152 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 
About twenty years ago the business of raising silk- 
worms was extensively introduced throughout the United 
States, and was entered into with great enthusiasm, but so 
foolishly, and with so little knowledge of the subject, that 
the Morus Multicaulis speculation proved an entire failure, 
and caused almost an abandonment of this branch of indus- 
try. The changeable temperature of the Northern, Eastern, 
and Middle States renders them naturally less suitable for 
the cultivation of the white mulberry, at the time when its 
leaves are most needed for the young silk-worms, than the 
Southern States, and, besides, manual labor costs more in 
the North than in the South, where all the work of a silk 
establishment may be performed by superannuated or very 
young slaves, no physical strength being necessary for super- 
intending the silk-worms or for unwinding their cocoons. 
Since the Morus Multicaulis fever died away, however, very 
few silk-worms have been raised in this country, as may 
be seen from the Séatistical View of the United States, by J. 
D. B. De Bow, Superintendent of the United States Census, 
Washington, 1854; from which I copy the following table: 
S1tk Cocoon PRODUCTION OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1840 AND 








1850. 
States. 1840. | 1850. States. | 1840. | 1850.— 
Pounds. | Pounds, Pounds. | Pounds. 
1,592| 167|/Mississippi ......... 91 
98 38||Missouri .........06. 70 186 
Columbia, Dist.of} 651] ...... (New Hampshire...) 119] 191 
Connecticut........ 17,538] 328|\New Jersey........ 1,966 23 
Delaware. .<.i:-n0.% IOS), Sewnes INew York. sconces 1,735 | 1,744 
BlOriGa ist a ene 124 6|\North Carolina....| 3,014 229 
GeOT Pia ws snaranetu Bp2Oe le) HBIGIOUIOS ssinesscnvanee seg : 1,552 
TUR O88 os jest seat 1,150 47||Pennsylvania...... 285 
Wedrane si ooscdetkee 379|  387|Rhode Island...... 458 
Aa) SPE RE oe oe 246) South Carolina.... 123 
INCWUR CY mectass nes 737} 1,281|'Tennessee.......... 1,329 
Louisiane 5005. .02% 317 Be ORAS |b occu Mew ses 28 
Mia Wie vpustyinas «5 os 211 BHA V OFMONE 2. owisS sche 268 
Maryland jvisas..es 2,299 39||Virginia ........000 317 
Massachusetts..... 1,741 fi P MS 
Michigan........... os WO | ta aaa Ly bend 



