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 

 wulticaulis). A popular craze in regard to this plant and the 

 profits of silk-culture was begotten. Fabulous prices were paid 

 for cuttings of the Morns 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 Vv'ould not with- 

 stand frost and were practically worthless, as compared with the 

 white mulberry {Morns 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 — 

 'T was the loveliest hair in the world, pet." 



Charles G. llAhvi'SE.—Ja/ii'Ue's //air. 



319 



