette's Hair\ 
319 
